Komei Abe was a generation
younger than that pioneering Japanese
composer Kósçak Yamada
(1886-1965) and he inherited something
of the older man’s compositional zeal.
He was born in Hiroshima in 1911 and
studied in turn the violin and cello
before entering Tokyo Music School.
He formed a chamber group in which he
played as a cellist, whilst studying
under one of the many German émigrés
then active in Japan, Heinrich Werkmeister,
only three year’s Abe’s senior. He next
came into contact with the Mahler protégé
Klaus Pringsheim under whom Abe studied
composition. In time he came to admire
Hindemith whilst consolidating the late
Romantic sensibility nurtured by Pringsheim.
Abe once declared himself a "modern
and international Japanese, rather than
archaic Japanese" implicitly dissociating
himself from nationalism – from, as
the notes say, de Falla, Stravinsky
and Bartók. After the war during
the latter part of which he served as
an able seaman he strengthened neo-classical
traits, fell under the influence of
Carl Orff’s music and became musical
director of the imperial orchestra.
That period also saw
the composition of the earliest work
in this enterprising disc, the Divertimento
for alto saxophone and orchestra. It
was originally written for alto and
piano but was orchestrated in 1960.
It’s couched in lyrical and rather light-hearted
vein, tending to the nostalgic. At its
heart is the Adagietto, nicely songful,
unpretentious, and its conclusion is
in the form of a rather breezy and Francophile,
insouciant Allegro. It’s an enjoyable
work, though not overly distinctive.
His First Symphony
followed in 1957. It’s a bold, big three-movement
work – big in orchestration not necessary
in terms of span, as it lasts nineteen
minutes. Abe favours ostinati and a
Kabalevsky-like intensity. The Adagietto
– Abe also favours Mahlerian Adagiettos
over Adagios – has a full complement
of lissom lyricism though the cor anglais
lines hearken back to the rather French
influences explored in elements of the
Divertimento. This axis, the Franco-German-Russian
is a broad approximation of his stylistic
imperatives. The finale is a pulsing
affair with the principal trumpet of
the Russian Philharmonic blaring out
in time-honoured Gauk-Svetlanov fashion.
Abe writes avidly for percussion as
well but there is, to me at least, a
bit of Soviet style vulgarity in this
movement, even when the inevitable ostinati
and an equally inevitable, slightly
academic fugal section get going.
The Sinfonietta was
composed in 1964. It’s got a brimful
of neoclassical stridency – on/off percussive
and brass fanfares. But the Moderato
second movement is different – the most
Japanese music Abe ever wrote with its
evocative sonorities and a wistful solo
for the violin, Abe’s first instrumental
love. There are perhaps elements of
Honegger in the Scherzo – snarling trumpets
to the fore – and a pounding, rather
intense finale.
If by "rhythmic
ostinato by the steam locomotive"
Abe was referring to Honegger the clearest
evidence for it in this disc is the
Sinfonietta. All three works reflect
the range of influences absorbed by
Abe. Aleksey Volkov is the intrepid
alto player and the Russian Philharmonic
under the dynamic Yablonsky certainly
takes opportunities to co-opt Abe to
the Soviet Machinist School from time
to time.
Exciting music energetically
performed – not always subtle it’s true
but torridly lyric.
Jonathan Woolf
Exciting music energetically
performed, not always subtle but torridly
lyric ... see Full Review
Aleksey Volkov (alto saxophone) 
