Since I’ve been preoccupying myself with Isang Yun, I thought I’d transfer my old review of the atrocious music of Rolv Yttrehus. Which reminds me that my discography of the Louisville Orchestra is a candidate for upload – whenever. Looking at the Ys in my collection I’m also reminded that I also reviewed (not very enthusiastically) a CD of Richard Yardumian, which I should carry over as well.
I’ve been looking again at the very complete discography hosted by the International Isang Yun Society and spotted a few other CDs of interest – including one that seeing it on the list reminded me that I had it: the Yun CD by the Schönberg Ensemble of Reinbert deLeeuw, part of the great tribute to the ensemble published by Etcetera in 2006, and which I am fortunate to have. So I’ve added it to the discography on my introductory Yun page.
Since I’m doing the Ys – very tractable, the Ys: in classical music as opposed to philosophy, there’s a very finite number of Ys – I pulled out of my shelves the double-CD set from Camerata, “The Age of Birds”, works of Takashi Yoshimatsu, 30CM-178-179. I chanced on this set a number of years ago in the “real” store, I’m not familiar at all with Yoshimatsu, his fame seems not to have crossed the borders of Japan, but the music is absolutely beautiful, sweepingly lyrical, without stooping down to vulgar sentimentalism as contemporary music that tries to be “beautiful” often does. Another blatant contradiction to the ignoramuses who claim that “beauty” has disappeared from classical music since the deaths of Britten and Shostakovich. I need to review that set. I haven’t been very inspired in writing the reviews of the couple of Yun CDs I’ve listened to these last few days. It’s the introduction I find difficult to write, I’d like to try and avoid simply cutting and pasting again the intro used in my upteenth previous Yun reviews and… it’s just hard to invent something new when really you want to say exactly the same thing: that Yun is a great composer who invented a uniquely personal and uniquely beautiful style, both highly demanding and achingly lyrical. Well, I guess that can function as my intro.