Juilliard Focus: Nippon Gendai Ongaku: Japanese Music since 1945

Friday evening was the opening night of the 2015 Juilliard Focus Festival whose theme this year was Nippon Gendai Ongaku: Japanese Music since 1945.  Due to schedule conflicts, this was unfortunately the only concert in the series I was able to attend.  The irony is that I have always had a deep interest in Japanese culture and have long complained how rarely that country's serious music is heard here in the U.S.  In fact, several works on yesterday's program had never before been performed in this country.

In general, I found this musical presentation to be radically different from any I had previously heard.  What distinguishes an encounter with Japanese culture, whether it be in music or literature, is that one soon realizes he (or she) is up against a totally different way of thinking and of perceiving reality.  This is the real attraction of Japanese art - the opportunity to leave behind the Western traditions to which one has become accustomed in favor of a new and entirely unfamiliar vision.  At the same time, this makes any description of the music heard extremely difficult because one lacks a point of reference with which to compare it.

The program opened with the U.S. premiere of Misato Mochizuki's 1999 La chambre claire ("The Luminous Room").  According to the composer, this ethereal piece was based on the book of the same name, available in English translation as Camera Lucida, by Roland Barthes.  To oversimplify, Barthes's work is an attempt to at once analyze photographs in both a cultural (studium) and personal (punctum) context; as is the case with most such writing, it says more about its author and his preoccupations than it does about photography itself.  Nor, to be honest, did I feel that the present musical work had much to do with photography either.  That being said, it was still a highly original and enjoyable piece.

The next work, another U.S. premiere, was Toshio Hosokawa's Voyage X – Nozarashi (2009) for shakuhachi and ensemble.  This was by far the most interesting piece on the program as it was the only one in which traditional Japanese instruments were combined with those used by Western orchestras.  The only similar experience I'd had was when I'd once heard the NHK Orchestra perform at Carnegie Hall Takemitsu's 1967 November Steps for shakuhachi, biwa and orchestra.  Here the sounds of the traditional Japanese instruments blended with those of the Western orchestra in an evocative and haunting manner.  Marco Lienhard, the soloist, was a true master of the shakuhachi and did much to contribute to the success of this performance.

This was followed by Somei Satoh's The Last Song (2005) for baritone and ensemble.  This work was the most Western in form of all those on the program and perhaps for that very reason of less interest to me than the rest.  I was reminded of those yōga works created by Japanese painters at the turn of the twentieth century that sought to use Western techniques in depicting native subject matter.  

After intermission came the performance of Michio Mamiya's Piano Concerto IV, “Scenes of an Unborn Opera” (1997).  This marked the first occasion on which the work had been heard outside Japan.  It had a bizarre dissonant beginning that gradually grew more genial as the work neared its end.  Pianist Robert Fleitz was outstanding throughout as the soloist on a very difficult piece during which he more often seemed to be playing against the orchestra rather than with it.

The program closed with Akira Nishimura's Orgone (2005).  Despite an explanatory note by the composer, I have to admit the relationship between this music and Wilhelm Reich's controversial theories completely escapes me.  Still, it did provide for a very original title.  What I did note was a very deft use of percussion to create unusual effects.

The entire series was curated by Joel Sachs who last season did such tremendous work in organizing an appraisal of Schnittke's music alongside that of his closest associates.  Judging by the performance of his students, Sachs is also an excellent coach.  Everyone involved did a fantastic job.  As I listened, I wondered if it were more difficult for the students to learn pieces that had such a different provenance than the Western works they ordinarily studied.

One great feature of the Focus series is the extensive program note booklet that accompanies each concert and provides an in depth introduction to the music performed.  This is useful at any musical event, of course, but is essential at the Focus series where the music is so unfamiliar to Western audiences.  The notes also include an interesting historical essay by Alex Shiozaki entitled "The Arrival of Western Music in Japan" that details the incorporation of Western elements into Japanese music prior to 1945.