At one time, the name of Japanese composer Toshiro Mayuzumi was equally well known in the West as that of Toru Takemitsu. Both of these hugely significant figureheads of Japanese concert music died within mere months of one another, and while the passage of time has not eroded Mayuzumi's stature in Japan, awareness of his work has dimmed somewhat in the West. Naxos has come to Mayuzumi's rescue in Mayuzumi: Mandala Symphony -- Bugaku, an excellent disc featuring the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under conductor Takuo Yuasa ...
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At one time, the name of Japanese composer Toshiro Mayuzumi was equally well known in the West as that of Toru Takemitsu. Both of these hugely significant figureheads of Japanese concert music died within mere months of one another, and while the passage of time has not eroded Mayuzumi's stature in Japan, awareness of his work has dimmed somewhat in the West. Naxos has come to Mayuzumi's rescue in Mayuzumi: Mandala Symphony -- Bugaku, an excellent disc featuring the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under conductor Takuo Yuasa. This is one of the best CDs of classical orchestral music to appear in 2005 -- the sound is bright, clear, and full, and the performances are outstanding. It contains two works, Symphonic Mood and Rumba Rhapsody, that have never before been recorded, and a third, Bugaku, which is unknown in the West. The Mandala Symphony is presented without its usual partner in crime, the Nirvana Symphony, but these "new" pieces are so satisfying and revelatory that one does not miss it. Bugaku, a...
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