Haruto Takahashi

Aki Takahashi - Four Walls: Aki Takahashi Plays John Cage (2004) {Camerata CM-28027}
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© 2004 Camerata Tokyo | CM-28027
Classical / Contemporary

John Cage's austere Four Walls was composed in 1944 for Merce Cunningham's dance play of the previous year, and marks the beginning of a long and productive collaboration between the two artists. Except for the dance's structure, which was carefully planned in advance, Cage's music operated fairly independently of Cunningham's choreography, and its strictly timed sections alternated between fragmentary, song-like passages in modal harmony and aggressive bursts of expanding and contracting patterns, often in bare octaves.

Yūji Takahashi is a composer, pianist, critic, conductor, and author. Yuji Takahashi studied under Roh Ogura and Minao Shibata at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. In 1960, he made his debut as a pianist by performing Bo Nilsson's Quantitäten. He received a grant from The Ford Foundation to study in West Berlin under Iannis Xenakis in 1962 and stayed in Europe until 1966, also stayed in New York under Rockefeller Foundation scholarship until 1972. He founded 'Suigyu Gakudan' (Water Buffalo band) in 1978 as introducing international protest songs, starting from Thailand, mainly performing Asian songs, also published monthly journal 'Suigyu Tsushin'.

Yūji Takahashi is a composer, pianist, critic, conductor, and author. Yuji Takahashi studied under Roh Ogura and Minao Shibata at the Toho Gakuen School of Music. In 1960, he made his debut as a pianist by performing Bo Nilsson's Quantitäten. He received a grant from The Ford Foundation to study in West Berlin under Iannis Xenakis in 1962 and stayed in Europe until 1966, also stayed in New York under Rockefeller Foundation scholarship until 1972. He founded 'Suigyu Gakudan' (Water Buffalo band) in 1978 as introducing international protest songs, starting from Thailand, mainly performing Asian songs, also published monthly journal 'Suigyu Tsushin'.

Morton Feldman - Triadic Memories - Aki Takahashi (1989) {ALM Records Japan ALCD-33 rec 1983}
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© 1989 ALM Records / Kojima Recordings Japan | ALCD-33
Classical / Modern Classical / Avant-Garde / Minimalism / Solo Piano

Avant-garde music professor Morton Feldman casts the listener into a black web of trigonometry in this Japanese import, recorded in 1981. Heavily influenced by John Cage and abstract-expressionist painter Philip Guston, the composer typically spreads out a blanket of notes in a pointillistic style, giving the performer the additional challenge – or privilege – of putting their self-expression on the line. It's said that Shakespeare sinks or swims depending on the skill of the actor, and pianist Aki Takahashi is just such a performer.

Aki Takahashi - A Valentine Out of Seasons (1976) {Eastworld Japan CC33-3322, Black Triangle rel 1985}
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© 1976, 1985 Eastworld / Toshiba-EMI Japan | CC33-3322
Classical / Neo Classical / Contemporary Classical / Piano

Aki Takahashi made her public debut shortly after graduating from the Tokyo University of Arts with a masters degree in 1970. While acknowledged for her classical musicianship, her enthusiasm and acclaim as a new music interpreter have attracted the attention of many composers. Cage, Feldman, Takemitsu, Yun, Oliveros, Ruders, Satoh, Lucier and Garland, to name a few, have all created works for her.