Toshio Hosokawa is Japan’s leading living composer. This fourth volume in the series of his orchestral works, during which he was present for all recording sessions, contains two concertos and two works for orchestra. The Trumpet Concerto ‘Im Nebel’, which draws its inspiration from Herman Hesse’s poem, conjures up a vision of man and nature, in which the trumpet slowly and magically melts into the orchestral mist. Inspired by a birth, Violin Concerto ‘Genesis’ again places the soloist as the human protagonist in a universal drama of finding harmony through conflict. Sakura is one of Japan’s best-loved songs, arranged by Hosokawa for orchestra, and Uzu displays unique orchestral sonorities.

Vol.1 of this series is on 8573239. Of the piano concerto called Lotus under the Moonlight, Gramophone wrote: ‘Jun Märkl responds unreservedly, drawing magically delicate colours and rich textural intricacies from what is a profoundly attractive score’.