Joe Hisaishi Conducts Steve Reich: The Desert Music & Joe Hisaishi: The End of the World Ella Taylor, The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, Future Orchestra Classics & Joe Hisaishi

• Steve Reich (b. 1936): The Desert Music:
• 1 Reich: The Desert Music: I. fast 07:17
• 2 Reich: The Desert Music: II. moderate 06:44
• 3 Reich: The Desert Music: IIIA. slow 06:10
• 4 Reich: The Desert Music: IIIB. moderate 05:46
• 5 Reich: The Desert Music: IIIC. slow 05:17
• 6 Reich: The Desert Music: IV. moderate 03:28
• 7 Reich: The Desert Music: V. fast 10:11
• Joe Hisaishi (b. 1950): The End of the World:
• 8 Hisaishi: The End of the World: I. Collapse 08:59
• 9 Hisaishi: The End of the World: II. Grace of the St. Paul 08:25
• 10 Hisaishi: The End of the World: III. D.e.a.d 05:25
• 11 Hisaishi: The End of the World: IV. Beyond the World 07:15
• Arthur Kent (1920 - 2009), Joe Hisaishi: The End of the World (Arr. Hisaishi for Soprano, Choir & Orchestra)
• 12 Kent, Hisaishi: The End of the World (Arr. Hisaishi for Soprano, Choir & Orchestra) 05:45
• Total Runtime 01:20:42

Info for Joe Hisaishi Conducts Steve Reich: The Desert Music & Joe Hisaishi: The End of the World

Joe Hisaishi’s new album for Deutsche Grammophon documents a concert given at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall on 31 July 2024. The programme featured Hisaishi’s own The End of the World and the Japanese premiere of his friend and colleague Steve Reich’s The Desert Music, played by Future Orchestra Classics (FOC) under the baton of the legendary composer-conductor-pianist himself. Established by Hisaishi in 2019 as part of his mission to share his love of classical music with new audiences, the FOC is an orchestra of players praised for their vivid, expressive performances. Hisaishi and the FOC were joined at Suntory Hall by The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo and, in The End of the World, by soprano Ella Taylor.

Joe Hisaishi Conducts will be released in all formats on 8 August 2025. “D.e.a.d” (The End of the World) and “A. Slow” (The Desert Music) will be issued for streaming/download on 27 June and 18 July respectively. This is Hisaishi’s third full-length album for DG, with whom he signed an exclusive agreement in 2023. It follows on from the success of A Symphonic Celebration and the EP Mládí, both showcasing Hisaishi’s iconic film music, and last spring’s Joe Hisaishi in Vienna.

Hisaishi composed The End of the World after visiting Ground Zero in New York. “I went there after 9/11,” he recalls. “When I saw the ruins of the World Trade Center, I was inspired to write The End of The World as I wondered to myself what the world would be like in the 21st century.” The resulting three-movement suite for 12 cellos, double bass, harp, percussion and piano was first performed in 2008. Its title was borrowed from another source of inspiration – the 1962 Skeeter Davis hit of that name (music by Arthur Kent, lyrics by Sylvia Dee).

By 2015, Hisaishi had transformed the suite into a five-movement work for solo voice, chorus and orchestra. The original three movements were “Collapse”; “Grace of the St. Paul” (a reference to St. Paul’s Chapel, a sanctuary for emergency workers in the wake of 9/11); and “Beyond the World”. To these he added “D.e.a.d”, reimagined from the orchestral suite DEAD to include a vocal part with lyrics by Hisaishi’s daughter Mai, a singer and lyricist. Now the fourth movement, “Beyond the World” features choral writing incorporated in 2009, with Latin lyrics by the composer himself. Acting as epilogue is his recomposed version of Kent & Dee’s The End of the World.

Steve Reich’s The Desert Music (1982–83) is also in five movements. Written for amplified voices and orchestra, it sets words by American poet and physician William Carlos Williams (1883–1963). Having long admired Williams’ poetry, Reich chose a selection of poems from The Desert Music and Other Poems (1954) and Journey to Love (1955), using extracts from these to form an arch-like work.

The idea of the “desert” has many different associations for Reich. These include his own childhood journeys through the Mojave in California; biblical tales of Moses and the Israelites in Sinai; and the first ever atomic detonation, which took place in New Mexico’s Alamogordo Desert in July 1945.

Just weeks after that test, codenamed Trinity, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were struck by nuclear bombs. Reich chose post-war poems that referenced these events, and has said of his own work, “In The Desert Music, the William Carlos Williams poems deal with the atomic bomb, so I had to express a darkness in the music that had not been present in my previous compositions”.

“The Desert Music refers not to a natural environment, but to the desert created in America by the first atomic bomb tests,” adds Hisaishi. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was anti-war, but it’s a work about the feelings that weigh on the American psyche about creating that particular ‘desert’.”

“In a way,” he goes on, “both works have themes related to war. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, so it seems apt that I commemorate this important milestone by performing both The End of the World and Desert Music again at the BBC Proms in August, which is a great privilege.”

Ella Taylor, soprano
Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo
Future Orchestra Classics
Joe Hisaishi, conductor

Ella Taylor
Described in the Guardian as having ‘a voice of tempered steel, wrapped in a warm velvet cloak’ Ella Taylor is a soprano with a passion for performing contemporary music and works by women and gender non-conforming artists. Winner of the Second Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier awards, they are a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio.

Highlights in 2024/2025 include Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Staatsoper Hamburg and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte for Nevill Holt Festival/Opera North. Concert work the Studio Ghibli Concert Tour Final with Joe Hisaishi and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Tokyo Dome and the Classic FM Hall of Fame with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, as well as recitals at the Oxford International Song Festival, SongEasel and the recital series ‘Song at Wolfson’.

Recent engagements have included The Activist in the première of Ellen Reid’s The Shell Trial for Dutch National Opera, as well as a return to The Royal Opera, London, as Fourth Maid Elektra. As a regular collaborator with Joe Hisaishi, they have performed Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki in arenas around Europe, as well as making their Tokyo debut last year performing Hisaishi’s The End of the World with Future Orchestra Classics at Suntory Hall. They have performed both Mahler Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 4 with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Bold Tendencies Festival) and Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra respectively. For the Bold Tendencies Festival they have also performed Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.

Ella Taylor is a keen collaborator and recitalist, making a dedicated effort to work with and perform works by people underrepresented in classical music, as well as working with composers and librettists in the creation of new, LGBT+ focused work. They have given talks about navigating a career as a trans opera singer for various companies and magazines including the Royal Opera House Engender Festival, Place and Space: a TECHNE student-led conference, and Opera Now. A film with Trans Voices Choir (part of London Contemporary Voices) has been released on Guardian Films, which Ella is a founding member of. They were also a soloist at the inaugural Classical Pride at the Barbican.

Joe Hisaishi
a composer, conductor and pianist, has established himself as a formidable force in contemporary music, for his delicately crafted symphonic and solo works, as well as his globally successful film music. Hisaishi is greatly in demand as a conductor performing with the most notable symphony orchestras across the globe. With nearly 40 solo albums and over 100 film scores to his name, he is one of the most celebrated composers of our time.

Hisaishi’s recent symphony orchestra engagements have seen him conducting the Toronto and Chicago Symphony orchestras, Royal Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker. Alongside his film music works, he conducts classical repertoire from the likes of, Ravel, Reich, Mussorgsky, Brahms and Pärt, and his own symphonic compositions such as DA•MA•SHI•E and The East Land Symphony. Hisaishi also had a successful weeklong residency with Seattle Symphony Orchestra where he led three sold-out concerts, curated and conducted a chamber concert dedicated to contemporary music from his peers, and a panel discussion with young audience members. In the 2024/25 season, he debuts with San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras. After a successful debut at the Hollywood Bowl in 2023, Hisaishi returns to Los Angeles Philharmonic for the world premiere of his Harp Concerto, commissioned by the orchestra and performed by their own harpist, Emmanuel Ceysson.

A Deutsche Grammophon exclusive artist, Hisaishi has released the titles Merry-Go-Round of Life and A Symphonic Celebration, both of which are new arrangements that bring a fresh excitement to his Studio Ghibli masterpieces. His most recent recording, Joe Hisaishi in Vienna, features the world premiere recordings of two of his compositions – Symphony No.2 and Viola Saga with Wiener Symphoniker and soloist Antoine Tamestit.

As a passionate pioneer of contemporary music, Hisaishi collaborates with similarly experimental artists including Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Nadia Sirota, Phillip Glass, David Lang and Terry Reilly. Since 2014, he has been presenting his eponymous ​“MUSIC FUTURE” concerts in Tokyo, bringing together the works and talents of these notable collaborators. Volume 11 of the series enjoys an airing in Tokyo in summer 2024 and he has also previously travelled with the series to Carnegie Hall in New York in 2022 and Seattle in 2024. He holds Young Composer’s Competition every year to inspire and empower young composers, and the winning composition makes its world premiere at his MUSIC FUTURE concerts.

Hisaishi is the recipient of both the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, received in 2009, and The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette, in 2023 by the government of Japan. Hisaishi is Music Partner with New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 2021, Principal Guest Conductor with Japan Century Symphony Orchestra where he is Music Director designate from the 2025/26 season. Hisaishi was also appointed as Composer-in-Association of Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in April 2024.

This album contains no booklet.