While Takemitsu's musical language is closer to French music, like Messiaen and Debussy, than to traditional Japanese music, the mercurial and mysterious soundscape he paints is of a microcosm of its own - rather like Scriabin's late Sonatas or Poems, Takemitsu's piano works are unclassifiable and as unfathomable as Nature itself.
Peter Serkin gives wonderfully atmospheric and finely sculpted reading of each piece, capturing elusive nuances of changing light and shade. Beautifully recorded too (DDD/ADD). One of Serkin's finest recordings alongside the benchmark recording of Olivier Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus & Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time.