Customer Reviews

Yasushi Akutagawa: Ellora Symphony; Trinita Sinfonica Rapsodia per Orchestra

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Japan's contribution to classical music has been gradually rescued from utter obscurity this side of the Pacific by Naxos and their excellent series devoted to Japanese composers. This CD, a relatively earlier offering from the series, features the same high quality recording of command performances as the others and showcases the compositions of Akutagawa Yasushi (1925-1989), a fairly popular and well-known cultural figure in postwar Japan (even appearing in Nestle TV ads, of all things) and, in case you're wondering, yes, youngest son of the author Akutagawa Ryunosuke. Akutagawa Yasushi's music can be divided into three distinct creative phases, and this CD includes one key work from each phase, making it an eminently representative encapsulation of a key composer's lifework.

Somewhat inconveniently, the three selections run in backwards chronological order, so that the last one, "Trinita Sinfonica" (1948) is the earliest. Also the most accessible in its sheer musical beauty, this piece still displays the deep influence of Akutagawa's mentors Hashimoto and Ifukube yet in an odd alchemical mix all his own--at once peacefully and harmoniously lyrical and yet stridently and sweepingly dynamic. Passive Yin and active Yang in a carefully balanced dance. The "Ellora Symphony" of 1958 is the very antithesis of this, as if Akutagawa did a musical 180: jarring, fragmentary, atonal, very late 20th-century. And yet this dissonant symphony is strangely meditative nonetheless, suffused with an eerily passionate mysticism inspired by the Ellora cave temples of India with their mix of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain sculptures both voluptuous and ascetic. And with its blend of slow "feminine" and fast "masculine" movements it evinces assured continuity with Akutagawa's earlier work. The final piece and first track, 1971's "Rapsodia per Orchestra" brings all of these diverse and even paradoxical strands into a grand synthesis. Accessibly avant-garde, lyrically dynamic and yet full of harshly disharmonious shocks, this dramatic rhapsody seems to accomplish the impossible even as it underlines Akutagawa's stance that fine music is for everyone.

The liner notes for this tripartite CD are generously extensive as is dependably standard for Naxos, and they do a capable job of introducing the composer and his musical career as well as describing the date and occasion of each selection and analyzing it in painstakingly precise musicological detail. Some of the latter will doubtlessly be a bit above the average amateur listener such as myself, but one can always skim, and the serious classical enthusiast and music lover will find the discussion on a level of sophistication commensurate with their dedicated interest. Which is as it should be with a CD and a classical composer of this caliber. In any case, sit back with your earphones and prepare for the trip of a creative lifetime.

P.S. For Akutagawa's mentors, see Hashimoto: Symphony No. 1 in D; Heavenly Maiden and Fisherman and Ifukube: Sinfonia Tapkaara. For his friend and colleague perhaps somewhat influencing his second phase, see Toshiro Mayuzumi: Mandala Symphony; Bugaku; Symphonic Mood; Rumba Rhapsody.

I have several recordings of the Trinita Symphica and this is the best, even tops the Japanese performances. The last movement will have you humming long after. I have never heard this played on local classical stations as Japanese music just isn't played. This symphony sounds like a vibrant cross between an amiable Prokofiev/Shostakovich in a Japanese mood. The Elorora sympnony is just as good but not quite as accessable. This disc should please the audiophiles - the bass shook my room.

This disc is simply amazing. Well worth the (incredibly low) price for the ELLORA SYMPHONY alone, Yasushi Akutagawa's musical art will leave you absolutely floored. Akutagawa-sensei was a student of Akira Ifukube, and that influence certainly shows in every piece on this recording. The ELLORA SYMPHONY was inspired after a trip the composer took to the town of Ellora in India; it is a violently modern symphonic depiction of the sexually explicit cave art he encountered in that region. The rhythmic ostinato and explosive percussion will give any good sound system a run for its money and will leave the listener breathless, agitated and astounded. Highly recommended.

This must surely be one of the definitive highlights of Naxos's series of Japanese classics. Yasushi Akutagawa (1925-1989), the son of a famous writer, held a central position in Japan's musical life, and his music - as exhibited by this disc - developed sharply throughout his career, from a Prokofiev-inspired early period through a brief toying with the avantgarde and back to an accessible, almost populist style in the seventies. All three periods are represented here.

The opening Rapsodia from 1971 is the most recent work, and is a semi-programmatic, superbly scored and somewhat populistic work. The orchestration makes, in particular, much use of the percussion and wind sections and features some imaginative textures. The main influence is probably (early) Stravinsky, but the idiom is individual enough and the themes strong enough to sustain interest throughout a energetic and variegated quarter of an hour. The Ellora Symphony, inspired by the Indian town, is, despite being written thirteen years earlier, much more modern-sounding with cromatic outbursts and imaginative explorations of textural shapes and colors. Consisting of sixteen highly variegated sections, Akutagawa exploration of an almost infinite variety of sonorities makes for an absorbing listening experience, and the work never outstays its welcome.

Still, the highlight of the disc is probably the earliest work. Trinita Sinfonica was written in 1948 and is strongly influenced by contemporary Russian music, in particular Prokofiev. It might not be very profound, but I have rarely heard such a captivating, exuberant and thoroughly enjoyable work. Yes, it is all here - picture postcard Japanese music, Hollywoodish big tunes (on speed), martial rhythms and dynamic leaps. It is probably as unsubtle as music can get, but how fun it is!

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under Takua Yuasa turns in some excellent performances as well. Yuasa keeps the reins tight and obtains an admirably clear balance between the various orchestral section; the performances are polished but nuanced and full of zest, with rhythmic bite and structural clarity. And the sound quality - if perhaps just a little bit artificial - is splendid. Huge fun, and urgently recommended.

No disagreement with other Amazon reviews, this is a real find. So much other great 20th century music also has a wide emotional range, but one rarely encounters this level of inspired melodic material. The Rapsodia takes Strauss's Dance of Seven Veils as a point of departure but develops the slithering woodwind/percussion interplay differently. Ellora is another Turangalila extravaganza, but less tedious, and reflects the craft and genius of Indian medieval architecture as well as its eroticism. Trinita Sinfonia was written in the late 1940s and combines the pathos and madcap boisterousness of the contemporaneous Shostakovich 9th with the tunefulness of Bernstein's Candide overture and motoric rhythms of Bernard Hermann's later North By Northwest score (1959). Akutagawa is worth exploring and programming by our classical radio stations and big city orchestras. Who knows who influenced whom -- sheer invention wins the day.