Toru Takemitsu Composition Award

It is a great pleasure for me to be in Japan again. The first time I visited the country in 1970, I spent six months in Osaka on the occasion of the World Expo as a member of the Stockhausen ensemble. Later I came to Tokyo and Akiyoshidai as a conductor and a composer. Now I am standing here as the invited judge for the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award.
I have had the opportunity on several occasions to take part in the selection process of composition awards, once with Mr. Takemitsu personally when both of us were on the jury together in a competition in Paris in the 1980s.

Over the previous decades of my life, I have spent much time in the selection of scores. It was a pleasure to read the scores, especially since I am very interested in the musical thinking of the younger generation, but ultimately I had to make my decision based on which piece I thought would become part of the international orchestral repertoire.
As a composer I was concentrating on the individual voice and the character of each piece as well as the score-writing technique. I was also curious to know what would come next: where could the composer’s creative thinking lead me?
As a conductor I had to consider that the selected pieces should meet the requirements to be chosen for international concert programs in the future. Nowadays all orchestras worldwide – which play contemporary repertoire – are very interested in the younger generation and they will warmly welcome these pieces.
I recommend all young composers to participate in rehearsals as regularly as possible. It is important to hear what can be realized and performed in an orchestra compared to what their conception of it is.
These four composers in the final each have a particular and characteristic voice. I do hope that following today’s premiere, other orchestras will also choose to program them.

Now I will give my short comments for each of the four short-listed pieces:

Timo Ruttkamp: BLACK BOXES für drei Orchestergruppen
This piece incorporates its incredibly compact and energetic material into a single frame, into one great stereo sound. The details are composed by very fine way, but the conception of the four-bars system form works against the richness of the material. I would like to propose to the composer to continue the work on this piece and to liberate and adapt the strict-form to the listeners’ capacity.

Kei Daigo: THE NORTHERN CAMELLIA - GRADATION OF SOUNDING AMITY No.2 -
This composer has a deep knowledge of sound. He does not listen to it from outside, but from within the music. He uses a special technique: he constantly repeats sounds instead of lines. In this way, sounds are lifted from the ground into space. This piece has the best orchestral sound, luminously, well balanced, using the full spectrum of the orchestra. The alternation of the short solo moments with the big waves of sound is very fine, giving a well-balanced, transparent form. The score is written on the highest precision, it is very complex and clear. The permanent fluctuation made by the pulse-repetition gives to the piece lightness and bright beauty, the beauty of big waves.

Giovanni Dario Manzini: Until the sea above us closed again
It is the choice of theme and the musical refinement that makes this subdued and sensitive piece stand out from among the others. This piece is like three poems, recited in a whisper. It evokes the spirit of Dante – and the moment it becomes almost tangible, it disappears. This composition uses many new sounds and instrumental techniques, characteristic of the Italian music of the last decade. Manzini integrates this technique in organic way in his own music and his piece could be part of the international orchestral repertoire, I guess.

Siraseth Pantura-umporn: AWAKENING / SERENITY
I am happy to see this young composer from Thailand in the final, because the sound of his music is a new colour on the palette of the orchestra. It is a piece one can recognize after hearing it only once. It is unique, singular and very positive. But he needs more practical experience, and more contacts to the international musical life.

Appreciative thanks are due to the staff of the Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor, Maestro Yoichi Sugiyama. I am very impressed by the high quality of their work and their interest to realize the new ideas of the young composers.

And so, to the final part of my speech, which is to announce the prizes:

Fourth prize: Cash Award 400,000 yen
Siraseth Pantura-umporn (Thailand): AWAKENING / SERENITY

Third prize: Cash Award 600,000 yen
Timo Ruttkamp (Germany): BLACK BOXES für drei Orchestergruppen

Second prize: Cash Award 800,000 yen
Giovanni Dario Manzini (Italy): Until the sea above us closed again

First prize: Cash Award 1,200,000 yen
Kei Daigo (Japan): THE NORTHERN CAMELLIA - GRADATION OF SOUNDING AMITY No.2 -
Thank you very much.