TOSHIO HOSOKAWA — Solo

TOSHIO HOSOKAWA Solo Klangforum Wien © KazIshikawa Toshio Hosokawa (*1955 ) 1 “Haiku” for Pierre Boulez ( 2000 / 2003 ) to his 75 th birthday – for piano 03:49 2 Spell Song ( 2015 ) for oboe 04:42 Small Chant ( 2012 ) 3 dedicated to Mr. Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi for his 70 th birthday for violincello 05:00 2 Japanese Folk Songs ( 2003 ) 4 Falling Cherry Blossoms 05:35 5 Lullaby of Itsuki 03:02 6 Extasis ( rev. Version 2020 ) for violin 09:41 Voice ( 2020 ) 7 for trombone 07:13 Commissioned by Klangforum Wien and funded by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung 8 Edi ( 2009 ) 1 Florian Müller, piano for clarinet 06:22 2 Markus Deuter, oboe 3 Benedikt Leitner, violoncello 9 Senn VI ( 1993 ) 4 5 Virginie Tarrête, harp for percussion 10:01 6 Annette Bik, violin 7 Andreas Eberle, trombone 8 Olivier Vivarés, clarinet TT 55:30 9 Lukas Schiske, percussion 3 “My music is a calligraphy of space and time, taking the form of sounds.” Toshio Hosokawa According to Hosokawa, in the Euro- pean musical tradition a sound is only part of a whole, whereas in Japanese music, a sound represents a landscape; it is always followed by a pause, then another sound and a pause. The Japanese composer studied composition and classical piano in To- kyo, always guided by the traditions of western classical music. His passion was for Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Webern; he never much liked his mother’s koto playing – these typi- cal sounds of the Japanese zither, always slightly counter to the rhythms and pitch of the singing voice that it accompanies. Only when he started his studies with Isang Yun and Klaus Huber, who became his teachers in Berlin and Freiburg, did he gain in- sight into the traditional Japanese music. Far from his country of origin, he discovered the beauty and spiritual- ity of Asian music. This was followed by an intense exploration of the vari- ous styles in Japanese music and pro- vided the crucial impulse for the devel- opment of Hosokawa’s characteristic sound language. 4 Thus he created ever more elaborate sition stands for the brush strokes of which – in shamanic prayers – medi- forms of encounter between west- Far Eastern calligraphy and Indian ink ates between the worlds. According to ern avant-garde and the aesthetics of painting. “These brush strokes derive Hosokawa, the original form of music traditional Japanese music: Europe- their expression from the emptiness can be found in shamanism. In Japan’s an subjectivity coupled with an under- of the background. With his strokes earliest history, the Miko – female sha- standing of art informed by Buddhism of the brush, the calligrapher creates mans – attempted to merge with the as an almost ego-less “Path of Aware- a balance between the lines and this immense energies of the cosmos by ness”. He works with subtle differen- emptiness. Empty space implies a means of song in order to be able to tiations of fluid sounds, charts move- world that cannot be painted and must act as intermediary between the ma- ments that swell and subside, time and needs remain invisible, its sounds do terial and the spiritual worlds. The again including moments of silence or not reach our ears. It points to the voice sings the song that bridges the suffused stillness into his works. The realm of the unreal and of dreams; gap, reaching the higher powers. The feeling of time as it passes with each to the subconscious which harbours piece Voice for trombone, which was passing event, which characterises man’s limitless potential. Empty space commissioned by Klangforum Wien, occidental music, thus yields to an ex- is a hidden womb of natural energies carries this voice already in the title. perience of seemingly limitless time – which conceals our deepest possibil- In Spell Songs, Hosokawa imagines a close approximation to the ideas of ities.” Accordingly, the piece is com- music to be an expression of a high- Zen-Buddhism. Small Chant for vio- posed, above all, of silence and exact er power with which the human voice loncello, for instance, with its intricate gestural instructions for the prepara- can establish a connection. “Each combination of micro-tonal, horizontal- tion of the few, isolated sound-events – sentence in my song has the form of ly flowing movements and consonant just like an enlarged execution of short an Asiatic calligraphy; every sentence vertical layers appears like a synthesis brush strokes, which – in partial tonal- contains a central note. To express the of European and Asian sound ideas. ity – give expression to the necessary life of this central note is the important movement of the arm. thing in any interpretation.” The Far Eastern technique of calligraphy also serves Hosokawa as a prin- In Extasis for solo violin, Hosokawa al- Sylvia Wendrock ciple for composition. Hosokawa ex- so attempts to create a violin sound plains that “Sen” in Japanese means resembling brush strokes. This is in- Translated from German by “line”, and in his eponymous compo- tended as an extension of the voice, Dr Vera Neuroth 5 Klangforum Wien Open-minded, virtuosic in perfor- rope, America and Asia. In a mutual- mance and aurally perceptive, Klang- ly rewarding collaboration with many forum Wien – one of the internationally of the world’s leading composers, the most renowned ensembles for con- ensemble has formed a great num- temporary music – devotes itself to ber of formative artistic friendships. the artistic interpretation and expan- Since 2009, the musicians of Klangfo- sion of experiential space. A perfor- rum Wien have devoted themselves to mance of Klangforum Wien is an event sharing their comprehensive mastery in the best sense of the word; it offers of playing techniques and forms of ex- a sensual experience, immediate and pression with a new generation of art- inescapable; and the novelty in its mu- ists in the context of their collective sic speaks, acts and beguiles. professorship at the University of Mu- sic, Graz. Ever since it was founded by Beat Furrer in 1985, the ensemble – which, Klangforum Wien is made up of 23 mu- over the years, has received a great sicians from Australia, Bulgaria, Ger- number of awards and distinctions – many, Finland, France, Greece, Ita- has written music history: It has pre- ly, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and sented around 600 world premières of the United States. At the start of the works by composers from four conti- 2018/19 season, Bas Wiegers was ap- nents; it boasts an extensive discog- pointed First Guest Conductor, tak- raphy of more than 90 releases, ap- ing over from Sylvain Cambreling who, pearing at the most important concert however, has maintained a close rela- and opera venues, but also in the con- tionship with the ensemble as its First text of young, committed initiatives, Guest Conductor Emeritus. and at the major music festivals in Eu- 6 Toshio Hosokawa chestral work Uzu, premiered by the Toshio Hosokawa has been a mem- Tokyo Metro politan Orchestra in No- ber of the Academy of Fine Arts Berlin vember 2019, recently received the since 2001 and was a fellow of Berlin’s Otaka Prize for the best Japanese Institute for Advanced Study in 2006/7 composition of the year. and 2008/9. In 2013/14 he was com- Toshio Hosokawa, Japan’s pre-emi- poser in residence at the Netherlands nent living composer, creates his dis- In recent years, Toshio Hosokawa Philharmonic Orchestra and in 2018 he tinctive musical language from the fas- has presented three additional op- received the Japan Foundation award. cinating relationship between Western eras in quick succession: Stilles Meer He is artistic director of both the Takefu avant-garde art and traditional Jap- debuted in 2016 at the Hamburg Sta- International Music Festival and Sunto- anese culture. His music is strongly atsoper, the one-act melodrama Fu- ry Hall International Program for Music connected to the aesthetic and spiri- tari Shizuka premiered in 2017 in Par- Composition and, since July 2019, com- tual roots of the Japanese arts (such is, with Erdbeben. Träume following in poser in residence for two years with as calligraphy), as well as to those 2018 at the Oper Stuttgart. the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra. of Japanese court music (such as Gagaku). He gives musical expression to notions of beauty rooted in tran- sience: “We hear the individual notes and appreciate, at the same time, the process of how the notes are born and die: a sound landscape of continu- al ‘becoming’ that is animated in itself.” Born in Hiroshima in 1955, Toshio Hosokawa came to Germany in 1976, where he studied composition with Isang Yun und Klaus Huber. Although his initial compositions drew inspira- tion from the Western avant-garde, he gradually built a new musical world between East and West. He first gained widespread recognition with the 2001 world premiere of his oratorio Voice- less Voice in Hiroshima. His new or- © KazIshikawa 7 Florian Müller © Tina Herzl Florian Müller was born in Immen- Argentina and Israel. He has performed Biennale and the ISA Vienna-Prague- stadt, Germany. He studied the piano with the SWR Orchestra, the Wiener Budapest and is a professor of Perfor- and composition in Munich and Vien- Symphoniker, the MDR Orchestra and mance Practice in Contemporary Mu- na. He is one of the central interpreters the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and sic at the University of Music, Graz. of contemporary music in Austria and has worked with renowned conduc- has appeared as a soloist at important tors such as Emilio Pomàrico, Sylvain His CD recordings include Beat Furrer’s festivals such as Wien Modern and the Cambreling, Hans Zender, Fabio Luisi, Nuun, Clemens Gadenstätter’s com- Salzburg Festival.

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