■ L’Espoir

This piece, composed in 2012 by Satoshi Yagisawa, was commissioned for the 10th Anniversary regular concert of the Sapporo Sosei High School Wind Ensemble, located in Hokkaido, in the far north of Japan. It was premiered by the ensemble under the direction of their teacher, Yuji Itakura. When Itakura commissioned the piece from the composer, he included the following three requirements: it should be a short and familiar-sounding piece and easy to listen to; it should be appropriate as a choral exercise of the basic ensemble; and could also be played as an encore in their regular concert of each year. Yagisawa composed a wonderfully warm piece of music to fulfil all these conditions and named it L’Espoir as a goodwill wish for the students. L’Espoir is also suitable as a concert interlude.