Glass: String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima" (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra) Pekka Kuusisto & Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

• Philip Glass (b. 1937): String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra):
• 1 Glass: String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra): I. 1957 - Award Montage 04:37
• 2 Glass: String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra): II. November 25 - Ichigaya 01:10
• 3 Glass: String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra): III. 1934 - Grandmother and Kimitake 04:06
• 4 Glass: String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra): IV. 1962 - Body Building 01:46
• 5 Glass: String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra): V. Blood Oath 03:06
• 6 Glass: String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima” (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra): VI. Mishima - Closing 03:07
• Total Runtime 17:52

Info for Glass: String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima" (Arr. P. Kuusisto for Chamber Orchestra)

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto presents a new arrangement for string orchestra of Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 3, which Glass derived from his epic film score Mishima. Pekka Kuusisto performs this new arrangement together with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, of which he is Artistic Director as of 2021.

Mishima String Quartet (String Quartet No. 3) originally appeared as parts of the film score for Mishima by film maker Paul Schrader. The film follows a complex narrative structure which divides the life of this famous contemporary Janpaeses novelist into 3 parts – his childhood, his mature years and the last day of his life. These subjects were intercut to produce a shifting kaleidoscopic vision of Mishima's life. The scenes of his childhood were filmed in black and white and scored for String Quartet. At the time of writing the film music, I anticipated the String Quartet section would be extracted form the film score and made into a concert piece in its own right.

Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

Pekka Kuusisto
Violinist, conductor and composer Pekka Kuusisto is renowned for his artistic freedom and fresh approach to repertoire. Widely recognised for his flair in directing ensembles, Kuusisto is Artistic Director of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (from season 21/22), and Artistic Partner with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He is also a Collaborative Partner of the San Francisco Symphony, and Artistic Best Friend of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In season 20/21 Pekka Kuusisto is Artist in Residence with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt with whom he will appear as soloist, conductor and chamber musician. He is also In-Residence at Milton Court at the Barbican, which culminates in a concert with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.

Kuusisto is an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music and a gifted improviser and regularly engages with people across the artistic spectrum. Uninhibited by conventional genre boundaries and noted for his innovative programming, recent projects have included collaborations with Hauschka and Kosminen, Dutch neurologist Erik Scherder, pioneer of electronic music Brian Crabtree, eminent jazz-trumpeter Arve Henriksen, juggler Jay Gilligan, accordionist Dermot Dunne and folk artist Sam Amidon. In the coming season he will premiere new concerti by Bryce Dessner, Djuro Zivkovic and Enrico Chapela and chamber works by Sauli Zinovjev and Calliope Tsoupaki. He also performs other concertos written for him including Daníel Bjarnason’s Violin Concerto, Anders Hillborg’s Bach Materia and Nico Muhly’s violin concerto, Shrink. In recent seasons Kuusisto has premiered new works by Sauli Zinovjev, Anders Hillborg, Philip Venables and Andrea Tarrodi. He also tours around the world with orchestras such as Chicago and Los Angeles symphony orchestras, Concertgebouworkest, Orchestre de Paris, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia, as well as Tapiola Sinfonietta, and the Australian, Scottish and Swedish chamber orchestras.

Kuusisto has released several recordings, notably for Ondine and BIS. He has recently recorded Ades’ Violin Concerto with Aurora and Nicolas Collon for Deutsche Grammophon, Hillborg’s Bach Materia and Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos Nos.3 and 4 with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard for BIS and Daníel Bjarnason’s Violin Concerto with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra with the composer conducting for Sono Luminus. Past releases include Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Noesis concerto for violin and orchestra for Ondine and Sebastian Fagerlund’s violin concerto Darkness in Light for BIS, both recorded with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu.

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