Into The Music

For the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, gardens provided both a source of inspiration and a metaphor for his music. This portrait of the great Japanese composer combines the words of friends and family, sounds from Takemitsu's favourite Kyoto gardens and examples from his concert music and film scores, as well as a specially recorded performance of his guitar arrangement of the Beatles' Yesterday.

I can imagine a garden superimposed over the image of an orchestra. A garden is composed of various different elements and sophisticated details that converge to form a harmonious whole. Each element does not exert its individuality, but achieves a state of anonymity - and that is the kind of music that I would like to create...Toru Takemitsu

Appearing in this feature are the composer's daughter Maki, conductors Oliver Knussen and Marin Alsop, composers Dai Fujikura and Joji Yuasa, musician David Sylvian, film makers Shinoda Masahiro and Peter Grilli and Tokyo gardener Ryutaro Takahara . It was recorded in the last spring hours before the arrival of sakura (cherry blossom season) in Tokyo. Like its subject, whose voice is also heard in the program courtesy of an archival recording, it's an elegant, gentle and humorous feature.

Readers: Emma Fielding, Simon Poland and Jonathan Keeble
Researchers: Mitsuko Ono and Jyunichi Konuma
Fixer/interpreter: Mai Nishiyama
Producer: Alan Hall, a Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3
Nominated in the Music Special category in the 2008 Sony Radio Academy Awards.

Music details:

Music recorded for this program:
Folios for guitar - 2 clips, total: 0'57
Daisuke Suzuki (rec. 22.3.07, Tokyo)

Yesterday, L & Mc arr. TT 0'57
Daisuke Suzuki (rec. 22.3.07, Tokyo)

Commercial music:
(all by Takemitsu, pub. Schott Japan Co Ltd, unless otherwise indicated)

Waltz (from Face of Another) - 2 clips, total: 2'54
Naxos 8.557760 tr. 5
Bournemouth SO/Marin Alsop

Music from 'Rikyu' 0'57
Nonesuch 7559 79404 2 tr. 1
Anon Orch
Pub. Shochiku Music Publishing

Lenoir: Parlez-moi d'amour 1'25
ASV CD AJA 5028 tr. 5
Sung by Lucienne Boyer with orch. cond. B Codolban
Pub. Hopwood & Crew/MCPS

Requiem for strings 1'26
Denon CO 79441 tr. 1
Tokyo Metropolitan SO cond. Hiroshi Wakasugi

Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) Trad. arr. Takemitsu 1'09
Shin-Yu Kai Choir cond. Shin Sekiya
Philips 438 135 2 tr. 1

Spirit Garden 1'42
Bournemouth SO/Alsop
Naxos 8.557760 tr. 1

Viola Concerto (A String Around Autumn) 3'21
Saito Kinen Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa
Philips 432 176 2 tr. 3

David Sylvian: Backwaters 1'42
(from Brilliant Trees)
EMI 363 072 2 tr. 6
Pub. Opium (Arts) Ltd

Rain Tree Sketch II In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen 0'34
Megumi Fujita (piano)
ASV CD DCA 1120 tr. 11

Music of Training and Rest (from 'Jose Torres') 0'59
Bournemouth SO/Alsop
Naxos 8557760 tr. 3

In an Autumn Garden 1'39
Music Department, Imperial Household
DG 471 590 2 tr. 1

Music from 'Banished Orin' 1'11
Anon Orch
Nonesuch 7559 79404 2 tr. 6

A Flock Descends in to the Pentagonal Garden 1'33
Boston SO/Ozawa
DG 477 5381 tr. 2

Rain Tree Sketch 5'58
Roger Woodward
Etcetera KTC 1103

Online listening bonus: Jarman's Garden
Like the Takemitsu portrait, this radio piece touches on gardens, films and memory. Hear songlike impressions of a garden and a house, based on recordings made at Prospect Cottage near the nuclear power station in Dungeness, Kent, where film maker Derek Jarman made his final home.

Download Audio (12.5 MB mp3)

Original music by Chris Abrahams
Produced by Sherre DeLys
Sound engineer Andrei Shabunov