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US Premieres for Toshio Hosokawa and Toshi Ichiyanagi at Spoleto Festival

Apr. 27, 2012

US Premieres for Toshio Hosokawa and Toshi Ichiyanagi at Spoleto Festival

The Spoleto Festival USA, one of America’s premier performing arts festivals seated in historic Charleston, South Carolina, continues its dedication to new music this year with eight US and two world premiere performances. Two of the works to receive US premieres will be Toshio Hosokawa’s shimmering GartenLieder, and Toshi Ichiyanagi’s recent Symphony No. 8 (Revelation 2011). Both works, programmed on the Music in Time series, are performed by the Spoleto Festival Orchestra led by John Kennedy. The concert takes place May 27, at the Simons Center Recital Hall on the College of Charleston campus.

Commissioned in 1995 by conductor Hiroyuki Iwaki, Toshio Hosokawa’s Garten Lieder, for chamber orchestra, was premiered in Japan later that year by the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa conducted by Iwaki. Like many of Hosokawa’s works, Garten Lieder expresses themes concerning the vitality of nature. In an interview with William Robin of The New York Times, Hosokawa says of his music:

The calligraphy masters say that this space, where one cannot see - this silence, this white area - is just as important as linear movement. With my music, this silence, where one cannot hear, is also a part of the movement of sound energy.

Ichiyanagi, who emerged in the 1950s recognized particularly for his work in the avant-garde, composed his Symphony No. 8 (Revelation 2011) in response to the devastating Japanese earthquake in 2011. Commissioned by the Tokyo Sinfonietta and premiered in 2011 under the direction of Yasuaki Itakura, the work is written for chamber orchestra and represents a major shift in Ichiyanagi’s style.

Ichiyanagi comments:

This work has a subtitle‚ "Revelation 2011", which comes from my feelings about the shocking national disaster caused by the great earthquake and resulting tsunami that hit east Japan on March 11, 2011. This unprecedented experience has led me to consider my thoughts on Japan’s geographical features and on our way of living in the country. These thoughts focus my creative outlook as a composer and Symphony No. 8 is not only a turning point in my activities as a composer, but also marks a new way of thinking about my future works.

The program on May 27 will also include the US premiere of Somei Satoh’s Listening to Fragrances of the Dusk for string orchestra.

For more information on Toshio Hosokawa, visit his Schott composer profile at www.schott-music.com

Details on the work of Toshi Ichiyanagi are found at www.schott-music.com

Precise details on the Spoleto Festival performances can be found at www.spoletousa.org.

Toshi Ichiyanagi
Symphony No. 8 (2011)
"Revelation 2011" 
2(2.pic).1(ca).2(2.bcl).1-2.1.1.1-2perc(timp, b.d, xyl, mar, tam-t, cym)-pno-2.1.1.1.1
22' 

Toshio Hosokawa
Garten Lieder (1995, rev. 2003)
1(pic&afl).1(ca).2(2.bcl).1(cbsn)-2.1.0.0-2perc(2tam-t, gong, tub bells, b.d, 3sus cym, 4bng, vib, cym.ant)-pno-str(2.2.2.2.1 or 4.4.4.2.1)-ad lib. strings in the audience: 5.0.2.2.1
15'

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