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The Musicscapes of Toru Takemitsu |
| Section: THE ARTS / MUSIC |
| Author: Peter Catalano |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 6/1/1995 |
| Size: 2,761 Words, 17,614 Characters |
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In a land where artists are treated as national heroes, Toru Takemitsu stands at the pinnacle of prestige. "He's the most famous composer in Japan," says Seiji Ozawa, music director of the venerable Boston Symphony Orchestra. "Takemitsu," he beams, "is the most famous Japanese composer in the world."
In fact, millions of Americans have heard Takemitsu's music without the slightest awareness of his celebrity status, most recently in the film score for Hollywood's Rising Sun, starring Sean Connery. Still others may know his music from such Japanese film classics as Woman of the Dunes (1964) and Kirosawa's acclaimed Ran (1985), which resets the story of King Lear in medieval Japan. Both are examples of literally dozens of scores written by Takemitsu for television and the movies.
But it is in the world of concert music--orchestral, choral, chamber, and now opera--that Takemitsu has garnered his reputation. Among contemporary composers he is one of the most recorded, and his pieces turn up on concert programs quite regularly. Not surprisingly, Ozawa is among his strongest advocates on the podium.
In an interview for this story Ozawa mused, "I've known Toru for thirty-five years, since the beginning of his professional career, and conducted just about all of his orchestral works, especially in my years with the San Francisco Symphony and Toronto Symphony. Later, when I was with the New York Philharmonic, I led the premiere of November Steps for the orchestra's 125th anniversary. In 1999 I'll conduct the Japanese premiere of a newly commissioned opera in Matsumoto." The latter has its opening a year earlier, in 1998, at Op?a Lyons, conducted by the American Kent Nagano.
This opera is really an international production, with a...
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...l remains a sticking point. "I'd write more for Hollywood," says Takemitsu, "if I could supervise all sound." Unfortunately, producers seem unlikely to yield such control, but negotiations continue. Meanwhile, Takemitsu is heading back to his mountain retreat in Japan, preparing for his operatic debut in Lyons. There, at least, he'll really get a chance to supervise the soundtrack. All of it.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
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Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
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