Cello Concertos I-III

Mochizuki (Artist), Kalitzke (Artist), Klangforum Wien (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 30, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Kairos
• ASIN: B0000Z7ZTE
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #679,728 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Si bleu, si calme, for ensemble

2. All that is including me, for bass flute, clarinet & violin

3. Chimera, for ensemble

4. Intermezzi I, for flute & piano

5. La chambre claire, for ensemble

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What doesn't lack direction sounds far too much like Mochizuki's immediate predecessors in contemporary music, June 29, 2011

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Misato Mochizuki: Si Bleu, Si Calme (Audio CD)

Mizato Mochizuki is a Japanese composer born in 1969 and now resident in Paris. She is generally concerned with atmospheres instead of clear thematic development, and her association with IRCAM has endowed her music with a spectral rigour. Her output is prodigious, but this Kairos CD from 2003 is one of the few available recordings of her music. Johannes Kalitzke leads Klangforum Wien, with soloists Marino Formenti (piano), Eva Furrer (flute), Sophie Schafleitner (violin) and Bernhard Zachhuber (clarinet).

"Si bleu, si calme" for ensemble (1997) contrasts a growth towards complexity (the "blue" of the title) with an opposite trend towards simplification and silence ("calm"). It reminds me strongly of Kaija Saariaho's orchestral diptych "Du cristal... a la fumee" in its smooth natural harmonies punctuated by sudden explosions. "La chambre claire" for ensemble (1998) is also concerned with contrast. On one hand there is music of consistent pulse and steady harmonies, but on the other hand there are layerings which come as something of a surprise. It has an engaging flow.

Unfortunately the remaining works are not so interesting. "All that is including me" for bass flute, clarinet and violin (1996) is a lazy, meandering garden. "Intermezzi I" for flute and piano (1998) is much the same, but more fragmentary, at times resembling late Nono. "Chimera" for ensemble (2000) aims to combine a steady-dance like pulse with modern stylings (in her programme note, Mochizuki refers to an interest in techno), but this experiment doesn't add up to much.

So there's not so much entertaining music here, and even the good bits feel far too derivative of earlier composers. I'm not drawn to seek out more music by Mochizuki.