March 5, 2013. Koerner Hall, Toronto.
If Shakepeare’s Caliban had been in Koerner Hall during last night’s amazing Soundstreams Concert, Fujii Percussion with Voices, he might well have said, the hall “is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs. A thousand twangling instruments hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices.”
The “sweetest airs” came from the blended voices of the marvelous Toronto Children’s Chorus that filled the hall after intermission. The sounds of “a thousand twangling instruments,” came from the marimbas, chimes, and bells of Japan’s Fujii Family Trio, sometimes jamming with local percussionist Ryan Scott and pianist Greg Oh.
The Fujii Family Trio are marimba virtuosos Mutsuko Fujii and her daughters Haruka and Rika. Mirage (1971) by Yasuo Sueyoshi, the first piece on the program, was performed solo by Mama-san Mutsuko. The strength and dignity manifest in her stance and her bow are a prelude to her performance. The flood of arpeggios Mutsuko unleashed at high speed from the marimba cover a full spectrum—of dynamics from forte to piano, of tones from metallic to feathery, and a complete rainbow of colours. Mutsuko is so masterful, her dynamic control makes a second melody that floats above the melody of pitches she’s playing.
The World Premiere of Michael Oesterle’s Carousel (2013) was performed by Greg Oh (piano), Ryan Scott (vibraphone), with Haruka Fujii on marimba and sister Rika on glockenspiel. The other instruments merge with the piano played as percussion in an incrementally repetitious rhythmic dance that feels somehow cleansing. The second, slow movement—more weave than blend, has ringing chords of piano sliding beside silvery glockenspiel bells, chime of vibraphone, and the marimba’s klang. Here, and in the faster third movement, it’s as if you can feel the music playing across the cells of your brain. Good stuff. The same ensemble, configured differently, entertained us with Haruka Fujii’s new arrangement of Claude Vivier’s well-known Pulau Dewata. (1971).
Ryan Scott joined the Fujii Family Trio arranged at stations in the four corners of the darkened hall for a spectacular performance of Seasons (1970) by Toru Takemitsu. This 16-minute work with the musique concrète element of prerecorded, electronically manipulated tape, represents the natural variation in flow of the four seasons. Each of Seasons‘ many sections is prefaced by a pregnant silence from which issues, imperceptibly at first, the tremolo of Mutsuko Fujii’s marimba. Gradually a whole range of riffs from the other corners of the darkened room, including a chorus of bird-calls, twittering of bugs, frogs and the howling of various invertebrates, arise individually and in unison, then subside into cessation, allowing their collective overtone to fade, and a new silence gives rise to a new season.
After intermission Mutsuko and Rika Fujii performed the classic Hiten Seido II (1987) by Maki Ishii, a lush, energetic, Marimba duet whose many movements each begin and end in unison while in between they explore complex polyphonics over the entire range of the instrument.
The Toronto Children’s Chorus, conducted by Elise Bradley, brought the evening to a spectacular conclusion. In darkness peppered with flashing lights, their treble voices called to the fireflies in Ro Ogura’s Hotaru Koi (1987). Two wonderful songs by Akira Miyoshi followed. The TTC sang from memory the long Japanese libretti with complete confidence, while the Fujii accompanied them tapping with mallets on sanukite cylinders, a volcanic rock chime with a highly saturated sound that is to regular chimes what a clarinet is to a flute.
This mix of musical cultures and musicians in a contemporary program represents the kind of risk Soundstream is willing to take. How did it work out? Dreamy! or to give Caliban the last words: ” in dreaming/The clouds methought would open and show riches/Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked/I cried to dream again.”