CLASSICAL MUSIC - AKIRA IMAI: CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE PIANO MUSIC

Akira Imai’s concert, recorded in Munich, featured a programme made up entirely of works by contemporary Japanese composers.

Starting with one of Makoto Moroi’s earliest works, Nocturne, he moved on to Mutsuo Shishido’s Adagio and Toccata II from the Suite pour le clavier and Akira Miyoshi’s Envers, commissioned in 1980 for the First International Music Competition of Japan. Next came Miyoshi’s Suite ‘In Such Time’, written for children, in five pieces, for which Miyoshi provided the following titles and comments: So Merry is Dubbing (if the child does not like washing), A Witch Will Give You Some Sweets (if the child doesn’t want to go to bed), Well, Let’s Play in the Garden (if the child doesn't want to hear any more stories), Lions Live in Far and Distant Lands (if the child wants to go hunting) and For His Mama (to relax). His final pieces were Michio Mamiya’s Differencias for Piano, and Akio Yashiro’s Sonata for Piano, which takes its inspiration from Beethoven’s Sonata in E major Op. 109. 

Although all the music contains European elements, it is intellectually and formally rooted in the Japanese tradition.

Directed by Janos Darvas