The Naxos Japanese Classics release Humiwo Hayasaka: Piano Concerto is one of the most consequential and significant volumes in the Japanese Classics series. This is not to say that the previous volumes devoted to the music of Ifukube, Mayuzumi, or Takemitsu are inferior in quality. From a purely performance-oriented angle, the interpretations by Takuo Yuasa and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are more accomplished than the slightly scrappy Russian Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Yablonsky heard here. Nonetheless, ...
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The Naxos Japanese Classics release Humiwo Hayasaka: Piano Concerto is one of the most consequential and significant volumes in the Japanese Classics series. This is not to say that the previous volumes devoted to the music of Ifukube, Mayuzumi, or Takemitsu are inferior in quality. From a purely performance-oriented angle, the interpretations by Takuo Yuasa and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are more accomplished than the slightly scrappy Russian Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Yablonsky heard here. Nonetheless, the music of Hayasaka is difficult to find on disc even in Japan, and his Piano Concerto in particular is a significant Japanese work that has long needed a recording. This one will certainly do. The solo part, played by Hiromi Okada, is professionally done and is in sympathy with the work, couched as it is in the language of Rachmaninov and the grand post-romantic tradition. While some may find this concerto too imitative of Western models, conversely it seems to evoke Asia in its...
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