Philip Glass

Mishima Philip Glass

Orange Mountain Music is proud to announce the new release Mishima, performed by pianist Maki Namekawa in this first recording of Philip Glass' iconic 1985 score to the Paul Schrader film "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters." Namekawa made a splash in 2914 when she was chosen by Philip Glass to be the first pianist to

record his Complete Piano Etudes (OMM0098). In looking for her next project Namekawa became aware of Glass' score depicting the life of the famous Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, who, in attempt to reconcile his philosophy of uniting art and action, storms an army garrison in 1970 in an attempt to restore the Emperor as Japan's sovereign and bring back Japan's former pre-war glory. The film culminates when after Mishima fails in his coup, he performs ritual suicide (seppuku). Glass worked with director Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull) in a period of Glass's artistic life in which his film collaborations included cutting the film to fit his music.

Mishima presented a number of compositional challenges as the film is partly in black and white, it blends narrative of Mishima's own life (his past and the last day of his life), as well as episodes from his fiction. For decades, the only music extracted from this brilliant score was the string quartet music written for the black and white sections of the film, published as String Quartet No.3 "Mishima." The rest of the score was composed for full orchestra as a studio album and has lain in obscurity unperformed.

This new release by Maki Namekawa is the first recording of the complete Glass score since the original soundtrack in 1985, arranged for solo piano by Glass' music director Michael Riesman.