Joe Hisaishi Conducts… documents a concert given at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall on 31 July 2024. There Hisaishi performed his own ‘The End of the World’ suite in a version as well as his friend and colleague Steve Reich’s ‘The Desert Music’.
Inspired by a visit to New York City in 2007, Hisaishi composed ‘The End of the World’ as a three-movement suite that explores the chaos resulting from the collapse of global order in the aftermath of 9/11. By 2015, Hisaishi had transformed the suite into a five-movement work. Reich’s ‘Desert Music’ was inspired by three American deserts with historical and personal significance.
For the concert, Hisaishi was joined by Future Orchestra Classics, an orchestra of young…