Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sofia Gubaidulina, Yutaka Sado + Kazue Sawai – Point And Surface
Label: Commmons – RZCM-46928
Format: CD, Album, Digipack
Country: Japan
Released: Oct 12, 2011
Genre: Classical
Style: Contemporary
Concerto Kor Koto And Orchestra
Composed By, Arranged By – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Recorded By – zAk
1. 1st Movement – Still 7:09
2. 2nd Movement – Return 4:15
3. 3rd Movement – Firmament 5:26
4. 4th Movement – Autumn 8:44
5. In The Shadow Of The Tree Composed By – Sofia Gubaidulina Engineer – Yuji Hirano Recorded By – Masamichi Ohashi Transcription By – Max Knoth 26:08
Manufactured By – Avex Marketing Inc.
Copyright © – Kab Inc.
Copyright © – Musikverlag Dr. Hans Sikorski GmbH & Co. KG
Recorded At – Hyogo Performing Arts Center Grand Hall
Printed By – Ichikudo Printing Co., Ltd.
A&R [A&D] – Kenji Kajimura
Administrator – Mai Yuda
Conductor – Yutaka Sado
Creative Director, Producer [Associate] – Norika Sora
Design – Hideki Nakajima
Design [Assistant] – Hironobu Mimaki
Koto – Kazue Sawai
Liner Notes – Junichi Konuma
Mixed By, Mastered By – Fernando Aponte
Orchestra – Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra
Photography By [Cover] – Kazunali Tajima
Photography By [Except Cover] – Takashi Iijima
Producer, Mixed By – Ryuichi Sakamoto
Production Manager – Akiko Kato
Promotion [Sales] – Daisuke Takase, Junichi Kamitoku, Norio Udaka
Public Relations [Dirtector of Public Relations / A&D] – Satoshi Nakashiro
Supervised By [Supervisor] – Hiroyuki Nakashima, Hisaou Wakaizumi, Toshiki Shida, Yoshihiro Seki
The Japanese liner notes by Junichi Konuma translate as follows:
Koto in the 21st century......
The two works for koto and orchestra on this album were recorded at a concert called "Yutaka Sato X Kazue Sawai X Ryuichi Sakamoto / Feast of Koto and Orchestra" in April 2010. The concert was held at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Nishinomiya and at the Opera City in Tokyo.
Ryuichi Sakamoto's piece has the almost blunt title "Concerto for Koto" and was commissioned by the Koto performer, Kazue Sawai.
The work consists of four movements. As if it's not a big deal, the program notes simply say "four balanced states, or life". Since the koto has a different tuning for each movement, four kotos are lined up in front of the orchestra on the stage. The performer moves from left to right (when viewed from the audience) as the movements progress. On the one hand, this seems to correspond to the titles <still>, <return>, <firmament> and <autumn>, given to each movement.
The original notes written by the composer give no reason as to why it was composed. There's no explanation, just 8 to 12 words, like a poem by Katsue Kitasono. Just the common terms winter, spring, summer and autumn.
If this were a "concerto" in the original Western sense, the solo instrument and the orchestra would confront each other, and aim for a higher-order synthesis. Fast-slow / slow-fast contrasts would be created. However, in this work, as well as establishing a pattern of slow-slow-fast-slow, the lonely koto, rather than fighting hard against the orchestra, is instead always opening up new vistas together with the orchestra.
With regards to the koto part, its key is fixed, but there is quite a lot of freedom in which notes to play, that is left to the discretion of the soloist. In other words, an attempt is made to give the soloist the freedom to really participate in the composer's work.
Moving to the other work, Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-) from the Tatar Republic in the former Soviet Union, wrote "In the Shadow of the Tree 〜For Asian Kotos and Orchestra〜" in 1998 on a commission from the NHK Symphony Orchestra. The composer visited Kazue Sawai in the 90's and looked at the possibilities of the koto. She already composed "...just before waking up this morning..." (1994) for the three-sided 17-string koto and the rectangular (13-string) koto. "In the Shadow of the Tree", is a further development of this and, apart from the 13-string and 17-string kotos, also employs the "Chinese koto" from the Chinese Zen tradition. Naturally, from this it follows that the composer sees the koto as coming not only from the archipelago called "Japan" but also from the wider region called "Asia".
According to the commentary written by Akemi Nakata while drawing on the words of the composer, "In the Shadow of the Tree" depicts "the colours of light and shadow created from the sunlight through the trees", moreover "the world of 'shadow' is life, and the idea is that 'light' is also born from 'shadow'".
Junichi Konuma
