Toshio Hosokawa (1955)

Blossoming II (2011)

for orchestra

  • General information
    • Composition date : 2011
    • Duration : 15 mn
    • Editor : Schott
    • Commission: Edinburgh International Festival
Detailed formation
  • 2 flutes (also 1 piccolo, 1 alto flute), 2 oboes (also 1 English horn), 2 clarinets (also 1 bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (also 1 contrabassoon), 2 horns, 2 trumpets, percussionist, strings

Creation information

  • Date : 21 August 2011
    Location :

    Royaume-Uni, Écosse, Edinburgh, Edinburgh International Festival


    Performers :

    le Scottish Chamber Orchestra, direction : Robin Ticciati.

Program note

Over the last few years I have composed on the theme of ’flowers’. My grandfather was a master of Ikebana (the traditional Japanese art of flower arrangement); Zeami, the original practioner of the traditional Japanese theatre form Nō, considered the best performer a ’flower’. The deep roots of flowers in Japanese aesthetics and spirituality led me to them as the subject of this work. The flower I’m imagining in this work is a lotus, which is the symbolic flower of Buddhism. The flower and I are one; the blossoming of the flower represents my shedding of my skin, my self-discovery. 

Toshio Hosokawa.