FRINGE 2019 – Koto Music Concert – “Shiki” – 3.5K

by Riccardo Barone

The mesmerizing Koto repertoire is well known for its intensity, vibrational ancient energy coming from thirteen strings tuned following different traditional ways; indeed during the brief concert (only forty delicious minutes) the Koto performer Kawaguchi Etsuko had to switch from one to another, according to tradition.

The Maestro Kawaguchi Etsuko has been an ambassador of Japanese Traditional Music here at the Fringe for eleven years.

Unfortunately the premises of the Garage International were not really full (let’s hope for a Womad performance) but the audience, in religious silence, couldn’t wait to show appreciation and enthusiasm at the end of each piece, asking for a bis at the end of the concerto but without any success.

The four pieces program included three pieces of Miyagi Michio, an important Japanese composer and So player of the last century, and a brilliant finale by Yoshizawa Kengyo, a blind Japanese musician and composer born in the 1800.

Kryztoff rating: 3.5k

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