Toru Takemitsu Composition Award

Good evening.
Those pieces were selected from an amount of more than 80 scores. They are remarkable for the way all the composers are fascinated by the symphonic orchestra. When I received the scores, they were nameless, impossible to find from where they came. Of course, in some of them I noticed that some Chinese or Japanese characters were written, in some others some German or English notifications indicated to me some possible origins. But it was very difficult to be sure where the composers came from. After the selection, I remarked two of them gave German titles in their pieces, and the third one gave an English one. The fourth one put a Spanish title. He is Argentinian, but it was a surprise to discover, when I made my choice, that the three other young composers in the list were in fact Chinese!

Concerning the thematic ideas of the pieces, I can discern two attitudes: the two first pieces of each part of this concert treat a question of perception and memory, the two last ones are connected with an individual history: the own history of the composer in one of them, and a fragment from the Bible in the other.

It is not easy to write a symphonic piece for orchestra nowadays. The infinite possibilities of the combinations of timbres and the weight of the tradition could be a barrier: how to make a choice or how to escape from the history? Those young composers decided to continue this tradition, and if I can give them an advice it will be this one: think how could the orchestra of today look like? The symphonic orchestra was invented in Germany around 1750 and it is mostly the same since that period, bigger, but with the same internal organization. Could we imagine new forms for the orchestra today? Certainly yes, and I know that the people who run the Takemitsu Award are very open to this kind of propositions.

Now I will make some brief comments on each piece.

The first piece of the concert, Resonanz vom Horizont from Shiqi Geng, is very sophisticated in the manner how the composer interlaced the different timbres of the ensemble in order to create some sonic illusions. The mixtures of the timbres are extremely well organized and I have no doubt that this young composer has a very precise ear and knows exactly what he wants. He should now think more on the research of his own style, but he is so musically educated that I have no doubt on the fact he will succeed to find his own way.

The second piece, At The End Of Snow Line by Zhuosheng Jin, has many qualities. One of them is made by the will of the composer to integrate some non-conventional techniques in the orchestra. We worked on this subject and I indicated him some problems concerning this experimental attitude. One of the qualities of his preoccupation is to find an original form for the piece. Sometimes it works well, sometimes not. But the fact is this young composer is asking some fundamental questions, which, I am sure, will drive him into a way to find his best solution for the future. The most important thing is to ask the good questions. And it is what he does.

The first piece of the second part, Entelequias by Pablo Rubino Lindner, is fascinating. The musical material is following an extremely slow movement, like a cloud which seems never to move, while the musical textures are creating a sort of organic evolution, which seems endless. This superposition of a very immobile musical material, which is always passing through a succession of filters of colors is extremely well done. One remarkable point is that this young Argentinian composer is also a professional violinist and I was extremely impressed by the way he showed some examples of the sound he wanted in producing them on his instrument. This composer has, by the way, an excellent ear.

Im Bauch des Fisches drei Tage und drei Nächte by Siqi Liu, which closed the concert, is a very dramatic music, full of tensions and progressions. This young Chinese composer is a very open-minded woman, ready to accept to be criticized and to modify her score in a minute. I helped her to lighten her orchestration because she has a bad habit to write some very beautiful musical textures and then, to cover them with too many percussions. I hope she will not blame me for having pushed her to put some lighting on her score. I was astonished by the rapidity how she can rewrite part of her score. She is very gifted.

Now I will announce the prize.

I decided to give the third prize to Zhuosheng Jin: At The End Of Snow Line, the prize of 400,000 yen, for having taking risks in using non-conventional techniques in the use of the instruments.

The second prize of 600,000 yen is awarded to Siqi Liu: Im Bauch des Fisches drei Tage und drei Nächte, for the sound energy and the research of a dramatic tension.

And finally two first prizes. One for Shiqi Geng: Resonanz vom Horizont, prize of 1,000,000 yen, for the great refinement of the sonorities and the seducing fluidity of the musical textures, and joint first prize for Pablo Rubino Lindner: Entelequias, also 1,000,000 yen, for the extraordinary attention to the details in the orchestration, and the sound imagination to renew the timbres and textures in a static musical context.
I would like to finish by thanking the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the conductor Kanako Abe for their extraordinary work. Thank you very much.
Also to the organization of this competition, which is really something wonderful for the young composers, thank you very much.

Edited by Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation