Educational Media Reviews Online

Tokyo Waltz is an impressionistic documentary about a concert given at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on October 15, 1996 by Nashville fiddler, Mark O'Connor, classical bassist, Edgar Meyer, and cellist superstar, Yo Yo Ma. Most of the music in Tokyo Waltz is from the three musicians' popular Appalachia Waltz CD, which features folk-inspired music and new arrangements of American and Irish folk tunes.

Considerable time is spent documenting the musician's rehearsal for the evening concert in Suntory Hall. Lively interaction between the concert performers keeps this rehearsal footage interesting. However, Tokyo Waltz is more than just a concert video. It juxtaposes haunting images of Tokyo with music from the concert. An example of this is shown during the Appalachia Waltz number where you see an ocean of colored umbrellas jostling each other in a downpour on a crowded Tokyo street. Moreover, during part of the same musical number, we are also presented with film footage of food going down a cafeteria conveyor belt! Of course, such attractive music doesn't really need visual imagery to make it interesting so that some of these musically accompanied images seemed almost gratuitous.

Unusual camera angles, blurred slow motion and trick photography create much needed visual variety in Tokyo Waltz. At times, the cinematographer favored dramatic diagonal camera angles and dizzying motion. Sometimes, the picture seemed slightly out of focus and the color over saturated, but the sound quality was always excellent. The review copy had only one slight visual defect.

Tokyo Waltz is a charming program that gives valuable insight into how concert musicians interact. Music schools will find this video useful in "world" string and popular music classes. Public libraries may want to add this entertaining tape to their circulating video music collections. Highly Recommended.