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The Cleveland Orchestra Performs Takemitsu’s Dream/Window

Sep. 07, 2010

Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra perform Dream/Window, Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s sonic image of the outward-inward duality of Kyoto, in three concerts on September 23 and 25 and October 1 in Cleveland’s Severance Hall.

Commissioned by the Kyoto Shinkin Bank as one movement of a trilogy celebrating the ancient Japanese metropolis, the title of Dream/Window derives from the Buddhist cognomen for a Zen priest, “The Most Reverend Muso,” where “mu” means “dream” and “so” means “window.”

In this piece, Takemitsu aims to “make the interior and the exterior sound simultaneously” through a spatial reinvention of the orchestra. He writes:

The disposition of the orchestra accordingly had to be considerably different from the ordinary, with a small ensemble of flute, clarinet and string quartet placed in the front center between the right and left string groups. But this is not a concerto. The ensemble of small formation not only constitutes a part of the entire orchestra but in itself represents a microcosm symbolizing one complete orchestra, which may also be called an inner self. And in the center of the orchestra, four instruments (two harps, celesta and guitar) reveal a passage of transparent tone color, intermediating between the interior and the exterior. In the rear center are arranged the brasses, the woodwinds and the percussion.

Takemitsu’s music is enjoying a wide array of performances in North America this season including the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing Riverrun on November 5, 6, and 7 and the Vancouver Symphony performing Rain Coming in February and March of 2011. In addition, Takemitsu’s music will twice be heard in Carnegie Hall: first, during the Saito Kinen Festival in December of 2010, and then in March of 2011, when Tokyo’s NHK Symphony performs Takemitsu’s Green under the baton of guest conductor André Previn.

Visit www.clevelandorchestra.com for more on The Cleveland Orchestra’s performance.

To learn more about Toru Takemitsu, visit www.schott-music.com.

Toru Takemitsu
Dream/Window (1985)
3(2,3.pic, 3.afl.).3(3.ca).3(3.bcl).3(3.cbsn)-4.3.3.0-4perc-2hp.cel.gtr-fl-cl-string quartet-str
15'

Riverrun (1984)
for piano and orchestra
3(2.pic 3.afl).3(3.ca).3(2.Ebcl).bcl.3(3.cbsn)-4.tpt(D).2.3.0-timp.4perc-2hps.cel-str
14'

Rain Coming (1982)
for chamber orchestra
1(afl).1.1.1-1.1.1.0-perc-pno(cel)-str
10'

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