The Beatles, and the
fertile song-writing partnership of
Lennon and McCartney in particular,
influenced certain strands of contemporary
composition quite significantly. These
ranged from the populist wing, e.g.
Ron Goodwin's Beatles Concerto
to more serious and even avant-garde
areas, e.g. Cuban guitar legend Leo
Brouwer and the late, great Toru Takemitsu.
This excellent CD can
be seen as continuing in such a tradition;
in fact Takemitsu exerts a strong influence
over this project as a whole, with performer
and several of the arrangers also hailing
from Japan. It is bookended by two non-Beatles
pieces: McCartney's A Leaf, originally
written for piano solo, as recorded
here, but previously recorded in orchestral
guise on the underrated Working Classical
album, and Michel Block's exquisite
"billet doux", a birthday gift
for the featured pianist Chitose Okashiro
in 1999 and recorded here as a tribute
to its composer who died the month before
this recording was made. These pieces,
however, complement naturally and fittingly
the material in between.
As well as Takemitsu,
whose glowing quotes about this music
adorn the booklet, an equally important
figure in the genesis of this project
is the pianist Aki Takahashi. The latter
recorded the Hyper-Beatles CDs in the
late 1980s, featuring arrangements of
Beatles songs by 47 composers from around
the globe. Four of the latter feature
here, including Ryuichi Sakamoto's Aki
2.2, named for the pianist herself.
The talented ex-Yellow Magic Orchestra
man takes Magical Mystery Tour
as his starting point and he is already
well versed in classical "crossover".
His arrangement for piano trio of his
main theme for Merry Christmas Mr.
Lawrence, a film in which he also
acted, alongside David Bowie, being
a particularly affecting, though by
no means sole example. Chitose Okashiro's
elder brother Ichizo provides her with
Hey Jude and Yesterday
and maverick American pianist/composer
Frederic Rzewski, whose complete piano
works I reviewed earlier this year,
is typically compelling in his Short
fantasy on "Give Peace A Chance",
his take on an early solo Lennon favourite.
Returning to Takemitsu,
I sometimes find some of his original
compositions rather amorphous and static,
beautiful though they are, but he was
a composer with his finger firmly on
the pulse regarding arrangements of
more populist music. Just witness his
strangely compelling version of, say,
The Londonderry Air, not forgetting
the solo guitar arrangements of other
Beatles material such as Michelle,
Hey Jude and Yesterday, on
this disc represented by piano arrangements
from different sources. Golden Slumbers
is a gorgeous and typically faithful
realisation and, like most of this very
successful collection, made me return
to the originals, also magnificent,
so many years down the line. Behind
the populism, first rate musical minds
and inspirations were at work! A must-have
for anyone equally enamoured of the
Beatles and contemporary classical music.
Highly recommendable as far as this
listener is concerned.
Neil Horner
Chitose Okashiro, piano