tangotreats
01-24-2013, 10:29 PM
A Herr Salat / Tangotreats Co-Production
YASUO HIGUCHI
Orientation "A Thousand Calabashes"
Violin Concerto "KOMA"
The Philharmonia Virtuosi Of New York
Mamoru Takahara, Conductor
Oscar Ravina, Solo violin
Richard Kapp, Music Director
My transfer from Herr Salat's vinyl. Scans included. Titles in English. Anybody who asks for .LOGs should be subject to mandatory euthanasia.
FLAC: YH-OATC-VCK.rar | Game Front (http://www.gamefront.com/files/22882637/YH-OATC-VCK.rar)
MP3 (LAME 3.99.5 -V0): YH-OATC-VCK-MP3.rar | Game Front (http://www.gamefront.com/files/22882670/YH-OATC-VCK-MP3.rar)
I'll preface this post by saying that Herr Salat (a kind, generous man with impeccable taste) is absolutely 100% the person to thank for making this wonderful music available. He jumped through some unbelievable hoops and paid lunatic sums of money to Japanese middleman agencies to obtain this old and very rare LP. From Japan to Germany, the record finally ended up in my care, here in England - and I transferred it to the digital domain. I can say without doubt that the time I spent doing so constituted my happiest hours for I-don't-know-how-many months. My life got blasted to pieces last June and it was only yesterday, listening to this glorious album, that I was able to feel peace and joy again.
In the absence of sleeve notes, I'll write a little myself.
Yasuo Higuchi is a name that should be foremost in the mind of any music lover. Higuchi wrote what is probably my favourite score of all time; for Suguru Sugiyama's breathtaking Phoenix 2772 - both film and score immeasurably ahead of their time in 1980 and still ahead of their time today. As irony would have it, he is probably the least prolific genius the world has ever seen - at 59 years of age he has scored only a handful of film and television projects - and has completed a similar number of concert hall classical works, two of which are on this album.
Osamu Tezuka came to hear one of these works - the sublime Violin Concerto - and this lead to Higuchi's engagement as composer for Phoenix 2772. Tezuka initially asked permission to use the violin concerto in the film, but Higuchi completely re-orchestrated his concerto (it is played almost in full and completely uninterrupted by sound effects and dialogue) and composed a full score based around its melodies. Here, you will be able to hear the original concerto, in its original form for small chamber orchestra.
This is not an album of symphonic acrobatics or virtuosity; it is an album of sublime beauty and intimacy. For those who may worry that Higuchi's foray into "serious" classical music would turn out to be some monstrously pretentious piece of avant garde squeaky-gate nonsense, please let me dispel your worries. Classical Higuchi is warm, romantic, eloquent, approachable, and lyrical.
Here, I will stop - because I am unashamedly biased; I simply adore every note of this album. It is a musical expression of pure joy. This is music that lives and breathes, and is plainly happy to be alive. I'm now considerably happier to be alive for hearing it - and eternally grateful to Herr Salat for his efforts, without which my life wouldn't have been thus enriched.
A few technical notes; despite being pressed in 1979 and now rarer than a Firebird's tooth (har har) Herr Salat managed to locate a copy of this album that appears to have been never played - this must be the easiest, most pain-free vinyl transfer I have ever made. I have manually edited out the handful of light clicks that were present, and lowered rumble. That't it. What you hear is what's on this beautiful record. There are a handful of jumps here and there which are the result of poor editing in the studio; they are NOT vinyl artifacts or groove skips.
About the scans; a vinyl record sleeve is too large to fit in an A4 scanner. In order to scan this one, I scanned in several parts and reassembled the cover in Photoshop. It's not 100% perfect but it's pretty good. The track listing and ensemble pictures are both from the back cover; the ensemble picture has been colour corrected from metallic silver and grey to black and white - so it's almost legible now. It shows the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York and conductor Mamoru Takahara.
That said, please enjoy this gorgeous album; 45 minutes of some of the most magnificent music ever written... and please put your hands together and applaud Herr Salat; truly one in a million. Thank you, friend. :)
YASUO HIGUCHI
Orientation "A Thousand Calabashes"
Violin Concerto "KOMA"
The Philharmonia Virtuosi Of New York
Mamoru Takahara, Conductor
Oscar Ravina, Solo violin
Richard Kapp, Music Director
My transfer from Herr Salat's vinyl. Scans included. Titles in English. Anybody who asks for .LOGs should be subject to mandatory euthanasia.
FLAC: YH-OATC-VCK.rar | Game Front (http://www.gamefront.com/files/22882637/YH-OATC-VCK.rar)
MP3 (LAME 3.99.5 -V0): YH-OATC-VCK-MP3.rar | Game Front (http://www.gamefront.com/files/22882670/YH-OATC-VCK-MP3.rar)
I'll preface this post by saying that Herr Salat (a kind, generous man with impeccable taste) is absolutely 100% the person to thank for making this wonderful music available. He jumped through some unbelievable hoops and paid lunatic sums of money to Japanese middleman agencies to obtain this old and very rare LP. From Japan to Germany, the record finally ended up in my care, here in England - and I transferred it to the digital domain. I can say without doubt that the time I spent doing so constituted my happiest hours for I-don't-know-how-many months. My life got blasted to pieces last June and it was only yesterday, listening to this glorious album, that I was able to feel peace and joy again.
In the absence of sleeve notes, I'll write a little myself.
Yasuo Higuchi is a name that should be foremost in the mind of any music lover. Higuchi wrote what is probably my favourite score of all time; for Suguru Sugiyama's breathtaking Phoenix 2772 - both film and score immeasurably ahead of their time in 1980 and still ahead of their time today. As irony would have it, he is probably the least prolific genius the world has ever seen - at 59 years of age he has scored only a handful of film and television projects - and has completed a similar number of concert hall classical works, two of which are on this album.
Osamu Tezuka came to hear one of these works - the sublime Violin Concerto - and this lead to Higuchi's engagement as composer for Phoenix 2772. Tezuka initially asked permission to use the violin concerto in the film, but Higuchi completely re-orchestrated his concerto (it is played almost in full and completely uninterrupted by sound effects and dialogue) and composed a full score based around its melodies. Here, you will be able to hear the original concerto, in its original form for small chamber orchestra.
This is not an album of symphonic acrobatics or virtuosity; it is an album of sublime beauty and intimacy. For those who may worry that Higuchi's foray into "serious" classical music would turn out to be some monstrously pretentious piece of avant garde squeaky-gate nonsense, please let me dispel your worries. Classical Higuchi is warm, romantic, eloquent, approachable, and lyrical.
Here, I will stop - because I am unashamedly biased; I simply adore every note of this album. It is a musical expression of pure joy. This is music that lives and breathes, and is plainly happy to be alive. I'm now considerably happier to be alive for hearing it - and eternally grateful to Herr Salat for his efforts, without which my life wouldn't have been thus enriched.
A few technical notes; despite being pressed in 1979 and now rarer than a Firebird's tooth (har har) Herr Salat managed to locate a copy of this album that appears to have been never played - this must be the easiest, most pain-free vinyl transfer I have ever made. I have manually edited out the handful of light clicks that were present, and lowered rumble. That't it. What you hear is what's on this beautiful record. There are a handful of jumps here and there which are the result of poor editing in the studio; they are NOT vinyl artifacts or groove skips.
About the scans; a vinyl record sleeve is too large to fit in an A4 scanner. In order to scan this one, I scanned in several parts and reassembled the cover in Photoshop. It's not 100% perfect but it's pretty good. The track listing and ensemble pictures are both from the back cover; the ensemble picture has been colour corrected from metallic silver and grey to black and white - so it's almost legible now. It shows the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York and conductor Mamoru Takahara.
That said, please enjoy this gorgeous album; 45 minutes of some of the most magnificent music ever written... and please put your hands together and applaud Herr Salat; truly one in a million. Thank you, friend. :)