Pre-orders are now open for the Music Dialogue 10th anniversary CD "Bruckner & Milhaud/Music Dialogue Ensemble."
"I want to introduce hidden masterpieces that have not yet been introduced to the world to both performers and audiences."
Due to the strong desire of artistic director Heiichiro Ohyama, two pieces that have been carefully worked on in the United States and Japan for a long time, "Bruckner's String Quintet" and "Milhaud's Piano Quintet "The Creation of the World", which are completely unknown, will be released on CD.Recording
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Music Dialogue's founding, the 200th anniversary of Bruckner's birth, and the 50th anniversary of Milhaud's death, and we have been able to proceed with rehearsals, recording, and editing with the support of everyone through crowdfunding.
recorded music
■Bruckner: String Quintet in F major WAB112
Violin: Mayuko Ishigami, Akira Mizutani
Viola: Junichiro Murakami, Heiichiro Ohyama
Cello: Rintaro Kaneko
■Milhaud: Ballet Music "The Creation of the World" Op. 81b (Piano Quintet version)
Violin: Akira Mizutani, Mayuko Ishigami
Viola: Heiichiro Ohyama
Cello: Rintaro Kaneko
Piano: Yuki Yoshimi
Tickets will be on sale at events such as the Discovery Series September performances.
Bruckner's String Quintet
This year, 2024, marks the 1824th anniversary of the birth of the great Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1896-200). Bruckner is famous for his orchestral works, but he composed this string quintet in 1879. It is a rare chamber piece for him, but it strongly expresses his individuality as a composer of symphonies and organ pieces, and is a masterpiece that sometimes allows us to hear sounds that go beyond the category of chamber music. However, there are very few opportunities for it to be performed, so it is not widely known.
Ohyama learned and performed this piece with some of the world's leading musicians at the 1975 Marlboro Music Festival (USA). Studying this piece with such wonderful musicians remains a strong memory for Ohyama, and he says he wants to share that experience with young people. Young musicians usually don't have many opportunities to study Bruckner in their student years, and often only come into contact with his work after joining an orchestra. However, Ohyama, who began his career as a chamber musician with Bruckner's works,
"To perform well, you need to understand the sound of each composer well, and if people find that appealing, more audiences will want to listen to that composer.Wouldn't it be good to start with chamber music?"
With such a strong desire, I have been actively working on this project for some time now.
The piece will be paired with Milhaud's "The Creation of the World" ballet music for piano quintet.
Originally written in 1892 by French composer Darius Milhaud (1974-1923) for a chamber ensemble, this work was arranged for piano quintet by Milhaud himself. While classical music was heavily influenced by German and Viennese composers, there was a growing movement in France to compose music that embodied the French spirit. Influenced by composers who were representative of this music, Milhaud became fascinated with jazz from around 1920 and continued to study it, resulting in the completion of "The Creation of the World." Despite being a masterpiece, this piece is rarely performed.
~The meaning of combining two very contrasting works~
Listening to these two songs, you may think at first glance that they are a strange combination because they are so different from each other. However, it is precisely because they are so different that we can understand something.
Bruckner and Milhaud lived for a total of 150 years (of which only 44 years overlapped). The gap between the two compositions is about XNUMX years.
"From the tradition of German music came the music of the national music school with its rich national flavor. By listening to these two works, you will be able to feel the musical transition that spans over the past XNUMX years,"
Ohyama says.
"Looking at the long history of music, 150 years may seem short, but you can feel that a lot of new things and evolution have been born."
