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World Premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's Arabesque

Apr. 03, 2018

World Premiere of Toshio Hosokawa's <em>Arabesque</em>

Toshio Hosokawa’s latest work, Arabesque will receive its world premiere by the trio Tre Voci (Marina Piccinini, flute, Kim Kashkashian, viola, and Sivan Magen, harp), at Jordan Hall in Boston on April 15. Tre Voci will also perform the work on the following day, April 16th at the College of Physicians (Philadelphia); on May 28, at Wigmore Hall in London for the UK premiere, and in August at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena for the Italian premiere. The composer notes:

"The Arabesque is an Arabian-style ornamental design.... The Arabesque I would like to draw with sounds draws two plant-like curves where the flute and viola have a yin-yang relationship. Yin-yang was the principle of cosmic creation of ancient China. In this principle, opposing elements create a lively universe and transform it by coexisting without killing each other. Behind the two lines, the harp provides and supports the place where those two instruments create sounds. I wanted to entrust the Arabesque, where eastern-like sounds are lively born, to these three instruments."


In addition, the esteemed Fauré Quartett will be touring the United States with a program that includes Hosokawa's The Water of Lethe. They begin their tour in Sedona, Arizona for the Sedona Spring Music Festival on April 8, followed by performances at the Lincoln Performance Hall in Portland, Oregon on April 9-10, in Utah for the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City on April 12, in Dallas, Texas for the Chamber Music Society of Dallas on April 16, and at the Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma on April 17.

The composer says of this work:

‘Lethe’ means ‘oblivion’ in ancient Greek. It is said that in Greek mythology there are several rivers flowing in the underworld; River Lethe is one of them, and the deceased drink the water from there to erase memories of their previous lives and to reset themselves for the reincarnation of their spirit. I would like to write music with neither a beginning nor an end, like a quietly flowing river, where sound is a metaphor for water. ‘On love, on grief, on every human thing, Time sprinkles Lethe’s water with his wing.’ (W. S. Landor)

Listen to Toshio Hosokawa's Vertical Song I (1995) here:


(Vertical Song I/Toshio Hosokawa/Toshio Suzuki, flute)

To learn more about Toshio Hosokawa, please visit schott-music.com.

Toshio Hosokawa
Arabesque (2018)
for flute, viola, and harp
18'

The Water of Lethe (2015-2016)
for violin, viola, cello and piano
13’

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