Premiere of Fujikura's Double Concerto

Thanks to the enterprising barefoot violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaya, the world premiere of a new work by Dai Fujikura can be heard here. Also: Debussy's picturesque Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and La mer.

Unexpected request
Fujikura is a Japanese composer who moved to London as an adolescent and has built an impressive career with pieces that combine new techniques with the sound of Japanese folklore. Fujikura says he received a call one day from an unknown person asking, "Can you write a double concerto with Claire Chase? The unknown questioner turned out to be Patricia Kopatchinskaya, and Claire Chase is a flutist who has devoted herself to playing new repertoire.

Circling around each other soloists
Fujikura called Chase his spiritual sister and wrote a flute concerto for her. He felt challenged by the idea of two soloists operating in the same register: like two birds circling each other and flying in the same direction. Fujikura's new music is joined by La mer, a work with which Claude Debussy would give a new face to twentieth-century music. Debussy insisted that the score be adorned with The Great Wave, a woodcut by the Japanese artist Hokusai.