Koto Music: Tadao Sawai Plays Michio Miyagi CD

The koto performer, composer, and educator Michio Miyagi (1894-1956) is considered the father of modern koto. He was named the Mozart of koto because of his amazing skill and the Japanese Schubert for his lyrical melodies. He modernized the playing of the koto, developing new playing and composition techniques and inventing new instruments, among which the best-known is the jushichigen, the 17-stringed bass koto. Miyagi did only few recordings at the beginning of the 1950s. The late Tadao Sawai (1937-1997) had been pursuing Miyagi's endeavor in developing new playing and compositional techniques, adding a rhythmical and virtuosic character to his music never heard before. He was also a proponent of contemporary music for koto. Sawai dedicated this CD to the music of this great star that Miyagi was. He offers a series of the best of Miyagi's compositions for koto solo and koto duo. You are in for a treat: a great master performed by another great master. ~ Bruno Deschênes