Koide Yusei Metropolitan M - Bee in the Cage Japanese Contemporary Music for Mandolin Orchetra 2 - Japan CD

Credits:

Metoropolitan Mandolin Orchestra

Description:

That the works of these four composers exist at all is proof of something: that this ensemble, having left paradise behind, has charted its own course with inquiring minds and discerning ears – and that its playing has drawn from the composers themselves their very best. [Junichi Ishizuka, music critic] What is a mandolin orchestra? The basic ensemble consists of the mandolin family (mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandolone) together with guitar and double bass; depending on the ensemble and the repertoire, wind and percussion may be added. The mandolin originated in Italy, and until the early twentieth century ensemble playing flourished there, with a large body of solo and ensemble music being written for it. After the First World War, however, it is said to have declined rapidly with the rise of jazz. Today mandolin playing is most active in Japan and Germany. ＜Metropolitan Mandolin Orchestra＞ An amateur ensemble founded in 1986. Dissatisfied with the heavily Romantic repertoire of the early twentieth century and the light classics that occupy most mandolin orchestras, it took as its goal "the continuing search for the possibilities of mandolin music". Alongside commissioning works from composers in Japan and abroad, it arranges and performs only those pieces whose appeal is genuinely transformed by being played on mandolin instruments. That character is evident in its programming and arrangements, centred on modern and contemporary composers such as Mahler, Berg, Debussy, Ravel and Sibelius – making it a remarkably distinctive ensemble by any international standard. ＜Yusei Koide (conductor)＞ Born in Osaka, he began piano at four and violin at five, and studied at the high school attached to the Tokyo University of the Arts before graduating from the university itself. A hand injury led him to take up conducting and composition. He took part in sessions with Sergiu Celibidache and in summer sessions at Tanglewood, and was profoundly influenced by Celibidache in particular. From 1996 he spent six years in the United States. Beginning as assistant to Michael Charry, he was praised by Kurt Masur at a master class hosted by the New York Philharmonic for "precise and highly creative conducting" and went on to serve as Masur's assistant, also earning the confidence of Philippe Entremont. He has been invited to conduct numerous orchestras in the United States, the Dominican Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and Japan, and from the 2006–07 season served as principal guest conductor and artistic adviser of the Noua Orchestra Transilvana. His association with the Metropolitan Mandolin Orchestra now spans twenty-five years. Camerata Tokyo