Scottish Ensemble - Debussy & Takemitsu - The Sunday Times

Interleaving Debussy and Takemitsu can't fail. The music of the Japanese is sentient of the Frenchman's while going its gently modernistic way. Here, two samples of his film scoring and a cinema-related piece are juxtaposed with arrangements of Debussy's String Quartet (by Morton) and two piano pieces. The Girl with the Flaxen Hair comes over with added mystery and just a hint of Mantovani in Colin Matthews's version; James Manson's transcription of Jimbo's Lullaby is evocative with its double bass. Takemitsu's Nostalghia, a memorial for Tarkovsky, has a beautiful quiet astringency, and his Funeral Music for Imamura's Black Rain a not dissimilar character.