1. Piano: Mitsuko Uchida is a clear first choice. Her box of the Mozart sonatas remains the best. Oddly I don’t like her much in the rest of the classical repertoire, though her Debussy and Webern and Schoenberg are interesting (though not my preferred versions for the latter two, which are the steelier Pollini and Gould). I also like Aki Takahashi, most of all for Cage and Feldman.
2. Conductor: Seiji Ozawa has remarkable talent and he can conduct almost anything without a score (not easy). Still, he never really developed his own sound and he has to count as a missed opportunity. First prize goes to Maasaki Suzuki, who has recorded a remarkable all-Japanese St. Matthew’s Passion and is doing a cycle of the Bach cantatas.
3. String Quartet: Tokyo is first-rate, get their complete box of Beethoven’s String Quartets.
4. Composer: Toru Takemitsu is the obvious choice, though I don’t much come back to his work.
5. Classical guitarist: Kazuhito Yamashita. His transcriptions are mind-blowing, most of all the Stravinsky. The fascination of the Japanese with transcriptions could command an entire book.
Outside of classical music I’ll recommend Kodo (and indeed all Taiko music, but only live, not on disc), The Brilliant Green’s "The Angel Song," and yes Yoko Ono. Most of Japanese popular music is a blur to me, though not an unpleasant one.
Brazilian-born Japanese bossa nova singer Lisa Ono is a treat.
Although the Tokyo Quartet was led for some time by Ukrainian violinist Mikhail Kopelman, previously leader of the even more legendary Borodin Quartet.
Personally, I prefer Toshiro Mayuzumi to Toru Takemitsu.
re conductor: I think the choice has to be Takashi Asahina; check out his Bruckner [3 cycles], or even Mahler
I just arrived home from a visit to my sister, and brought back with me several of her classical CD’s. One of them is the Mitsuko Uchida box of Mozart sonatas.
What about the Boredoms? Or Damo Suzuki of Can? Or Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead?
Best Japanese composer is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuo_Uematsu>Nobuo Uematsu [wikipedia].. disappointing he wasn’t mentioned. And how can you talk about Japan in 2008 without talking about video games?
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