Japanese composer, conductor and pianist Joe Hisaishi releases his new album Joe Hisaishi Conducts. The project documents a concert given at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall on 31 July 2024. There, Hisaishi performed his own The End of the World suite as well as his friend and colleague Steve Reich’s The Desert Music. 

Inspired by a visit to New York City in 2007, Hisaishi composed The End of the World as a three-movement suite that explores the chaos resulting from the collapse of global order in the aftermath of 9/11. By 2015, Hisaishi had transformed the suite into a five-movement work. Reich’s Desert Music was inspired by three American deserts with historical and personal significance. 

For the concert, Hisaishi was joined by Future Orchestra Classics, an orchestra of young players that was established by Hisaishi himself as part of his mission to share his love of classical music with new audiences. The recording further includes The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo and, in The End of the World, soloist soprano Ella Taylor.