Mishima

Philip Glass's iconic 1985 score to the Paul Schrader film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, depicts the life of the famous Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. Trying to reconcile his philosophy of uniting art and action, he stormed an army garrison in 1970 in a failed attempt to restore the Emperor as sovereign and bring back Japan's former pre-war glory. The film closes on his ritual suicide (seppuku). For decades, the only extract from this brilliant score was the string quartet music written for the black and white sections of the film and published as String Quartet No.3. This new release by pianist Maki Namekawa is the first recording of the complete Glass score since the original soundtrack in 1985. It was arranged for solo piano by Glass's music director Michael Riesman.