Oaks

From the twinkling glockenspiel that opens "Above The Winter Oaks", it’s clear that Japanese sound-artist Hideki Umezawa has set out to construct a shimmering world of floating textures. Sounds of breathing sift delicately around sustained reverb-y tones; metallic sounds crackle between the speakers as isolated vibraphone sketches outline ambiguous chords. There’s little sense of harmonic gravity: the music exists as suspended drones, creating a meditative "OM" of sound that empties your head…

With neo-classical works such as those on this disc, Stravinsky showed that great music could still be composed with the simplest of means, recalling Beethoven’s achievement yet using his own thoroughly modern rhythmic vitality, grace and refinement. The Robert Craft Collection has been acclaimed as “one of the more adventurous and interesting recording projects by Naxos”, with individual titles receiving the highest praise: “an almost unsurpassable choice” (8.557501), “as with all the releases in this magnificent series, the performances are excellent” (8.557502), “a disc of major importance” (8.557508).