From: tholen@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu (Dave Tholen)
Subject: more on Tokyo Kosei
Organization: University of Hawaii
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1992 22:46:32 GMT

I'd like to extract a quotation from the booklet accompanying Tokyo Kosei's
recording titled "Pagan Dances" (KOCD-3014):

   One of the highlights of my professional career was my first
   opportunity to work with the fabulous Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra,
   in 1989.  The musicians play with wonderful musical sophistication
   and with a tremendous depth of emotion.  Their sound is full and
   deep-voiced, and they play with marvelous precision and discipline.

   There were moments in the recording sessions when TOKWO simply took
   my breath away.  I told the members of TOKWO after our final
   session that all my life I had heard my music played to perfection
   only in my imagination, but that they had turned my dreams into
   reality.

And a little bit later on:

   Much of my music is not terribly difficult to play if one is speaking
   only of notes on the page, but all of my music is demanding in
   requiring musicianship and the highest expression.

These words came from the composer and conductor for the recording, James
Barnes.  I know him personally, and unless he's mellowed a lot over the
last decade, he's not the type of person that showers praise on a group
just to be nice.  If he didn't mean it, he wouldn't have said anything.

This posting isn't intended to contradict the opinions of the previous
posters that Tokyo Kosei plays with virtuosity but no feeling.  Rather,
I think it simply points out that like any musical organization, they
have their good days and their bad days; or alternatively, their
interpretation may not agree with somebody else's interpretation; or
that the ensemble-conductor combination doesn't "understand" the music
of one composer as well as another.  For example, some readers may recall
the discussion of Mahler's Eighth some months ago.  As good as Robert
Shaw is with choral music, comments in this newsgroup about his new
recording of Mahler's Eighth on Telarc were along the lines of "Shaw
just doesn't understand Mahler".

In this case, however, the conductor is the composer, so by definition he
knows how it's supposed to sound, and given the comments made, it appears
that Tokyo Kosei is capable of making the music sound the way it was
intended.  That doesn't mean they are going to be able to do it all the
time.

"Pagan Dances" is Barnes' second recording with Tokyo Kosei, and I'm still
hoping that some future recording will include two of my favorite Barnes'
works:  Symphony Op. 35, and Star Spangled Spectacular.  I was privileged
to record the World Premiere of the former while a student at the University
of Kansas; the work went on to win the ABA Ostwald award in, if I remember
correctly, 1976.  The latter is a wonderful medley of George M. Cohan tunes,
with tubas gracefully carrying the melody "Harrigan", and a piccolo providing
some delightful counterpoint (if I understand the use of the term).
Apparently it still exists in only manuscript form, which is a shame.  I'd
love to have our community band play it sometime.

Regardless of individual opinion on the playing of Tokyo Kosei, they are,
unfortunately, one of the few sources for recordings of wind band repertoire.
I'm delighted that many of the old Mercury Living Presence recordings of the
Eastman are making their way onto CD, and am disappointed that Telarc hasn't
done any more recordings with the Cleveland Symphonic Winds.  Perhaps others
out there who collect recordings of wind band repertoire can suggest
additional sources.  I know Chandos has released several recordings by
British brass bands, notably Black Dyke Mills, and although I have some of
these, my tastes tend to run more toward the sound of a full wind orchestra.
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical