Yamada: Nagauta Symphony

Kósçak Yamada was the first great composer to emerge from Japan after it had begun to accept western classical music. After studies with Max Bruch, Yamada was the first Japanese composer to write symphonies and operas. Nagauta Symphony is an epoch-making work that attempts the fusion of western music and nagauta, Japanese traditional vocal music performed with instruments including the three-stringed shamisen, fues (Japanese flutes) and percussion. In this work, Yamada takes a classic nagauta piece of 1857 to which he adds his original orchestral music. Sinfonia ‘Inno Meiji’ is effectively a symphonic poem which depicts Japan on the way to westernisation from the latter half of the 19th century through to the early 20th century. It combines a big orchestra with the hichiriki, an ancient Japanese double reed wind instrument, and other Asian instruments. The sumptuous Maria Magdalena, scored for a large orchestra and influenced by the symphonic poems of Richard Strauss, was first performed in Carnegie Hall in 1919.