Natsuda / Nodaira / Hosokawa: Japanese Saxophone Music

Featuring

Claude Delangle
Jean Geoffroy
Odile Delangle
Masakazu Natsuda
Ichiro Nodaira
Fuminori Tanada

Toshio Hosokawa
Tōru Takemitsu
Yoshihisa Taira
Joji Yuasa
Karen Tanaka

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Historical Context

This album's selection of works is motivated by the resurgence of traditional Japanese music in contemporary compositions and the influence of Western cultures on Japanese composers.

Performer Biography

Odile Delangle, the pianist on this album, has been a professor of piano at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris since 1978 and has performed across Europe, Japan, and the USA.

Composer's Artistic Vision

A key aspect of Japanese musical creation is the love of sound, color, and working with acoustical phenomena.

Compositional Technique

The saxophone, with its varied forms and cultures, is considered well-suited to adapt to the expressive devices of the shakuhachi (a Japanese end-blown flute), sharing characteristics like wide vibrato and glissando.

Performer Biography

Claude Delangle is a leading figure in the saxophone world, serving as President of the International Association for the Development of the Saxophone and the International Saxophone Committee.

Performer Biography

Claude Delangle, the saxophonist on this album, was chosen by Pierre Boulez (a renowned French composer and conductor) as the saxophone soloist for the Ensemble InterContemporain in 1986.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Toru Takemitsu, a largely self-taught composer, aimed to blend traditional Japanese and Western musical paths, allowing their 'fundamentally unreconcilable elements' to interact rather than dissolve.