Finally, this album also includes music by Kōsaku Yamada and Rentarō Taki—composers who explored Western classical idioms in Japan a full half-century before Mayuzumi and Takemitsu— as well as the folk song Sakura. These are not virtuosic works, nor are they adorned with technical flamboyance. Yet within these simple melodies lies a quiet, unwavering presence of “Japan”—a presence that perhaps only someone like Ueno, who spent his childhood abroad, could have truly discovered.
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