''Yoshiki Classical'' is the third classical studio album by Japanese musician Yoshiki. It was released on August 27, 2013. The album peaked at 21st place on ''Billboard'' Top Classical Albums chart.

Background

In 1993, Yoshiki recorded his first classical studio album, ''

Eternal Melody Eternal Melody is the first classical studio album by Japanese musician Yoshiki. It was released on April 21, 1993. Overview In 1991, Yoshiki released his first album, classical compilation ''Yoshiki Selection'', which included various classica ...

'', in London at the studios owned by English record producer Sir George Martin, who produced and co-arranged the album, with the music performed by the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is one of five permanent symphony orchestras based in London. It was founded by the conductors Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a rival to the existing London Symphony and BBC Symphony ...

. It mostly included orchestral arrangements of songs from his band X Japan. The second studio album, '' Eternal Melody II'', was recorded in the

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

; in his own Extasy Recording Studio, O'Henry Sound Studios, and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

Scoring Stage M facility. All songs were written and composed by Yoshiki, additionally performed by

Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra The is recognized as the oldest symphony orchestra in Japan. It was founded in 1911 and debuted at the original Matsuzakaya store in Nagoya as the . It relocated to Tokyo in 1938. As of 2005, it has 166 members. The orchestra plays frequently a ...

In 2012, Yoshiki composed the theme song for the 69th Golden Globe Awards, and on January 15, 2013, the theme was officially released through iTunes in 111 countries, with all proceeds being donated to charities chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. After the album release on August 27, 2013, in its celebration, a special live performance was held at

the Grammy Museum The Grammy Museum is any of a group of museums containing exhibits relating to winners of the Grammy Award for achievement in recording. The museums in this group include: *The Grammy Museum at L.A. Live, which opened in 2008 in Los Angeles, Califo ...

. On February 19, Yoshiki's first classical world tour was announced at the Grammy Museum. It began on April 25, 2014, in

Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa (; Spanish for "Table Coast") is a city in Orange County, California. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including part of the South Coast Plaza–John Wa ...

, and continued in Mexico, Russia, Germany, France, United Kingdom, China, Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan, for a total of 13 shows in 10 countries. Due to scheduling issues, the concert at Toronto, Canada, on May 10 was postponed indefinitely. The tour setup featured Yoshiki on piano, several strings as cellos and viola, and vocalist Katie Fitzgerald from Violet UK. Performances included classical versions of songs composed by Yoshiki and other famous composers such as Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Composition

''Yoshiki Classical'' contains mostly previously released songs. "Amethyst" was the first orchestral song Yoshiki composed, "Red Christmas" is a song by his musical project Violet UK, while "Seize the Light" is from a group Globe, with whom Yoshiki collaborated in the early 2000s. There are three orchestral arrangements of X Japan's songs " Tears", " Forever Love", and differing on the edition, " Say Anything", or previously unreleased " The Last Song". It includes "Anniversary", composed and performed at the request of the Japanese government at a celebration in honor of the tenth anniversary of Emperor Akihito's enthronement in 1999. Two theme songs, "I'll Be Your Love", from the World Fair Expo 2005 held in Japan, and of "Golden Globe" awards. Besides that, was included previously unreleased song "Miracle", used since 2010 as the opening intro theme song for the X Japan's concert tours.

Release

The album was first released digitally in North America on August 27, 2013, via

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. On September 24, it was released worldwide digitally and in CD format in North America, and was also released on September 25 as a special short digital edition titled "Yoshiki Melodies Classics" in Japan. On the Oricon charts, it reached number four. On ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

s Classical Albums chart list reached number eleven, while on ''Billboard'' Japan it reached number three at the Top Albums list, and number one (for three consecutive weeks) at the Classical Albums list. On the iTunes Store, it reached number one on the classical charts in ten different countries (Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Finland and Canada). In the United States and Norway it reached number two, number six in Australia, and number ten in France.

Track listing

Recording personnel

* Piano: Yoshiki * Orchestra:

Quartet San Francisco Quartet San Francisco is a non-traditional and eclectic string quartet led by violinist Jeremy Cohen. The group played their first concert in 2001 and has recorded five albums. Playing a wide range of music genres including jazz, blues, tango, ...

, Yoshiki Studio Orchestra * Producer: Yoshiki, George Martin (#5, #9, #10) * Executive producers: Yoshiki, Kei Ishizaka, Atsushi Suzuki, Kaz Utsunomiya, David Zierler, Kouki Hayashi, Kento Oki * Orchestra arrangement: Yoshiki, David Campbell (#1),

Shelly Berg Shelton "Shelly" Glen Berg (born August 18, 1955) is an American classical and jazz pianist and music educator. He is the dean of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida and the school's Patricia L. Frost P ...

(#2, #4, #6, #8), Ikuro Fujiwara (#3, #7), George Martin (#5), (#9), Gavin Greenaway (#10), Jeremy Cohen (#11) * Mixing engineer: Steve Churchyard (#1, #3, #8), Joe Chiccarelli (#2, #7), Ryan Boesch (#4),

Haydn Bendall Haydn Bendall (born 13 April 1951, Essex, England) is an English people, English record producer, Audio engineering, audio engineer and Mixing engineer, mixer. He was Chief Engineer at Abbey Road Studios for ten years and was awarded the Audio P ...

(#5, #9, #10), Takao Suga (#6),

Leslie Ann Jones Leslie Ann Jones is a multiple Grammy Award-winning recording engineer working as Director of Music Recording and Scoring at Skywalker Sound, a Lucasfilm, Ltd. company. She is a past Chair of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science ...

(#11) * Mastering engineer: Stephen Marcussen

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums 2013 classical albums Yoshiki (musician) albums