Toru Takemitsu
To him is dedicated the Milan Music Festival
From 24th September through 8th November 2009 the Milan Music Festival is back, with its eighteenth edition. The project, worked out by Andrea Pestalozza, presents a new structure: a monograph, dedicated to the Japanese composer Toru Talemitsu, combined with the traditional Today’s Music Paths, with new proposals free from theme bonds.
As always, the Festival suggests operas and composers almost un-heard of by the general public in the performance of the best international performers: three absolute premiere, six premiere in Italy among which important symphonic works by Takemitsu and Toshio Hosokawa, four premiere in Milan.
Toru Takemitsu (Tokyo 1930-1996) was, and perhaps still is, the quintessential Japanese composer, popular, cherished and performed all over the world. He was a key symbol of the Japanese cultural life and on the international stage of contemporary music, to which he contributed with hundreds of compositions. Multifaceted intellectual besides bright composer, fan of cinema, he wrote about a hundred film soundtracks, few of which will be presented and directed by Kurosawa and Teshigahara, and he wrote about ten books among which textbooks of music aesthetics and poetics but also a crime novel and a recipe book.
«These two worlds, the East and the West, sometimes surround me softly, but more often rive me». Throughout his life Takemitsu came in touch with the most significative forms of the Twentieth Century European culture: Debussy, Messiaen, Stockhausen, Cage, Xenakis. Curious and accurate he absorbs the different vocabularies without lose sight of the final goal. He was interested in electronics.
The program, with symphonic and chamber concerts, invites us to get to know his sound universe: «In our world exist silence and an endless sound. Very carefully, I want to engrave that sound by hand until I reach a single sound. And this sound will have enough strength to be compared to silence».
The Festival is inaugurated on 24th September at the Teatro alla Scala, with the Orchestra of the Theatre, directed by Tetsuji Honna and the participation of the popular Japanese harpist Naoko Yoshino, with a program combining Takemitsu and Hosokawa, with three symphonic piece in their Italian premiere, at Debussy and Xenakis.
The program of the concert on Saturday 3rd October at the Teatro Dal Verme, with the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali directed by Yoichi Suguyama, suggests among the rest Nostalgia per violino e orchestra by Takemitsu, inspired to the homonym film by Tarkovskij and written for Yehudi Menuhin, here performed by the young Russian violoinist Rimma Benyumova, and The Dorian Horizon that re-edits music materials already used by Takemitsu in the soundtrack of the movie Woman in the Dunes by Teshigahara (presented at the Spazio Oberdan on 4th October). Besides, planned is also one of the most significant pieces by Armando Gentilucci, Il tempo sullo sfondo per orchestra (1978), on the occasion of twenty years of his departure .
The Piccolo Teatro studio host on Monday 19th October a particular concert of percussions and other instrumental soloists (Maurizio Ben Omar, Andrea Dulbecco, Luigi Gaggero, percussions; Domenico Alfano, flute ; Riccardo Crocilla, clarinet; Ljuba Moiz, piano; Elena Zuccotti, harp). The program combines the works of Talemitsu of the 1980s cycle of the rain with works of composers to whom he was especially bond: Messiaen and Xenakis. On absolute premiere a piece for vibraphone by Yaoichi Sugiyama, commissioned by Milano Musica.
The concert on 11th October, at the Conservatorio G. Verdi (Sala Puccini), brings together six compositions by Takemitsu covering a 40 years-long time-frame, from the first work for the tape Relief Statique in 1955 through the chamber music of the mid-1990s, performed by prestigious soloists: the violinist Nobuko Imai, already performer of numerous premiere of pieces by Takemitsu, the flautist Jacques Zoon, the harpist Naoko Yoshino, protagonist also of the inaugural concert, and the pianist Francois Killian.
The Festival ends on 8th November at the Conservatorio G.Verdi with the Symphonic Orchestra of RAI and the Hiroshima Opera Renaissance Chorus, directed by Andrea Pestalozza, with the Requiem by Takemitsu, the opera cherished by Stravinskij, and with the work of art by Hosokawa in Italian premiere, Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima, a sort of Japanese Canto sospeso. The concert is dedicated to Emergency.
Today’s music paths
In the Paths, three groups for the first time hosted by Milano Musica at the conservatorio G. Verdi (Sala Puccini): Monday 5th October the Trio of Parma, in collaboration with Fondazione Spinola Banna for Art, Tuesday 13th October the Ensemble Scharoun of the Berliner Philharmoniker and Wednesday 28th October the Quartetto of Cremona, in collaboration with the Gooethe-Institut Mailand.
The programs combine great pieces of the classical repertoire, from the Trio in la minore by Ravel through the ottetto by Shcubert with works of contemporary Masters like Luis de Pablo and Helmut Lachenmann, up to young emerging composers like Franceschini, Widmann, this year at the Festival of Lucerne, and Schoellhorn. In absolute premiere the Sesto Quartetto of Michele dall’Ongaro, performed by the Quartetto of Cremona.
To the lice electronics, for ever a core choice of the Festival, is dedicated an evening at the Teatro Franco Parenti, Thursday 22nd October, with works for soloist instrument or voice and electronic of five composers: Boulez, Francesconi, Manzoni, Stroppa, Tadini.
Two piano recitals: Gregorio Nardi in an orginal program from Carter to Kodaly, Sunday 27th September at the Conservatorio G. Verdi (Sala Puccini), and Emanuele Arciuli who, after the successful tours in the United States, makes his debut at the Teatro alla Scala, Monday 2nd November, in a refined and virtuosistic program with Schumann, Liszt and Sciarrino, the amazing Carter’s Night Fantasies through the Bartok’s work of art All’Aria Aperta.
Béla Bartok is also protagonist of the general rehearsal on Tuesday 27th October (that the Teatro alla Scala offers to the subscribers of Milano Musica) of the concert of the Orchestra of the Theatre, directed by Pierre Boulez, with Maurizio Pollini.
The numerous in-depth activities – integral part of the Festival as a moment of direct contact with the protagonists of contemporary creativity – present concerts/conferences, meetings with the composers, film viewings, created in collaboration with several firm of Milan.
To the eclectic character of Takemitsu is dedicated the Study Day, taken are of by Gianmario Borio and Luciana Galliano, on 17th October, at the Triennial of Milan; three events at the Spazio Oberdan organized in collaboration with Fondazione Cineteca Italiana: projection of films by Kurosawa (Dodes’ka-Den, on 30th September and Ran, on 2nd October) and by Teshigahara (Woman in the Dunes, on 4th October) for whichTakemitsu composed the soundtracks. Guitar and koto, old traditional Japanese instrument, confront themselves in the performance of Elena Càsoli and Kyoto Kawamura, at the Villa Reala, on 15th October, in collaboration with the Modern Art Gallery.
On going the cycle Music at the present – meetings with composers at the Anteo Spaziocinema, inaugurated last year, with viewgins of the Video Classico Sky and meetings, taken care of by Enrico Girardi and Francesco Leprino, with some of the composers protagonists of the contemporary Italian scene.
Arts And Culture, Cinema, Events, Exhibitions And Galleries, Music, Shows,
Tags: All’Aria Aperta, Andrea Dulbecco, Andrea Pestalozza, Anteo Spaziocinema, Armando Gentilucci, Bartok, Berliner Philharmoniker, Boulez, Cage, Canto sospeso, Conservatorio G. Verdi, Debussy, Dodes’ka-Den, Domenico Alfano, Elena Càsoli, Elena Zuccotti, Emanuele Arciuli, Emergency, Enrico Girardi, Ensemble Scharoun, Festival of Lucerne, Fondazione Spinola Banna, Franceschini, Francesco Leprino, Francesconi, Francois Killian, Gooethe-Institut Mailand, Gregorio Nardi, Helmut Lachenmann, Hiroshima Opera Renaissance Chorus, Il tempo sullo sfondo per orchestra, Jacques Zoon, Kurosawa, Liszt, Ljuba Moiz, Luigi Gaggero, Luis de Pablo, Manzoni, Maurizio Ben Omar, Maurizio Pollini, Messiaen, Michele dall’Ongaro, Milan Music Festival, Naoko Yoshino, Night Fantasies, Nobuko Imai, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, Orchestra of the Theatre, ottetto, Piccolo Teatro studio, Pierre Boulez, Quartetto of Cremona, Ran, Ravel, Relief Statique, Requiem, Riccardo Crocilla, Rimma Benyumova, Schoellhorn, Schubert, Schumann, Sciarrino, Spazio Oberdan, Stockhausen, Stroppa, Symphonic Orchestra of RAI, Tadini, Tarkovskij, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Dal Verme, Teatro Franco Parenti, Teshigahara, Tetsuji Honna, The Dorian Horizon, Today’s Music Paths, Toru Talemitsu, Toshio Hosokawa, Trio in la minore, Trio of Parma, Video Classico Sky, Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima, Widmann, Woman in the Dunes, Xenakis, Yehudi Menuhin, Yoichi Suguyama
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