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Hisaishi arranged the 25-minute Symphonic Suite Castle in the Sky in 2017, which served as the opening track for his Singapore premiere. Besides conducting, he also played the piano part. Held at the Esplanade Concert Hall on 21-22 February 2020, the concert was Hisaishi’s first collaboration with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). Tickets to the event went on sale last November and were snapped up as quickly as with some pop idols’ concerts.
Youthful Summer Exuberance
The highly anticipated concert began with a magical and moving suite. Sadness, joy, hope, tension and calm – as the emotions flowed smoothly through the various tunes to present the details in Castle in the Sky. Although the soundtrack is already familiar to many, the live performance of SSO was a perfect rendering of the power and beauty of Joe Hisaishi’s film score.
Named after Czech composer Leoš Janáček’s famous Mládí, the second act featured just the strings and piano, performing a medley of three movie soundtracks by Joe Hisaishi and another of his well-known partners, Japanese director Takeshi Kitano. With the string musicians seated around, Hisaishi sat in front of the piano that was placed in the middle of the stage. He turned sideways and moved his hands to start conducting the familiar tune. The string musicians started plucking their
instruments to play Summer, the theme song of the 1999 Japanese movie Kikujiro. Hisaishi then turned to start playing the piano, his fingers dancing on the black and white keys, perfectly combining his lively piano notes with the soft and gentle violin music.
Introducing the second act in the concert programme, Hisaishi wrote: “While it used to mean playing the piano in between the moments of conducting, this time I shall conduct in between the moments of piano playing.” Perhaps, he sees himself as a pianist first and a conductor second in the second act. This was evident in the performance of the title track of the 1997 movie HANA-BI. As his fingers travelled across the keys, the notes from the piano emanated hints of romance, and were even tinged with melancholy at times. It was a sublime performance. Hisaishi was completely immersed in playing the piano while conducting his fellow musicians with awaveofhishand,alookorapointof his finger.
A Moving Symphony of the East
Named The East Land Symphony, Joe Hisaishi spent five years working on the third act. It was divided into five movements that lasted a total of 45 minutes. I was concerned that I would not be able to keep my concentration as I have not heard these pieces before, but my worries were unfounded.
The title of The East Land Symphony refers to the Tohoku Region in East Japan. Hisaishi was composing this work when the Great East Japan Earthquake happened on 11 March 2011. He wrote in the concert programme that: “I hoped throughout my time of composing that Japanese people have the courage and power to live on and do not forget who they are, even in such a situation.” However, Hisaishi seemed to be using Japan to express the contradictions and distorted reality of an ideal global society, as well as the chaos and struggles within everyone. This symphony is a sombre and heavily philosophical piece that is extremely complex.
With obvious differences from his animation and movies soundtracks, The East Land Symphony reflects the free- spiritedness of Hisaishi’s musical creation. Eschewing the usual classical orchestral opening, he created a memorable and unforgettable new musical style by merging various elements. The first and second movements were full of thrills and surprises. The melody sounded uncoordinated – quiet at times but messy at others. Yet, it followed the developments in the storyline closely to echo the mysterious changes. The irregular appearance and disappearance of the various musical instruments in the second movement sounded like a flowing river carrying a hint of melancholy. The percussion sounded repeatedly to create a sense of space with supressed anxiety, just like the cities that we are living in.
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