Bugaku is ballet music commissioned by the New York City Ballet, which premiered in New York in 1963 with choreography by George Balanchine.
Composer Biography
Mayuzumi's father was a sea-captain, whose frequent absence during the composer's early life nurtured Mayuzumi's yearning for the exotic and influenced his music.
Composition History
Mayuzumi's Symphonic Mood, his first orchestral work, was completed in 1950 and premiered by Hisatada Odaka and the Nihon Symphony Orchestra (now NHK Symphony Orchestra).
Composer's Artistic Vision
Mayuzumi's Mandala Symphony was inspired by Buddhist ideas, aiming to create an audible mandala to perceive the truth of maha-vairocana in nine stages.
Composer's Artistic Vision
For Symphonic Mood, Mayuzumi aimed to express a universal human nostalgia, using a 'southern, tropical mood' which he found both primitive and artistic.
Composition History
Rumba Rhapsody, completed in 1948, was intended for Mayuzumi's orchestral debut, but its main material was used for Symphonic Mood, causing it to fall into oblivion until this recording.
Composer Biography
Toshiro Mayuzumi, one of Japan's most important post-WWII composers, was born in Yokohama, a city less bound by Japanese traditions due to its history.
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