|
Disc 1:
Disc 2:
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
Special Offers and Product Promotions
- Get $1 in Amazon MP3 credit with qualifying purchase. Limited to one promotional credit per customer. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kuge - original music by Missa Johnouchi,
This review is from: Kuge (Audio CD)
Missa Johnouchi is one of the most talented contemporary composers. She creates pure masterpieces be it for symphonic orchestra or an ensemble featuring traditional instruments. She is also an eminent piano player (check her 'Kataribe' CD).
Her new CD Kuge encompasses all her talents of a musician, a composer and an orchestra conductor. There are two CDs. The first features her compositions performed on traditional instruments of Asia. They are gently plaited into original compositions together with Western type instruments such as piano and strings. You will be amazed at the way these compositions sound because Missa removed borders between Eastern and Western music, creating something completely new and wonderful! If you like her previous albums such as 'Kurenai', 'Asian Blossoms' and 'Road to Oasis' then you would definitely enjoy 'Kuge'. The second CD in the Kuge album is Missa's speciality. The music here is performed by the Paris National Opera Theater Orchestra. These compositions are impressive! Especially I was touched hearing solo Erhu. Can you imagine a tender sound of Erhu powered by full orchestra?! Fantastic! Kuge - is beautiful. I recommend it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary Talent,
By
This review is from: Kuge (Audio CD)
Johnouchi-san is the answer to a question I can't finish... "If you like 'blank', you will love this music." The truth is, I can't quite come up with a name to insert for 'blank'.
I thought I was picking up something for my wife when I bought this album, because the first disc begins with some very typical, Asian jazz fusion stuff. Perfect for the fan of, say, 'Hiroshima' or 'Twelve Girls Band'. I was in for a (pleasant) shock when I listened to it, though. Starting with the third track of Disc 1 ("Lake"), the nature of the music shifts to a more serious bent. The balance of Disc 1 continues to drift between jazz and symphononic forms, exploring various music styles on the way. In the fourth track, the only vestige of the initial smooth-jazz feel is an electric bass and a bongo-like use of Asian drums, and the fifth could easily have been composed by Edward MacDowell. Disc 2 is entirely devoted to serious music, written for concert halls and symphonic audiences. She never quite gets away from her very evident Asian fusion roots, but when you hear "Kuge", track 1 on the second disc, you discover a Vaughan Williams-esque treatment of traditional Japanese music as a big orchestral work (standard concert-hall orchestration plus the Erhu and Pipa soloists.) Then she moves on to a gorgeous but entirely too-short symphonic poem, 'Eurasia' which, true to its name, blends the classical music of two continents, not as a mixture but as a marriage. You have to listen to understand what I mean. The nature of her music does remain very placid, but in Disc 2 she shows hints of a greater scope of emotional content that I very much hope she lets loose on the concert hall some day. The liner notes say the Johnouchi-san conducted the entire album, and if there is a negative, it is that her formidable skills as a composer and in particular as an orchestrator do not carry over into conducting. I would love to hear these same pieces treated by a more skillful interpreter. Fortunately, her writing itself does overcome her mediocre baton for the most part, as do the several very fine soloists she employed. I do have one other complaint, I suppose. The album is entirely too short for a two-CD set. I wish she could have found a few more pieces to fill out the second disc, which isn't even sixteen minutes in length (the first disc is a little over 41 minutes.) I will most definitely be searching out more music from this extraordinary talent.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful symphony & heart-stirring music,
This review is from: Kuge (Audio CD)
My favorite track is 4th "Kazamatsuri", which means "Festival of the Wind". It's a heartwarming track, and I feel very comfortable when I listen to it.
And other track are also wonderful, especially "Kuge '"[which means "nil flower"(or "flower in the sky")], it's perfect and meaningful. I recommend this CD.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
