Takemitsu From me flows what you call time and Shostakovitch Symphony No. 5

Takemitsu From me flows what you call time and Shostakovitch Symphony No. 5. Yutaka Sado conducts his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2011 at the Berlin Philharmonie.  The Takemitsu piece features the entire percussion section of the Philharmoniker:  Raphael Haeger, Simon Rössler, Franz Schindlbeck, and Jan Schlichte with Wieland Welzel (one of the timpani players). Directed by Michael Beyer; produced by Grete Liffers. This disc is restricted to Region A. It  has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B for Takemitsu  Grade: A+ for Shostakovich

This was a special performance to raise relief funds for the people of Japan following the earthquakes and tsunami of March 2011. The event took place on May 20, 2011. The title was released in Japan by NHK and by EuroArts in the West in the fall of 2011. We have already published a mini-review of the EuroArts version of this title. Please refer to that review for more general information.

This Japanese market version of the title appears from product descriptions on the Internet to have  exactly the same music as that published by Euroarts. The difference would be, of course, other artwork and the addition of package information written in Japanese.  It also appears that the sound on this recording, while excellent by general consumer standards, was not recorded with 96kHz/24 bit technology that is often used by NHK. So this would not be one of the audiophile recordings we have been enjoying from NHK. We give the same grade to the works on this title that we gave earlier in our review of the Euroarts version.

We would be happy to hear from anyone in Japan would could tell us more about this title. Here is a link for more information:

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6

Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 ("Pathétique"). Seiji Ozawa conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin in a disc aimed at the Japanese market (there's a little English on the keep case and the disc menu). It appears this title has not been distributed in Europe or the U.S. This is one of the very few video recordings made with 96 kHz/24 bit sound-sampling technology. (We would like to give credit here to the video director, director of photography, video editor, and the chief for audio recording for this title. But because we can't read Japanese, we don't know who they are or if they are named in the the product notes. Please help us with this information!) Released  2008, disc has 5.0 PCM sound.  Grade: X-APH.

This is one of  the very best recordings of a symphony ever made. Even though this was recorded far from Japan in Berlin, NHK made the investment to get an impeccable video. There was plenty of room for the cameras. The lighting in the Philharmonie building was expertly prepared to match the capabilities of the camera gear used. The PQ is outstanding with fine resolution, accurate color rendition and balance (observe how real the sheet music looks and how beautiful the skin tones are), no glare or reflections, and no picture or motion artifacts. Focus is always perfect and the depth of focus achieved is impressive.

Best of all, the video director planned his shooting carefully. He used  the flexible power of his cameras to get a pleasant (not hyperactive) mixture of shots of solos, small groups, small sections, large sections, and groups of sections as well as many of the whole orchestra---depending on what forces the Tchaikovsky commits at various places in the score. And, of course, there were good shots (but not too many) of the most expressive Ozawa throwing his all into the fray.

We will not forget, of course, that Ozawa was standing before one of the best orchestras in the world in their home venue. They seemed to be aware of the investment NHK was making in this, and they responded to Ozawa with their usual skill and with dramatic passion.

Recording the sound with 96 kHz/24 bit sampling technology gives this production a head start in audio fidelity over ordinary HDVDs. The  engineers managed to keep a "clean and clear" rendition of individual sounds while also building up  a "warm soundstage" for ensembles, sections, and the entire orchestra. Add to this remarkable dynamic variation in sound level and the result is a gripping trip in the home theater.

Subject disc is not the same performance as that of the Pathétique by Ozawa and the Berliner Philharmoniker published as a  part of the  Karajan Memorial Concert title. We will assume that the same orchestra and conductor would sound quite similar in playing the same piece in different places. Subject NHK performance has has distinctly superior PQ and SQ, so the result is a better performance of this piece than is found on the Karajan Memorial Concert.  But for those used to records on CD and DVD,  the  recording on the Karajan Memorial Concert disc is itself a huge step up. Most consumers would therefore opt for the Karajan Memorial Concert disc because you also get Anne Sophie Mutter in a fine recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Stated differently, for most people, 2 hours of fine music at $35 is a better deal than 1 hour of audiophile music which costs $108 with shipping to the U.S. (on December 24, 2011). 

The quality of subtect performance and recording would get an A+ if there were other similar music on the disc for, say, a two-hour program. But I grade this title "X-APH" because there is only one work on it.   I don't care how good it is---NHK will have to put more music on their Blu-ray offerings to sell to the general market. But if you are an audiophile, or a music professional with an interest in the state-of-the-art, or you have the money to always buy the best, then order this disc. If you don't know Japanese, you will have fun stumbling through the menus, but you can hack it. (BTW: we don't get a commission from amazon in Japan because we can't read that website well enough to sign up as a sales partner. But we still give you a button to get you started just below the end of this mini-review.)

My Way of Life

Tōru Takemitsu My Way of Life opera (better described perhaps as a staged concert spectacular). Directed 2005 by Peter Mussbach at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Main Hall and also staged at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.) Stars Dwayne Croft, Christine Oesterlein, Georgette Dee, Mélanie Fouché, Karen Rettinghaus, Kifu Mitsuhashi, Yukio Tanaka, Yasunori Yamaguchi, and Daisuke Suzuki. Kent Nagano conducts the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Tokyo Opera Singers. Set design by Erich Wonder; costumes by Eiko Ishioka; lighting by Alexander Koppelmann. This is a 2 disc set. Disc 1 is the HDVD recording of the opera. It has 5.1 PCM (48kHz/16 bit) and 5.1 Dolby Digital (48kHz/16 bit) surround sound. Disc 2 is an extremely valuable documentary about Takemitsu's life and the making of the high-definition recording of the opera. This was published in 2010, primarily for the Japanese market. But the disc menus and the box booklet have enough English text for an English-speaking person to navigate and enjoy the production. Oddly, when the characters sing or speak in Japanese or French, there are English subtitles. But when they use English, it's assumed that the English speaking viewer can understand and the subtitles are in Japanese only. But understanding the English being sung in such a strange setting as this is quite difficult, and I felt a bit frustrated about that. If the viewer commands neither Japanese nor English, this production will most likely remain a closed book. Manufactured in Japan, this title is now (March 2011) extremely expensive to buy in U.S. dollars. Grade: X-B+

I used to be a movie buff. I went through a "Japanese film" period, and my very favorite Nippon films were Harakiri, Ran, and Dohes'ka-den. When I first read about the Takemitsu My Way of Life opera, the name sounded vaguely familiar. Sure enough, Takemitsu wrote the soundtracks for all these films and maybe 100 more. But film music was only one aspect of Takemitsu's output: he was an internationally recognized leader in the avant-guard and esoteric field of "found sound" music. A self-taught genius, everything he wrote was in the vocabulary of sounds he found in his head, in nature, in instruments he invented, as the product of distortion and editing of musical tapes, and in everyday life. His output extended to western-style music (starting points Debussy, Messiaen, and Cage), eastern music and percussion works, and East-West fusion in a variety of serious and popular forms. A universal intellect, he was interested in graphics, painting, sculpture, film, costumes, and the like; he was also known in Japan as a celebrity chef! He was the first Japanese composer to attain fame in the West.

Takemitsu expressed interest in attempting a western-style opera, but his life was cut short at age 66 before he could start. My Way of Life is a review of 11 of his most popular works that was put together by his admirers after he died. (One of these works was titled "My Way of Life.") Because his life was so closely related to visual as well as aural arts, his followers wanted to link the presentation of the 11 titles to some kind of stage production that would illustrate Takemitsu's personality and outlook. I do not know who actually determined the "story line" and selected the images to be used on the stage. My best guess is that some aspects of the production can be directly linked to Takemitsu's life and work, and that some aspects are fantasies deemed appropriate by those who knew him. Here's my stab at the story: an ancient hag looks back on her life as a girl, then as an actress, and finally as an old woman; along the way, lots of weird stuff happens.

If you want to tackle this title, I suggest you first watch it semi-cold with the advantage of the reading the material in this mini-review. Then watch the DVD documentary, which probably will help you tremendously to get ready for your first real viewing of the piece. (I watched this absolutely cold, and I found the first viewing quite tedious.) Among the many bizarre things about this production is the fact that the taking of bows by the performers at the end is maybe the most interesting chapter on the HDVD---but I'll not spoil things by telling you why.

I feel now that this production does a good job of celebrating Takemitsu's music and introducing the newbie to it. I feel now that I have been thoroughly introduced to the life and word of this interesting composer. I doubt, however, that the "opera" aspects of this will be much staged in the future---if ever again. It could turn out that this HDVD will be the world's best memorial to Tōru Takemitsu. So for those interested in avant-guard music, buying this title could turn out to be something they "must do." Because this is such a peculiar title, I give it the grade of "X-B+." Here's a link to help you find a vendor for this:

Seiji Ozawa 75th Anniversary Box Set

Seiji Ozawa 75th Anniversary Box Set. This set has 5 Blu-ray jewel boxes:

1. Brahms Symphony No. 2 & Shostakovich Symphony No. 5. This is a superb HDVD that you can buy separately. We graded both titles A+ elsewhere on this site.

2. Janáček Cunning Little Vixen. This is a nice HDVD that you can buy separately. We graded it B+ elsewhere on this site. 

3. The Last Don Quixote. Mstislav Rostropovich and Seiji Ozawa playing Strauss's Don Quixote. This is a complicated two disc set. Disc 2 is the main show---a performance (43 minutes) of Don Quixote from 2002 with the Saito Kinen Orchestra. This performance has decent video and was recorded with 5.0 PCM 96 kHz/24 bit surround sound. Disc 1 is a strange mixed bag. It has a 1 hour, 15 minute documentary, with good video and 5.0 PCM 96 kHz/24 bit surround sound, about the Don Quixote recording. The documentary includes rehearsal video with a lot of personal information about Rostropovich. The documentary also has a fanciful Don Quixote movie (43 minutes) that illustrates the Cervantes story as told by Strauss in the tone poem. Then follows a 1995 concert with Rostropovich and the NHK Orchestra playing the Dvořák Concerto for Cello. This performance has remarkable good video but there is only stereo sound (which is quite good).

4. Beethoven Symphony No. 7/Mahler Symphony No. 9. This disc has material shot in 1989 & 2002 and does not meet our standards for an HDVD.

5. Extras Disc. This disc doesn't have an NSBS catalog number like the other disc packages because its just extras, including two short tutorials about western music from Ozawa & trailers for NHK HDVDs. This is all in Japanese with no subtitles. Some material is in SD & stereo. The value of this part of the set is nil for Japanese speakers and 0 for westerners.

So we can sum up the boxed set as follows: it has two fine titles (1 & 2 above) you can buy separately and an odd title (3 above) with a lot of material about the  Strauss Don Quixote  plus a recording of the Dvořák Concerto for Cello. Then there are two jewel boxes (4 & 5 above) you can throw away.  Here follows now a mini-review about The Last Don Quixote and another mini-review about the Ozawa 75th Anniversary Box Set

This mini-review of The Last Don Quixote was provided by William Huang in 2010: The Last Don Quixote two-disc Blu-ray set commemorates the friendship of Seiji Ozawa and Mstislav Rostropovich. On Disc 1 is a live 1995 performance of the Dvořák Cello Concerto. Also on Disc 1 is a generous documentary with extensive rehearsal shots as Rostropovich prepares for a 2002 performance of Richard Strauss' Don Quixote tone poem. Finally, Disc 1 has a "music video" for you to watch as you listen to the 2002 Don Quixote performance. Disc 2 has only one presentation: a live recording of the 2002 Strauss performance of Don Quixote. 

Let's look first at  Disc 1:     

1. Dvořák's Cello Concerto. In this live Suntory Hall performance, the sixty-seven year old Rostropovich still plays Dvořák's Cello Concerto with vigor, intelligence, and drama. The recording is very worth while even if it is not of full HDVD quality. There are a few rough edges in the first movement from both the soloist and orchestra. Rostropovich occasionally does not hit the center as precisely as he used to, and his level of assurance is a bit less compared to the EMI DVD with Giulini. But it is a live performance, and there are no glaring technical errors that break the spirit of the music. Rostropovich is fully warmed up by the time he plays the first movement coda, and the concert really takes off after that. While the NHK orchestra leaves some room to desire, the proactive players make a good effort to accompany the legendary soloist.

2. Sarabande. As an encore to Dvořák's Cello Concerto, Rostropovich plays the Bach Sarabande in D minor in memory of 5,000 victims of the Kobe earthquake. He turns in an inspired, touching performance. After watching this concert, I [William Huang] viewed the same Sarabande on his 1991 Bach EMI DVD. What a contrast! The analogue video quality was abysmal, like a cheap camcorder recording a dark room. More importantly, the NHK performance was more sublime than Rostropovich's earlier and more famous EMI video. 

3. Our subject 1995 film features more logical camera work than the EMI DVD release directed by Hugo Kach. When we see Rostropovich in our film, it's usually a good shot. Although the cameraman sometimes lingers on the woodwinds and Rostropovich's back too long, it's not disastrous like the mannered mess that Kach filmed years ago with its chaotic montage of headshots and irrelevant, claustrophobic shots of everyone else. The crisp picture of this 1995 Blu-ray resurrects a healthy, energetic Rostropovich. Surprisingly, the 1995 video is in higher definition than the later 2002 Strauss performance. Seiji's magnificent mop of hair is clearer in this earlier performance, and we can see sweat-beads drop off the musicians.

4. Documentary. Also on the first disc is a 2002 documentary with interviews and rehearsal footage of Rostropovich preparing Don Quixote. There is invaluable material here as Rostropovich eloquently describes, with demonstrations on both piano and cello, the development of Strauss's mastepiece. 

5. Strauss Music Video. The music video is not very successful. It uses dated computer animations and generally inept re-enactments to illustrate Cervantes' masterpiece. The obscure Georgian director does not deliver a visual interpretation worthy of Cervantes or Strauss. A more recommended exercise would be to view Gustave Dore's Don Quixote illustrations while listening to Rostropovich's superior 1975 EMI recording.

Now let's consider Disc 2 of The Last Don Quixote. This 2002 Japanese performance of Don Quixote has more balanced camera work than Rostropovich's 1975 collaboration with Herbert von Karajan on Deutsche Grammophon. But the cellist is past his prime in 2002 (whereas his powers were merely on the decline in the 1995 Dvořák discussed earlier). It is remarkable that at age 75 Rostropovich can play through this whole difficult work by heart, but his playing is labored and dry. Don Quixote is fiendishly complex work. It's more a symphony than a showcase piece for a soloist, and it requires all players to be in top form. It's a very cerebral piece that also requires a varied emotional palette. While the Saito Kinen Orchestra is well rehearsed in this performance, they don't reach the brilliant, moody heights achieved by the Berlin Philharmonic playing Don Quixote under von Karajan. [End of comments from William Huang]

We now begin our mini-review of the entire 5-disc boxed set: What should  make of this mess? There were rumors that the Rostropovich disc would be issued separately. But now it appears you will have to buy the boxed set to get it. So should you do this? Even though Slava was maybe past his prime in 1995 when the Concerto for Cello was recorded,the expert opinion of William Huang is that this recording is well worth having. Rostropovich was 7 years older in 2002 when the Don Quixote project was recorded. But this was part of the master's retirement celebration, and he was fired up. The Don Quixote material has good PQ and SQ. We don't want to forget that Rostropovich was more than a great musician. He was a great Russian patriot and dissident (when that was still dangerous) and suffered exile from his homeland. The more I [Henry McFadyen, Jr.] watched, the more impressed I was by his humanity, his generosity, how much fun he was having working on the concert disc and the (basically goofy) movie version of Don Quixote. I was a newbie to Don Quixote. It's a delightful piece, and I'm glad I learned quite a bit about it from Slava! True, the NHK disc authorship of the Rostropovich package is chaotic. But I'm glad I have it, and I give it the grade of "B+." If you have a special interest in Rostropovich as a man, then you would probably treasure this Rostropovich package.

Now let's look again at the 5-disc boxed set. There are only 3 HDVD titles worth having: the Brahms Symphony No. 2 & Shostakovich Symphony No. 5, the Janáček Cunning Little Vixen, and Rostropovich package. At one point in 2010 I checked the pricing of these items on amazon.co.jp. To buy the boxed set, you would pay roughly the same as what it would cost to buy the three good titles separately. So if you wanted the Rostropovich title, it could make sense to buy the set. These discs are too expensive, but NHK is giving you audiophile sound quality in the better recordings. If you have already bought one or both of the other two desirable HDVD titles, you would be  out of luck. Maybe you could  buy the boxed set and sell your extra titles on ebay. I have to give the boxed set a grade: I'll call it "X-C."

Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 and Sommernachtstraum

Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 and Sommernachtstraum or Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream. Seiji Ozawa conducts a 20th-year anniversary concert of his Japanese Mito Chamber Orchestra in 2009 at the Mito Art Tower. Yu Kosuge is the piano soloist. For the Sommernachtstraum the orchestra is joined by soprano Akiko Nakajima, mezzo Katherine Rohrer,  ladies of the Tokyo Opera Singers (Chorus master: Masanori Mikawa), and narrator Yukiyoshi Ozawa (Seiji's son, an actor). The information in the collector's booklet is 99+% in Japanese, but there are nice subtitles in English. Disc has 5.0 PCM 96kHz/24 bit sound. Grade: A

Two of the most delicious confections from the Mendelssohn Konditorei! Kosuge had as much fun playing the piano as I had watching her. The A Midsummer Night's Dream music is complete with the Overture (written when Mendelssohn was 17) and the Incidental Music (written when Mendelssohn was 35). I was familiar with this music from the A Midsummer Night's Dream Ballet recorded by the Pacific Northwest Ballet and issued in HDVD by Opus Arte. I guessed that the soloists and singers on that disc were rendering poetry from Shakespeare, but I could not follow it. On the Mito Chamber Orchestra disc, subtitles for the poetry are provided in Japanese and English! Also, the music pauses from time to time for narration by Yukiyoshi Ozawa (subtitles in English), which gives the Japanese audience some inkling about what goes on in Shakespeare's complicated play of fairies, lovers, and weddings. My daughter, who prefers rock music, did burst into the home theater, mouth agape, at the sound of the famous wedding march. Finally, there is, as a bonus selection, a tender rendition of the Bach Air from Orchestral Suite in D major.

One benefit from seeing classical concerts in HDVD is that you get to know the individual musicians! In this recording I recognized maybe 8 players from the Saito Kinen Orchestra featured on the NHK HDVD of the Mahler Symphony No. 1 and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique. The Mito group has a lady tympani player, something I never saw before.

The quality of the music making is high and impressive considering short history of Western music in Japan. The video and sound recording is excellent. This is the only HDVD I know of that goes into technical specifications in detail in the keep case booklet (none of which I can read, of course). The only reservation I could have about this disc is its cost. It's probably a luxury item even in Japan. The exchange rate (December 2009) now against the yen would make this quite expensive for most consumers outside Japan. NHK knows this, of course, and the disc is not intended to compete with vendors like Opus Arte or Decca. So I grade this title as an "A" with no markdown for high cost. Maybe NHK could compete outside Japan by including more music on their titles.

Please help us by writing a comment that we can place here as a mini-review of this title. It would be wonderful if someone could translate into English the technical specs that NHK presents in the keep case booklet. If you would like to buy this title, here's a link to a vendor:

Eugene Onegin

Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin opera to a libretto by Konstantin Shilovsky. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Tokyo Opera Nomori Orchestra. Grade: Help!

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The Cunning Little Vixen

Leoš Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen opera to libretto by the composer. Directed 2008 by Laurent Pelly. Stars singers Isabel Bayrakdarian, Quinn Kelsey, Judith Christin, Dennis Petersen, Kevin Langan, Dale Travis, Lauren Curnow, Tomo Matsubara, Yayoi Masuda, Marie Lenormand, Mayumi Kuroki, and Mayumi Makino. Stars dancers Jo Kanamori, Shintaro O-ue, Masahiro Yanagimoto, Shintaro Hirahara, Minoru Harata, Yoshimitsu Kushida, Sawako Iseki, Kaori Terasaka, Natsumi Tokoro, Erina Yamai, Harumi Takeuchi, and Ayako Nakano. Also stars the Tokyo Opera Singers and the SKF Matsumoto Children's Chorus. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra. Costumes by Laurent Pelly; set by Barbara de Limburg Stirum; lighting by Peter van Praet; choreographed by Lionel Hoche. This title is also available as part of the Seiji Ozawa 75th Anniversary Box Set. Released 2010, disc has 5.0 PCM sound.   Grade: B+

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