The music on this disc, although performed by France's Jean-François Paillard Chamber Orchestra, was aimed at the Japanese market when it was first released in 1979. The same is true of this audiophile reissue, which has booklet notes exclusively in Japanese. It may have been intended as a counter to a similar recording of traditional Japanese melodies released two years earlier by flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal and harpist Lily Laskine. That disc was on the Sony label in the years prior to its association with the CBS conglomerate; this one, also prominently featuring Laskine, was made for Sony's competitor JVC. In musical terms the album is intriguing; in technical terms it's superb. The program consists of 12 apparently traditional Japanese selections, generally moderate in tempo and nostalgic in mood, in arrangements for chamber orchestra that are somewhere between impressionistic and concertante in their foreground presentation of the harp, flute, and oboe. The string writing, with arrangements by one Shin-Ichiro Ikebe, is in the lush style of other Japanese orchestral releases of the time Americans would have called pops, but the detailed latticework supplied by the solo instruments is distinctive. The extended-range 24-bit remastering apparently had top-notch sonic material to work with from the start; the spaciousness and resolution attainable from the present disc are impressive. This is not a CD to compress down to the one-size-fits-all sonic parameters of an iPod! It is, however, an excellent choice to bring with you when you're shopping for expensive stereo equipment, and it is also evocative of an intriguing stage in Japan's encounter with the Western tradition. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide
