ORPHIKA · PHONOGÈNE: Orchestral Works of Yūji Takahashi Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestar, Tokyo Contemporary Soloists & Yoichi Sugiyama

• Yūji Takahashi (b. 1938): Tori mo tsukai ka:
• 1 Takahashi: Tori mo tsukai ka 20:38
• Orphika:
• 2 Takahashi: Orphika 12:50
• Le double de Paganini:
• 3 Takahashi: Le double de Paganini 06:18
• Bridges III:
• 4 Takahashi: Bridges III 14:08
• Gandharva:
• 5 Takahashi: Gandharva 10:12
• Bridges II:
• 6 Takahashi: Bridges II 06:24
• Phonourloupes:
• 7 Takahashi: Phonourloupes 10:02
• Like Swans Leaving the Lake:
• 8 Takahashi: Like Swans Leaving the Lake 10:05
• Phonogène:
• 9 Takahashi: Phonogène 10:21
• Total Runtime 01:40:58

Info for ORPHIKA · PHONOGÈNE: Orchestral Works of Yūji Takahashi

Featuring world-premiere recordings, this second set of Yuji Takahashi portrait albums brings together the live recordings of two concerts conducted by Yoichi Sugiyama (who studied with Donatoni) in Tokyo, as part of the Suntory Summer Festival 2020, and at a special Yuji Takahashi Portrait Concert at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall in 2021. Covering 57 years of Takahashi's creative activity, the works represented in this compilation span a period in which his musical, aesthetic and political positions underwent radical change.

The earliest piece, Phonogene (1962), reflects the intellectual rigour and complexity of Takahashi's music at this period, especially his use of mathematical generative processes - an interest the composer shared with Xenakis, whom he had met in Japan the previous year. Written in Paris, where Takahashi was now studying with Xenakis, Bridges II(1965) includes microtonal deviations of pitch. InBridges III(1968), he went one step further, requesting that all instruments be tuned to A = 450 Hz, but since this can cause string breakage, this recording adopts 442 Hz while preserving the intended pitch ratios. Takahashi did not preserve the scores of either of these works, so this recording is an exclusive opportunity to hear works recovered for this performance with the assistance of Sumihisa Arima and Yumiko Meguri. Orphika (1969), whose title refers to the ancient Orphic religion, uses mathematical procedures based on probability, with its basis in five types of sound movement (glissando, oscillation, staccato, tremolo, legato).

By 1986, the year ofLe double de Paganini, Takahashi's political and musical outlook had undergone radical overhaul, and the work derives from a number of Paganini's24 Capricesfor violin, and features clearly tonal/modal sonorities.Tori mo tsukai ka (1993) reflects another aspect of the composer's later manner, his interest in traditional Asiatic and, in this instance, specifically Japanese music. Its scoring, for katari narrator playing the three-stringed shamisen and orchestra, is influenced by the Myoon Junigakufestival. The stimulus for the opening ofLike Swans Leaving the Lake(1995) is also far removed from the abstractions of the composer's early work: the fluttering of a swan's wings, graphically impersonated by the 'ricochet' effects in the accordion. The most recent work in this collection, Phonourloupes (2019) is heard here in its premiere performance.

This wide-ranging programme represents an essential insight into a profoundly significant figure of 20th-century and contemporary music, and is performed by a host of outstanding musicians devoted to the meticulous and sensitive interpretation of Takahashi's extraordinary output.

Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Tokyo
Tokyo Contemporary Soloists
Yoichi Sugiyama, conductor

Yoichi Sugiyama
(born 1969 in Tokyo) studied conducting with Emilio Pomàrico and Morihiro Okabe and composition with Franco Donatoni, Sandro Gorli and Akira Miyoshi. He works as a conductor and composer in Europe and Japan.

Since conducting Luigi Nono's opera Prometeo (with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra) in 2000, Sugiyama has appeared at major international contemporary music festivals: Wien Modern, Festival d'Automne (Paris), Milano Musica, Verdi Festival (Parma), Settembre Musica and Suntory Summer Festival. He works with important orchestras and ensembles (including Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Arena di Verona, Tokyo Philarmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Orchester de Chambre de Genève, Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali Milano, Orchestra Friuli Venezia Giulia, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Izumi Sinfonietta, Orchestra Regionale Marchigiana, Orchestra Sinfonica della Repubblica di San Marino, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, Klangforum Wien, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, Remix Ensemble, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Alter Ego, Collegium Novum Zurich, Icarus Ensemble, Ensemble dell’Accademia della Scala, mdi ensemble).

Yoichi Sugiyama's compositions are performed at international festivals: Biennale di Venezia 2010 (Barcaruola II for ensemble), 2000 (Barcaruola I for viola and percussion, commissioned by the Biennale di Venezia); Milano Musica (Ruscello nel lago, commissioned by Milano Musica 2009), Beyond the Frontier (commissioned by Milano Musica 2003); Tiroler Festspiele Erl 2000 (Intermezzo III for piano, commissioned by Tiroler Festspiele Erl), Angelica Festival (Bologna), REC Festival d'Autunno and Takefu International Music Festival. His Divertimento I for ensemble (1997) is published by Casa Ricordi in Milan. In 2001 Sugiyama wrote Divertimento II for Bruno Canino's piano duo. The performances are regularly broadcast by NHK-FM, RAI and ORF, among others.

In 2014, Sugiyama was awarded the Keizo Saji Prize of the Suntory Foundation for Arts for Last Interview from Africa (dedicated to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the 2011 Fukushima disaster). In 1994, he received the Premio SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori) during a summer course with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Chigiana. He attended master classes and workshops with Luis de Pablo (Milan, 1996), György Ligeti (Novara, 1996), Adriano Guarnieri (Milan, 1996) and the London Sinfonietta (Tokyo, 1994).

Yoichi Sugiyama taught as an assistant in the composition courses of Franco Donatoni (1998) and Giacomo Manzoni (1999) in Tokyo. In 1995, he received a composition scholarship from the Italian government. Since then he has lived in Milan and teaches at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano "Claudio Abbado".

This album contains no booklet.