Ikuyo Kamiya, RTÉ NSO/ Takuo Yuasa Naxos***

The repertoire the RTÉ NSO records for Naxos sometimes takes it well off the beaten track. These three works by the Japanese composer Teizo Matsumura (1929-2007) are a case in point. Matsumura, a contemporary of Japan’s best-known composer, Toru Takemitsu (the two shared a teacher in Yasuji Kiyose), opted to shed European influence and set out to write music that was “conceived of with an Asian mindset”. Perhaps strangely, his output after this decision included not only the two symphonies recorded here (from 1965 and 1998) but also a number of concertos. The symphonies are about as unsymphonic as you could imagine, with a concentration on textural intricacy and orchestral weight. The metaphor of sledgehammer and nut comes to mind – strange stuff indeed, for a man who during a youthful illness spent his time writing haiku. See naxos.com