Daron Hagen: Heike Quinto

Description

Duo YUMENO’s second album features the complete Heike Quinto, a five-part suite composed by Daron Hagen for koto, violoncello and voice. The set of pieces is inspired by the medieval Japanese epic, The Tale of Heike, and focuses on the female characters who search for salvation and peace during the time of war.

“Played with precision and deep feeling by the duo… the piece was a gripping, gorgeous narrative of the life of a woman in 12th-century Japan. Full of idiomatic flavor, it made compelling use of the techniques of the Western classical tradition, especially polyphony and formal design. Most impressive was how the music told a clear, succinct, and unsentimental story using vocal sounds without texts.” – New York Classical Review