Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nosaka Keiko and Minoru Miki at their best, September 5, 2002
This album features classic works from the halcyon early days (in the 1970s) of the 20-string koto, which astounded listeners with its versatility and tonal range, and the virtuosity of its inventor and preeminent interpreter, Keiko Nosaka. In those days, Minoru Miki was the only composer for the instrument, and his heroic efforts to popularize the instrument by composing a vast number of new works are in evidence here. Highlights are: the title track, Concerto Requiem, with its haunting introduction and unique interplay of solo koto with Japanese instrument ensemble; Hanayagi, still the most popular piece for up-and-coming performers seeking to prove their technical prowess; Aki no Kyoku, an archetypal shakuhachi/koto duet; and the Venus in Autumn, a piece that shows off the power of an instrument that is often sterotyped as delicate or even "fluffy". Note that the only piece I haven't mentioned yet is the largely forgotten Venus in Spring, though I maintain that this restrained, hypnotic piece shows off Miki at his minimalist best.
Those interested in the modern history of the koto would do well to supplement this purchase with Pipa Xing. The composer has changed, but the performer remains, and this album features Nosaka some 20 years on, still in top form and, like the instrument, rather more polished, playing the more-recently developed 25-string koto.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond Thirteen Strings, November 26, 2007
Miki Minoru and his musical group Pro Musica Nipponia have been creating authentic and compelling modern Japanese music in a neo-traditional style for decades now while introducing world audiences to the joys of traditional Japanese music. Volume One of this CD series (Minoru Miki: Selected Works I) featured many of Miki's original compositions as performed by this group in general overview, so Volume Two here narrows the focus considerably, concerning itself principally with Miki's compositions for the twenty string koto (twenty-one to be exact), which he developed around 1970 in collaboration with Nosaka Keiko, the principal performer on this CD. Track two, "Hanayagi" ("The Greening") is in fact the archetypal 20-string koto piece, showing off the instrument's range and character to great (and lively) effect. The magisterially somber first track features some other instruments alternating intermittently with extended solo koto performances and is one of the more complex works by Miki I've yet heard, while track three is an appropriately autumnal piece for koto and shakuhachi--restrained with a touch of wistfulness. The last two tracks make for an intriguing antithesis, "Sao no Kyoku" being gentle and meditatively evocative while "Tatsuta no Kyoku" is jarringly frenetic and almost harshly dynamic, both together exploring the potentialities of the 20-string koto to their fullest.
The last two tracks are actually the earliest, having been composed in 1971 soon after the very invention of the instrument. Otherwise the rest of the pieces date to the late 1970's and the really early 1980's. Again as with the first CD in this series, the music is accessibly vibrant and lyrical while remaining very true to Japan's indigenous musical heritage in inspiration and mood. Also as before, the liner notes are extensive in Japanese and somewhat skimpy but adequate in English. Overall this is a fine CD showcasing excellently original music on an ingeniously original instrument by an endlessly original creative duo.
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by Keiko Nosaka 
