Customer Reviews

Music of Takemitsu

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This soundtrack is one that American directors should ingest into their systems. Why does one have to be subjected to Forrest Gumpesque film trailors in America when film music such as this exists in other countries. This is not the greatest music that Takemitsu composed, however that is not an insult. This music gives the young film composer hope that one day he may be approached with projects that demand these types of scores.

I must confess that I have almost never heard anystring ensemble play so wonderfully delicate andwith such perfect phrasing and precision as on this CD!.The overall soundscape of the recording siuts the transparent and delicate scoring of Mr. Takemitsuabsolute great (although the almost cathedral-likesound propably is, at least to some extend, the workof the recording engineer, I'd expect!) Only two minorthings could be said, in my opinion. Firstly, the veryfact that the strings are recorded very closely throughoutthe entire CD, sometimes threatening the balance in thepieces where additional instruments appear (eg. sometimes the oboe player gets almost drowned in the piece "Entre-temps", this goes for the harp and flute as well in thelast piece of the CD, "Toward the Sea II"). Secondly Ifind it somewhat irritating that liner notes, in all quitegood, don't explain anything as to why the recording of"Entre-temps", which is originally written for string quartetand oboe, here appears in a version for full string orchestra.Is this an arrangement made or authorized by the composer?Anyway, I highly recommend this CD; the "breathing problem"mentioned by my fellow reviewer somewhat puzzled me when listening to this recording, no more breathing that you usually might expect. However, this perhaps refers to the clattering of the keys of the oboein "Entre-temps", but that more or less goes with territory when writingfor this instrument - take my word for it!

The performances are very good but they must have closely miked all the players because you hear them breathing which is very iritating. This is very apparent in all the works most of which are string pieces.