TOSHI ICHIYANAGI+TORU TAKEMITSU+JOJI YUASA LP AVANT-JPN

$

70

AKI TAKAHASHI

TOSHI ICHIYANAGI / TORU TAKEMITSU / JOJI YUASA / YUJI TAKAHASHI / YORI-AKI MATSUDAIRA

 PIANO SPACE 1 LP

EMI Angel Japan

Rare japanese original with works from Toshi Ichiyanagi, Toru Takemitsu, Joji yuasa, Yuji Takahasi & Matsudaira performed by Aki Takahashi.

Some info on the release:  Very rare original issue, released in Japan sometime in the 70's on the EMI Angel label. Features experimental / avant-garde works from prominent japanese composers Toshi Ichiyanagi, Toru Takemitsu, Joji Yuasa, Yuji Takahashi and Matsudaira. Uninterrupted Rests (1952) and Piano Distance (1961) recorded at the Setagaya Community Hall, August 10, 1972. Allotropy For Pianist (1970) recorded at the Setagaya Community Hall, August 9, 1972. On The Keyboard (1972) recorded at the Setagaya Community Hall, September 19, 1972. Piano Media (1972) recorded at the Setagaya Community Hall, August 10, 1972. Maeander (1973) recorded at Toshiba Studio #1, July 9, 1973.

Yuji Takahashi was born in Tokyo in 1938, where he studied composition with Minao Shibata and Roh Ogura, and piano with Hiroshi Ito. In 1961, he made a sensational debut at a modern music festival sponsored by the Nippon Broadcasting Company, substituting at the last minute for the regularly scheduled soloist. This marked his emergence as a leading exponent of new piano music. The start of his career as a composer can be traced to 1962 and a piece for electronics and twelve instruments. At about the same time, along with fellow composers Toshi Ichiyanagi and Kenji Kobayashi, he organized an ensemble for new music, the New Directions group. For many years, Takahashi was known, along with only a few other pianists - David Tudor, Aloys Kontarsky, Helffer, Woodward, Jacobs, Frederic Rzewski - as someone able to decipher and play the most difficult new works for piano. Iannis Xenakis wrote both Herma and Eonta for Takahashi. Takahashi premiered Herma in Tokyo in February of 1962 and Eonta in December, 1964 in Paris, with Pierre Boulez conducting. Takahashi also gave the premieres of a number of works by Toru Takemitsu – Piano Distance (1961), Corona (1962), Arc (1963), and Asterism (1969). Among the recordings that Takahashi has made as a pianist, are the complete works of Schoenberg, Webern and Berg, music by Messiaen (solo pieces, also Visions de la Amen with Peter Serkin), Xenakis, John Cage,  Rzewski, Na, Cornelius Cardew, Takemitsu, the Indonesian composer Selamat A. Sjukur, Earle Brown, and Roger Reynolds.

Although Toshi Ichiyanagi is currently best know to the wider world as Yoko Ono’s first husband, he will surely be regarded in the future as Japan’s great herald of the John Cage school of chance and non-intentioned music. Born in the port city of Kobe, in 1933, Ichiyanagi studied composition under Cage while studying at New York’s Juilliard Conservatory between 1954 and 1960. During that period, he also studied piano with Barnhard Weiser, Beveridge Webster and Chieko Hara, and won the prestigious Elizabeth A. Coolidge Prize. While still a Juilliard student, Ichiyanagi made his debut public performance, in December 1954, with ‘Sonata’, a piano and violin duet on which he was joined by violinist/composer Kenji Kobayashi. Here is my attempt at a brief repository of his works, though I cannot ensure that it is entirely complete:

In 1960, Ichiyanagi composed a fifteen minute piece employing electric metronomes ‘in addition to other sound-making objects and instruments’. However, ‘Music For Metronomes’ was not recorded until 1998, when a performance by the quintet Ensemble Nomad was finally captured, at the Kimitsu Shimin Bunka Hall, at Chiba, Japan. ‘Music for Piano No. 3’ was written in 1960. A solo piano piece of 9.21 duration, it was first recorded in 1980 for the Denon Records LP TRANSFORMATION OF PIANO. The duet ‘Music For Piano No. 4’ was written in 1960. However, it was not recorded until 1998, when the piece was performed by the composer and pianist Yuji Takahashi at the Kimitsu Shimin Bunka Hall, in Chiba. At the same session, Takahashi also tackled the 1961 composition ‘Music For Piano No. 6’, making its debut on to record. ‘For Strings’ was composed in 1961, but this almost eight minute piece was not recorded until September 1998, when it was performed by violinist Kenji Kobayashi at the Kimitsu Shimin Bunka Hall, in the Japanese town of Chibu. These last three compositions were written also to be performed simultaneously. ‘Duet’ was composed in 1961 for violin and piano. However, the piece was not recorded until September 1998, when violinist Kenji Kobayashi and pianist Yuji Takahashi performed it at Kimitsu Shimin Bunka Hall, in Chiba. ‘Parallel Music’ was a nine minute long electronic piece written in 1962. It was premiered as a radio broadcast by NHK, in October ’62. ‘String Quartet No. 1’ was written in 1964, and is of flexible length. Its first performance took place in Tokyo, in May 1966, performed by the New Direction Quartet. ‘Music For Living Space’ was a ten minute long electronic piece composed for EXPO ’70, in 1970. The piece had its premiere at the Osaka Theme Pavilion. ‘Music For Piano No. 6’ was a piano solo written in 1961, and performed that same year in New York by Ichiyanagi himself. ‘Life Music’ was written in 1964, for orchestra and tape recorder. This 16.45 piece was released in 1968 on the Victor Records LP ORCHESTRAL SPACE VOLUME 1.

Condition: Vinyl lies in excellent- condition, looks super clean with the exception of a light mark at the begging of side a:, but plays with light crackle, while cover lies only very good condition with small tear on top (see picture) plus splits on top & bottom right corners.

Tracklist

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