PRE-ORDER: Sayaka Shoji - Takemitsu Hosokawa & Richter: Shadows [CD], Sayaka Shoji, CD

Sayaka Shoji presents a highly singular project: 'Bringing Richter together with Takemitsu and Hosokawa is not an obvious choice at first glance,' says the Japanese violinist. 'Japan has a culture of kigo - a word or image in a haiku or tanka that evokes a season and it's specific emotion without the season itself being named - this concept has guided me in associating each piece with a season.' We hear two works by Takemitsu for violin and piano, with the magnificent partnership of Stephen Kovacevich: one inspired by the surrealist poetry of Shuzo Takiguchi, the other by the poem In the Shadows, co-written by Makoto Ooka, an ambassador for the ancient Japanese tradition of renshi, a chain of collaborative poems, which strikes Shoji as deeply musical. She also performs two highly impressive solo pieces by Toshio Hosokawa, one of which, Extasis, was composed for the violinist in 2016. This evocative journey through the cycle of the seasons culminates in Max Richter's famous post-minimalist work, Recomposed: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, in it's original 2012 version, featuring the Spanish ensemble Franz Schubert Filharmonia.