Search - Toru Takemitsu, Roger Woodward :: Takemitsu: Corona; For Away; Piano Distance; Undisturbed Rest

The reissue of a significant Takemitsu recording from 1973 -

Discophage | France | 07/13/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In the last decade of the LP era, Decca Head was an interesting label published by British Decca and devoted contemporary music. It had very few installments - I've been able to retrace no more than 21 releases, including three double-LPs - but each was significant. They offered Antal Dorati's essential premiere recording of Messiaen's "Des Canyons aux Etoiles", Roberto Gerhard's opera "The Plague" and Dallapiccola's "Il Prigioniero" with again Dorati heading the Washington Opera forces, Birtwistle's "Punch & Judy" and more.



A number of these Decca Head recordings have been reissued on CD (not Il Prigioniero, inexplicably, along with, if my count is right, six others), including a number in the early 1990s by Decca/London in their "Entreprise" series. Now Explore has picked up a few of them. I've reviewed the fine Xenakis (Decca Head 13, Xenakis: Synaphai; Aroura; Antikhthon) and Panufnik (Decca Head 22, Panufnik: Sinfonia Mistica, Sinfonia di Sfere) discs. This Takemitsu piano music played by Roger Woodward was Decca Head 4.



The major drawback with these Explore reissues is that they are straight from the LPs, with a TT that is frustratingly short for a CD: 41:26 for this one. The passage to CD also entailed the loss of the photos and part of the liner notes contained in the original LP insert, especially a short note by Takemitsu himself describing the compositions (the CD liner notes are a bit misleading on some details). The disc contains four pieces, including the substantial Corona (22:30). This composition from 1962 is actually called "Corona for pianist(s)" and is a graphic score, consisting of five sheets of paper with differently colored circles containing instructions and symbols, each concerning a different parameter of the music (articulation, vibration, intonation, expression, conversation): it is left to the performer (or performers, as any number of pianists can take part) to decide how they will be combined. So each performance is unique, and therefore this specific realization is called "London Version". Here Woodward has combined two pianos, harpsichord and organ, over-dubbing himself, and, re the liner notes, "has borrowed pitch-material from other Takemitsu works".



Whoever the composer of this recording may be, Toru Woodward or Roger Takemitsu, the result is beautifully atmospheric and evocative; it also strikingly evokes the piano music of George Crumb, as - whether prescribed by Takemitsu or through his own decision - Woodward uses many playing techniques developed by the Virginian composer, like (I'm playing by ear) harping the piano strings directly or striking a string while altering its tone and timbre by placing a finger on it. The organ adds the sound of a slow-moving pedal (sounding very much like tape music) and the harpsichord its own, eerie tintinnabulations. The melodic material is based on the repetition of very simple intervals. The effect is quite hypnotic.



The three pieces for "normal" piano - For Away (1973), Piano Distance (1961) and Undistrubed Rest (1952) - are shorter, and not as interesting I find. The terseness harks back to Webern or post-Webern serial music, the play on liquid resonance to Messiaen.



While there wasn't much by way of competition when this recording first came out, it is not the same now and the market is replete with CDs purporting the contain Takemitsu's complete piano output - although none seem to contain exactly the same thing, and only Roger Woodward's "complete piano works" made for the Dutch label Etcetera in 1991 seems to contain another version of Corona - but not exactly: the listing is "Corona & Crossing (2 Works Combined In A Live Performance)" played by Roger Woodward/Rolf Gehhaar (see Toru Takemitsu: Complete Piano Works (1952-1989)).



Good sound, a little bit of tape hiss which I do not find obtrusive. This recording has a certain historical significance, but given the CD's short timing, approach with caution.



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