Customer Reviews

Toru Takemitsu: From me flows what you call Time; Twill by Twilight; Requiem

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4 star:		(3)
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I've had this record for quite a while now. It's taken some time but the music has really grown on me. The surface glitter of the pieces is immediately apparent. What is not so obvious on first hearing is the profundity of the musical and spiritual thought in these works.

Toru Takemitsu was Japan's foremost composer in the late 20th century, and yet his music rarely sounds blatantly Japanese. The only obvious traditional influences on this CD come at the very beginning of the first piece, Through Me Flows What You Call Time. This work opens with a flute solo that contains techniques from the shakuhatchi repertoire. But quickly, the material of this solo becomes more western, sharing with Messiaen a love of symmetrical scales and modal devices. The piece uses this first flute solo as the spring board to a thirty five minute concerto grosso for orchestra and percussion ensemble. The music is lush, very romantic and colorful. The tonal language reminds me of a mix of Debussy, Scriabin and Messiaen. The melodic material is based primarily on a five note motif from the beginning of the flute solo which morphs into myriad forms. The percussion writing is exquisite...dominated by flashes of bell and cymbal color as well as ostinati on the marimba and outbursts from steel drums. The orchestra lends support mostly, occasionally singing out in an almost chorale-like texture. This piece is absolutely lovely.

The second work on the CD is Twill by Twilight. The work seems almost a carbon copy of Time except that it doesn't include the percussion group. While I find nothing particularly objectionable about the work, it isn't distinct enough to compete with the impression made by the first work. In fact...another choice for the CD might have been in order. There gets to be a monotonous quality by the end of this work. The CD is rounded out by Takemitsu's first piece to make an international spalsh...Requiem for String Orchestra. This piece is more Bergian than the others, though it too is accessible and shaded with tonal moments. It is deeply felt and a quite moving work.

Takemitsu was an enormously popular person as a composer. Any musician who knew him has only great things to say about him. This greatness of spirit comes through in the best of his music. Time and Requiem are among the finest neo-romantic pieces around. If you like Debussy, or Rautavaara, you will certainly love these pieces. Highly recommended.

"From Me Flows What You Call Time" is one of the greatest pieces written in the late 20th century. The funny thing is that its hard to put a finger on why. This is some of the most original music you've ever heard. This literally sounds like nothing else I've ever heard. It is essentially a concerto for percussion quintet and it is fabulous what Takemitsu has done with the idea. Normally, a concerto for five percussionists would be bombastic and thunderous, but this is subtle & understated, but that's where the strength lies. The Pacific Orchestra provides a solid backing for the percussion. The percussion pretty much never ceases, the orchestra provides splashes & washes of color with flutes, occassional horn bursts, and lush strings. Its is shocking just how pretty & beautiful Takemitsu was able to make music with dissonance. The whole piece isn't that way, but sometimes you will hear something that doesn't quite sound right, but its still beautiful. He's the perfector of soft dissonance. I know the comparison has been run into the ground, but there is a lot of Debussy in Takemitsu, although he's more modern and has an obvious slant from the East. His music doesn't sound like Debussy's, you can just see the influence. Believe me, Takemitsu's is truly a unique voice in music.

"Twill by Twilight" (for orchestra) is in memory of Morton Feldman, and I must say I think its better than anything I've heard by Morton Feldman.

"Requiem" (for string orchestra) is also a nice piece, but the real showstopper on this disc is "From Me Flows What You Call Time." Get the disc for that.

"From Me Flows What You Call Time" is not an ordinary percussion concerto. It is extraordinary. Usually, a percussion concerto is a lively music, full of excitement. But this piece is rather meditational. You must enjoy it in a very quiet mood. Five percussionists of NEXUS, to whom Takemitsu dedicated this piece, makes their own cosmos. When I once listened to this music in a concert hall, played by the Philadelphia Orchestra with NEXUS and Robert Spano, it is trully amazing. It is often said that Takemitsu combined Japanese culture with Western culture. To me as a Japanese, this is not Japanese nor Western, rather a new world created by the genius. "Twill by Twilight" is also a meditational piece as if I were in a space with a different scale of time. "Requiem" is Takemitsu's first orchestral piece, also serious and meditational, but more emotional than the former two pieces. It is very different from famous requiems by Mozart, Cherubini, Brahms, Verdi, Faure, etc.

I'm a big admirer of Takemitsu, but mostly on account of his film music. While I've enjoyed his classical pieces, I've always appreciated the rawness and experimentation of his film work more. "From Me Flows What You Call Time" is the big exception... it's a truly mesmerizing piece. Like the best Takemitsu music, it can take you into another world. Frankly I don't have words to describe how wonderful this piece is. You just need to listen to it.

This Sony disc contains three pieces by the late Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, whose untimely death in 1996 robbed the contemporary music world of one of its most distinctive figures. The first two were written during his late period, while the last is his first great work. Carl St. Clair conducts the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, with the Nexus percussion group (the dedicatee) on the first piece.

"From me flows what you call Time" (1990) for orchestra and five percussionists stands as one of Takemitsu's sure masterpieces. It might be called a concerto for percussion and orchestra, though that suggests some kind of opposition when in reality all elements of instrumentation seamlessly cooperate. The soloists' parts are very fascinating, especially when they play drums, giving a rougher tinge to the work rarely heard in the music of a composer more interested in glittery sounds. Towards the end the piece follows other works of this period ("Archipelago S.", "Ceremonial") in containing a spatial element: the percussionists play bells distantly located in various parts of the auditorium by means of coloured tape. "Twill by Twilight" (1988) was written in memory of Morton Feldman, and the title is both an allusion to Feldman's love of carpets and to Takemitsu's technique of textures that "weave" in and out of the piece, as well as a building up of the large from repetitions of the small as Feldman (in)famously did in his late pieces.

What is particularly amazing about the late Takemitsu is that he uses certain contemporary techniques, yet achieves a highly original effect different from all other composers. The pitches are generated with quasi-serialist techniques, and yet his music does not sound dry or academic, but rather highly transcendental. Timbre is a highly important element, but the result is more natural, suggestive of the outdoors, than the work of the spectralist composers. However, putting any two pieces from Takemitsu's late period together on disc is not ideal, as they are often too close stylistically and tend to dull the listener's senses. While beautiful in themselves, they don't do enough to distinguish themselves from other pieces of the same era.

The last piece is from a very different era, however. "Requiem" for strings (1957) was Takemitsu's first orchestral work and brought him to fame outside Japan when Stravinsky championed him for it. It shows him still under the influence of Messiaen and is a very moving set of incisive string figures, which can often sound quite agressive but nonetheless never break major laws of tonality. Unlike in his late period, characterized by a general evenness of dynamic, Takemitsu was not afraid here of going from the softest touches to major crescendi, although he still had not discovered the importance of timbre.

For those who have never heard Takemitsu's music, as an introduction I'd recommend the QUOTATION OF DREAM disc in Deutsche Grammophon's "20/21" series, which still has the same problem of putting Takemitsu's late works together, but which contains a whole world of interesting discoveries if you can manage to listen to each piece in isolation. Still, if you've come to enjoy the music of this singular voice in 20th century music, this Sony disc is a good find, and it's a budget purchase.

Most of the earlier reviews of "From me flows what you call time" are accurate--beautiful orchestrations, unexpected moments that emerge from silences or clusters of sound, and sometimes ravishing harmonies that swirl about for 35 minutes of truly breathtaking music. I was fortunate enough to attend the premiere of this piece, so when I listen I still see in my mind the amazing visual quality of a live performance. About one hundred specially tuned wind chimes from small to very large were made by Gary Kvistad specifically for Nexus and this piece. These chimes are hung from the ceiling of the performing hall and connected to the stage by long, multi-colored ribbons. When the chimes are played at various times during the performance, the sensation of being surrounded by these exquisite bells is overwhelming. The recording is wonderful, but if you ever have an opportunity to hear a live performance, it's well worth a long trip.

I recently heard the WV Symphony Orchestra play this piece. I have heard a great deal of excellent live music but this was the first time I had to remind myself to breathe. Quite an experience!

This is a very satisfying recording from the Pacific Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Carl St. Clair. While this ensemble may not have the sheen of string polish heard in older orchestras, a sound that comes with time and with playing together for extended periods (the orchestra was founded in 1978 with St Clair taking charge in 1990), it has grown into a significant regional orchestra in a relatively short time.

The obvious showpiece for this recording is the Toru Takemitsu 'From Me Flows What You Call Time' a work for percussion and chamber orchestra and here the percussion ensemble (a very complex battery of instruments) is performed by the Nexus Percussion Ensemble, an ensemble of five percussionists, for whom Takemitsu composed this complex and satisfying work in 1990. The performance/recording is as fine as any available and is justly the highlight of the CD.

The 'Twill by Twilight' is a chamber piece Takemitsu wrote in memory of Morton Feldman and it is a gentle and lovely work. But for this listener the major work on the recording is the 'Requiem', a brief (10 minute) work for string orchestra composed in 1957 and dedicated to film composer Fumio Hoyasaka. It is the first large scale work for large ensemble that brought his music to the attention of the West It shimmers and manages to incorporate the ambience of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde while also incorporating the textures of Berg, Webern and Schoenberg. Performed in a single movement this Requiem is as holy and mysterious as any other non-vocal requiem (such as the Britten Sinfonia da Requiem) written in the past century. It is food for the soul and an invitation for meditation. Grady Harp, March 2011

"From Me Flows What You Call Time" is a veryinteresting title for this 30+ minute work that uses 5 percussionsoloists playing the most extrodinarily beautiful instruments and combination of instruments that the Genius of Toru Takemisu has come up with. The music moves along timelessly with a few rhythic and melodic phrases recuring throughout to keep the momentum going. This truely is the most beatiful music I have ever heard. This is music from the master of time himself, useing time and space as constant companions. The other two works on this CD are "Requiem" for String Orchestra (Takemitsu's first orchestral work, Very beautiful neo impressionist writing, and "Twill by Twilight" an homage to Morton Feldman. This CD is a must for all lovers of music!!!

This music is very beautiful , relaxing, and gets your attention at all times if you really listen to it. I can imagine the "sound" of time in the night sky.