Tanaka: "Crystalline"

Karen Tanaka: "Crystalline" (1988) Signe Bakke, piano. Karen Tanaka, one of the leading Japanese composers of her generation, has long had an audience in Norway. It all started with the performance of her piano piece Crystalline during the Oslo Contemporary Music Festival back in 1990. As always at ISCM festivals, a mixed bag of music from all over the world was performed in a wide variety of styles and traditions. For many of us present at the festival, the performance of Crystalline was a uniquely beautiful revelation and an inspiring breathing space in a dense festival programme. Moreover, it was a joy to experience a piece of music that so supremely demonstrated how the piano, so rooted in classical tradition, could hold its own in competition with the refined ensemble instru¬mentation and electronic landscapes that were strongly represented at the festival. The purity of sound, the sensuality and in the intensity of Crystalline spellbound much of an audience that largely consisted of blasé composers and musicians. In the wake of the concert an interest in Tanaka's work was awakened in Norway that led to several commissions, festival appearances and performances here in the north.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Japanese
• New
• Music
• avant
• garde
• atonal

[omgtkseth]

score, please, score.... does anybody have it? all I can find is her techno etudes, cant find this one... 

[TiborHuber]

Must have been really desperate "back in 1990". While easy and relaxing to listen to, this is merely an annotation to the Messiaen catalogue...

[lenmidtt]

I think part of what makes this piece is the pianist. I wonder why nobody has mentioned anything about that before. What a sound quality!

[NevinJarek]

I downloaded this to my ipod the day you uploaded it. I have been listening to it and it reminds me a lot of Berio's 6 encores for piano... It would be great if you could upload more from Tanaka...

[tonychang32000]

Thanks for uploading and the words, amazing

[parkourGumby]

@vkoracx "but" seems like the wrong conjunction to use in that sentence...

[rezmogm]

I think part of what makes this piece is the recording. The miking and reproduction is superb.

[vkoracx]

pleasant to listen to but from 2:06 reminds of messiaen occasionally

[SergeyHod]

Oh, on the picture created by add "Jackson Pollock"!

[lizzyluvzmusic]

Thanks for posting this! Do you happen to know what kind of notation is used for this score?