Scottish Ensemble - Debussy & Takemitsu - BBC Radio 3 ‘Record Review’

...Debussy's string quartet arranged for chamber orchestra by the ensemble's director Jonathan Morton, effectively realised as well. But what they've done here, is take Debussy's palliative, impressionistic colours and show how they inspired Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu in his film scores. Takemitsu's ‘Funeral Music' laments the effects of radiation in Hiroshima on a woman's body. It sits alongside Debussy's ‘The Girl with the Flaxen Hair'.

Plays Takemitsu's ‘Funeral Music'

Plays Debussy's ‘The Girl with the Flaxen Hair'

...Debussy's ‘The Girl with the Flaxen Hair' arranged by Colin Matthews. His reflective take on Debussy's original piano prelude, played there by the Scottish Ensemble directed from the violin by Jonathan Morton. Didn't it follow beautifully after Toru Takemitsu's Funeral Music from his Three Film Scores for Strings?...thoughtfully programmed, beautifully recorded.