The NHK Symphony's appearance at Carnegie, with a rare performance of Takemitsu's A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden, falls on the same night as the opening of the Kirov Orchestra's Shostakovich series. Frustrated at having to choose between the two, I had the idea of going down to Philadelphia to hear the orchestra there. But, it turns out, the Takemitsu isn't on the program in Philadelphia. Nor in LA, San Francisco, or Boston. Is New York really the only city in the land where audiences can handle this gorgeous work by Japan's greatest twentieth-century composer? Must audiences elsewhere hear the Enigma Variations one more time? Sadly typical.
Update: Allan Ulrich writes in to point out that A Flock was given its premiere by the San Francisco Symphony in 1977.
Further update: Andrew Tunick has discovered a second city that's been deemed safe for Takemitsu: New Brunswick, NJ.
