EQUINOX includes all of Takemitsu’s orginal works as well as his elegant arrangments of pop standards such as Over the Rainbow, Summertime, Londonderry Air, as well as several songs by The Beatles.
EQUINOX includes:
Folios
12 Songs for Guitar
The Last Waltz
All in Twilight – Four Pieces for Guitar –
A Piece for Guitar – For the 60th birthday of Sylvano Bussotti –
Equinox
In the Woods
“This is a ‘meeting’ between musician and composer – an embodiment of ‘Equinox’ in all its aspects, taking into account the works, the performance, the cultural background and the time and place. This is the complete works for solo guitar by Toru Takemitsu, performed by a Swedish genius. The clear, beautiful sounds of the performance conveys “modernity” as full of intrinsic warmth.”
CD Journal, Japan
“Swedish guitarist Fogel is an admirable exponent of the accessible music Toru Takemitsu wrote for guitar. He allies rich, smooth colour with crisp phrasing… this collection exudes easy charm”
Classical Music, UK
Liner Notes (intro only)
I was born in May of 1974. That very same month and year, Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu concluded his first piece for solo guitar. While studying the works of Takemitsu and preparing for the present recording, I have gradually been able to draw parallels between my own experience of being based in Japan and the East-West dichotomy that influenced and inspired Toru Takemitsu throughout his life. The word ‘equinox’ commonly refers to the two times of the year when day and night are of equal length. With its symbolism of the equilibrium of ‘light’ and ‘darkness’, of two worlds in harmonious contradiction, it is an apt title for this recording, which is devoted solely to a composer who was able to reconcile his Western musical training, as well as his ‘universal’ outlook on art in general, with the solid societal and cultural heritage of his homeland. Personally, I am in the midst of an analogous balancing act where I, a classically brought-up musician with an entirely ‘Western’ view of the world, am submersed in Japanese culture, new and old, sometimes struggling in the undercurrents of everyday traditions and customs.
