The legendary Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino visited Japan again in autumn 2024 – a country that has inspired him since his early artistic beginnings. In 1967, when he was just 20 years old, he set a haiku by Matsuo Bashō to music; Japanese literature and aesthetics have been an integral part of his work ever since.

At the invitation of the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo and under the artistic direction of Gaetano D’Espinosa, an intensive residency project was organised by Yoichi Sugiyama. Sciarrino led workshops for selected young composers and performers from leading Japanese music academies and took part in a concert with a representative selection of his works on 15 November 2024. The ensemble consisted of high-calibre specialists in contemporary music, conducted by Sugiyama.

This recording documents this special moment of exchange – from early masterpieces such as De la nuit (1971), which marks the transition to his clearly notated, poetically flickering sound language, to the iconic flageolet worlds in Ai limiti della notte (1979) and the mysterious flute colours in Addio case del vento (1993), to concentrated sound experiments such as Capriccio di una corda (2009), played exclusively on one string.

More recent works such as the mosaic-like Arioso a 5 (2018), Senza vento (2019) with its three-dimensional layers of sound and the vocal cycle Una lettera e 6 canti (2021) are also represented, the latter two as premiere recordings. Together, they span an arc from Sciarrino’s beginnings to the present day and show how he constantly explores the boundaries between sound, silence, gesture and memory.

‘Ai limiti della note: Sciarrino in Tokyo 2024’ is not only a musical retrospective, but also the sonorous testimony to a decades-long, fruitful relationship between one of the most important composers of our time and Japanese culture.