Takashi Yoshimatsu ( 吉松隆 ): Alto Saxophone Concerto "Cyber Bird" (1994)

Classical Music Discord: Takashi Yoshimatsu ( b. 1953 ) Takashi Yoshimatsu was born in Tokyo in 1953, at a time when Japanese composers had embraced the trend towards avant-garde techniques. While absorbing these, Yoshimatsu opposed the general fashion, returning to popular rhythms and romantic melody and coming to be regarded as the standard-bearer of Neo-Romanticism in Japan. He studied under Teizo Matsumura, a pupil of Ifukube, for some time, but acquired much of his craft by himself. He is a great admirer of Sibelius and his works include five symphonies, and concertos of piano, for saxophone, and for bassoon. Concerto for Alto Saxophone, Piano, Percussion and Orchestra op. 59 “Cyber Bird” ( 1994 ) Composed in 1994 for virtuoso saxophonist, Nobuya Sugawa, Takashi Yoshimatu’s Saxophone Concerto remains one of his most devilishly difficult works. Described as a ‘triple concerto’, Yoshimatsu’s concerto is subtitled Cyber Bird, which refers to, in the composer