A radiant Joe Hisaichi and the HKPO

Last night was one of the most exciting Wednesdays that I had for years. It's got nothing to do with partying and everything to do with music. Joe Hisaichi is in town. He brought with him not only his talent for composition but also his skill both as a conductor and a performer as well. He is one of the few modern artists who is able to combine composition, conducting with artistic performance! A Japanese Rachmaninoff!

As in all concerts, the evening's programme was divided into two parts. But unlike other concerts, he gave us two completely different kinds of feeling between the first part of the concert and the second. In the first, he played his more individual style of minimalist music. There were four such pieces: Links, Mkwaju, the Prime of Youth and The End of the World, the first three shorter and the last the longest. .

According to the Programme Notes, Links is the theme song for the Japan International Contents Festival created in 2007. It's composed in the minimalist style where he introduced a simple motif, modulated it by changing its volume, its rhythm and the number of orchestral sections involved. He would play a motif first by one section, then gradually add in another, then a third and then all the sections would play together and in the middle, he would suddenly revert to a short second theme played by one or two instruments, eg. the flute, the oboe etc and then the whole orchestra would join in. I feel that his style is a cross between that of Arvo Paärt and Philip Glass.

The next piece Mkwaju 1981-2009 is based on some African folk music with its very peculiar rhythms. He uses the xylophone and the marima. I find the rhythm a little like the sound of the one of the songs by the Deep Forest. It appears to me to be mix between minimalist music and African theme and rhythm. The main theme is played by the whole orchestra and then repeated by individual sections. It was quite loud and then by contrast a second theme is played very softly by the wind, the xylophone and then the theme is repeated by louder and higher notes. Of course, as in all African music, the rhyth is at the heart of the music.

The third piece was the Prime of Youth. Again, this piece is propelled forward by its rhythm. The song was the theme song of the Youth in 2010. Here the pirncipal theme and prime instrumental role was played by Colin Oldberg, but the music soon involves other sections eg. the trombone against a background described by plucking played by all the strings. The music has a trance like repetition but then suddenly the steady rhythm by the winds was followed by massed strings which got louder and louder until the music reaches the climax. It was composed for the Junior International Osakas' Peace Conference.

The fourth piece was The End of the World. In this song, the composer tried to convey a little the sorrow and the grief of this world after the 9-11 incident. But there is still hope, in the form of the sound of the tubular bells, with the theme being played at progressively higher and higher scale, greatly assisted by the percussions of different kind of drums and timpanis.

The second half of the programme was completely different. They were taken mostly from the music Hisaichi wrote for various films. The first was Departures, which is a 2008 Japanese film by Yojiro Takita which won an Oscar as the best foreign film for that year It's the story of a cellist, gentle and intense at the same time. Richard Bamping gave a superb perforance of the solo part. It has a most romantic theme which recalls in part a little a certain motif in the music of the Schindler's List. The xylophone seems a favourite instrument for Hisaichi. In almost every piece, there were always parts of the piece played by the xylophone.

Then he played the theme song of Kiki's Delivery Service, a 1989 Japanese animated film produced, written and directed by Hayao Miyzaki. It has a very jazzy feel and there were constant interplay between the violin, the piano and the rest of the orchestra. It's one of his most popular pieces of music. In fact, in both Departures and in this song, Hisaichi played the piano part himself.

The next piece was One Summer's Day. It's the theme song of Spirited Away, a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy-adventure also directed and written by Miyazaki. It's a story about a 10-year-old girl who wandered into a world ruled by gods, witches and a bathhouse for these creatures. She must learn to fend for herself and return to the human world.

Then it was the turn for Water Traveler, the theme song of another Japanese film called Rain Traveller. It's a story about a young man who met a water sprite. It was a very lively piece with plenty of string pizzicatos. There is a light mood which then changes and later then returns.

The next was Summer, which is the theme song of Kikujro, (Kikujiro no Natso)  a 1999 Japanese film by Takeshi Kitano. It starts with a string pizzicato and then the piano. At times, one gets the feeling that one is listening to music of the style of a Vivaldi but it has a very rich sound, with beautiful contrast between the percussions the the winds.

The two last pieces were Pongyo on the Cliff by the Sea and Oriental Wind, the former being the theme song of another 2008 animated film whilst the latter was the written for the 2004 TV commercial for Suntory's green tea, portaying the beauty of the Yellow River. Again there were slow and quick passages and has a little jazzy rhythm.

I like Hisaichi's music. It is always full of life and there is always a very strong rhythmic component to each of his songs. Hisaichi himself obviously enjoyed himself playing and conducting at the same time. I like the light tone of most of his music and in certain parts, he recalls to me the film music in certain of Walt Disney's cartoons, with the movement of a big animal romping e.g an elephant about the stage being imitated by the sound of the tuba.

It was an extremely successful concert. He played three encores! I haven't seen the Cultural Centre with such a capacity crowd for quite some time. Most of the faces I saw were young faces. This is as it should be. Music should be music for all, not just music for the old! A concert hall shouldn't be the exclusive preserve of bald heads, big bulging stomaches, wrinkled faces and spectators limping along on walking sticks, which sadly appears to be the audience profile of your typical classical music concert crowd at the Cultural Centre! It was a tremendous enjoyable evening for me. Thank you so much Joe Hisaichi and the HKPO!