Shintaro Mieda - Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza (2016) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Spring Is Coming
02. Peregrinación
03. Suites "The Season of Hope" Overture
04. Suites "The Season of Hope" The End of Cherry Blossoms
05. Suites "The Season of Hope" Two Profiles of Summer 1
06. Suites "The Season of Hope" Two Profiles of Summer 2
07. Suites "The Season of Hope" Sea Breeze and Parade
08. Forget Me Not
09. El Mar en Los Ojos
10. Libertango
11. At the Sky In Moscow

A spirited debut album by “Orquesta de la Esperanza,” an ensemble led by Shintaro Mieda – a pianist who creates genre-straddling chamber music of 21st century.

'Music of hope - On the occasion of their first album – by Kaisyu Yanagi' (music journalist)

Heard the first album by Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza. Except for Piazzolla’s “Libertango,” all of the pieces were written by Mieda. The songs and its’ performances are crisp and bright, just like their name “esperanza,” which means esperance or hope in English.

The composer himself plays piano and adding a bandoneon and a string quartet to consist a base of sextet, and a contrabass, percussion and a vocal join as guests. The members of Orquesta de la Esperanza are all masterful and turn colorful stories on scores written by Mieda into lively sound. The sound is based on sophisticated sound production that beauty of sonority stands out, rather than overflowing sensual beauty that you find at a tangueria in Buenos Aires, but the continuation of thrill and tension that you hear towards the heart-stopping climax shows their solid performing ability and the high level quality that the ensemble has.

Up to the present, songs composed by Mieda have a lot to do with films and plays, and you can see the visual impression form the works that he has done for this album. The words that he uses to explain his music such as, “soft rain,” “smell of wind,” and “a space between summer and winter,” triggers our visual imagination in our mind. The piece centered in the album is “Suite – Season of hope,” that is a big piece that exceeds 30 minutes of playing time. According to the composer, this is “a representation of time between the late spring to the summer after the earthquake on 3.11,” and just like he described, you can feel a sense of circulation of life in changing seasons from the song, and the image of all living matter interact and integrate will spread into listeners mind. “Death and rebirth, but in different way than it used to be” was the description by Mieda about catastrophe of 3.11 and his personal experience. The music of heart-searching and repose of souls always looks at germination of hope, and it makes you feel like standing in the vast field of rice stalks shining on the setting sun. In that field, the listeners will feel a gentle wind that is unlimitedly fresh.

The pure quality of the recordings by Kazuya Nagae that captured the sonic image of Shintaro Mieda Orquesta de la Esperanza stands out more than ever (although he has proven that with his previous works). A solid tone cluster generated by accurate pitch of strings instruments, and the outspread sound field lying on top of overlapping harmonic overtones is crystal-clear and they almost transparently reflect the multi-layered acoustic structure that the score produce. Furthermore, you almost can feel the finely honed flow of the air in the space in the part that bandoneon – the instrument that generates sound by vibrating a reed with bellows – involves, and lively catenation of sound helps creating an organic music. You can feel the happiness of being in a space that was put together by the mastesr of sound such as the composer, the performers and the recording engineer from this album.

The chamber music group on the premise of tango style plays songs written by an up-and-coming composer Shintaro Mieda who has been working for various film music and music in play. The group gave their first performance in April 2014 as a sextet band. They’d been performing mainly at Zoshigaya’s tango bar “El Choclo,” and gave their first performance as an octet at “Classics Shibuya” in January 2015. The members are mainly younger and popular musicians in Japanese tango scene.　The colorful stories of Mieda’s musical pieces, that has refinement and nostalgia of Latin essence blended with a rock-solid base of classical music, can be relished with crisp and glittering performance by “Esperanza = esperance.” The group defines the meaning of their name by giving a superb performance.

Shintaro Mieda’s Orquesta de la Esperanza:
Shintaro Mieda, composition, arrangement, piano
Satoshi Kitamura, bandoneon
Atsushi Yoshida, violin
Natsumi Okimasu, violin
Atsuki Yoshida, viola
Yumi Shimazu, cello
Guest artists:
Toru Nishijima, double bass
Hitomi Aikawa, percussion
Tomomi Oda, vocal

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