A music CD & a video tape recorded from "Niibori Guitar Orchestra Concert '99" held in August 1999, have been finally released. The concert tour took place in the Japanese top-class halls with great acoustic such as Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall and Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall (Takemitsu Memorial). The CD & video tape were complied under the supervision of Dr. Hiroki Niibori who was the music director and the top conductor of the Niibori Guitar Orchestra. They will be your unforgettable special CD & video tape as Dr. Niibori edited them after very careful selection.The Niibori Guitar Orchestra always keeps challenging new possibilities of a guitar orchestra sound and announcing them one after another. Also this time, it announced its new repertory 'Chaconne' by J. S. Bach for the first time in the guitar world. It was recorded at the top of the CD and the video and chosen as their title.
Although "Chaconne" was introduced before on this page, we'd like to add some comments here today. 'Chaconne' is derived from one theme, and it expresses the folds of human's mind emotionally. It is the asset of human being that has high artistic universality and spirituality. As it is a great piece consists of three parts, performance time reaches twenty minutes. That's very rare for a repertory of a guitar orchestra.
It is needless to say that it is a masterpiece of the violin though, it is also often played by a guitar. This time, the guitar orchestra clearly expressed the counterpoint that is Bach's quintessence, and the sound could describe Bach's high spiritual world. We believe that a factor of the success was the orchestration made full use of Niibori Method original guitars. There are high, middle, low register original guitars and each guitar has unique characteristics. Therefore the performance was an unique one peculiar to Niibori Method.
It is Mr. Mitsuji Nishikawa that arranged this masterpiece and conducted the orchestra on the day. He is a very versatile artist. He is famous as a soloist of the Niibori Guitar Orchestra, and active as a professor and a conductor of Nihon Guitar Music Conservatory in Izu, and moreover composes and arranges music. He used to be a beloved pupil of Dr. Niibori. He won the first prize in the solo section of a guitar concours, and he was selected for a concert master of the Niibori Guitar Ensemble when he was only nineteen years old, and accomplished concert tours in foreign countries. Though he is still young (early thirties) as a musician in the music world, he has twenty years of experience of Niibori Method.
Mr. Nishikawa reminisced over this time's experience like this;
"After I arranged it, the guitar orchestra actually played it and Dr. Niibori gave me some advice, then the sound became much better. I knew I am still no match for Dr. Niibori in music again. I am very honored to hear that 'Chaconne' was recorded in the new CD and chosen as the title. If I can have a chance to play it again, I would like to brush up my arrangement more. Also, I would like to arrange other great pieces like 'Chaconne' and enrich the guitar orchestra's repertories."
We carried the score on this magazine last year taking for 4 months. It is no doubt that it would be a precious repertory which fully draws out the attractions of the guitar orchestra. It is highly recommended piece that you can challenge with a guitar orchestra consists of over 50 players.
Of course in this CD & video, other pieces are also included. We hope it would be added to your music collections.
1. Chaconne (J. S. Bach ~ arr. M. Nishikawa)
2. Baio de Gude (P. Bellinati ~ arr. M. Taruishi)
3. Concerto for Flute Op. 10-1 "La Tempesta di Mare" (A. Vivaldi ~ arr. H. Niibori)
Niibori Guitar Music Academy, Editorial Office
143-14 Fujisawa, Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa-ken,
251-0052 Japan
Phone: +81-466-23-8338 / Fax: +81-466-23-9337
