A photographic work of roses at Nagai Botanical Garden in May 2026, photographed on clear, bright days.
Centered on Nagai Botanical Garden on May 11, with roses from May 19 added, this work was created to match Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Op.25, performed by the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Nodoka Okisawa, lasting 16 minutes and 20 seconds.
After hearing the NHK Symphony Orchestra’s newly released performance on YouTube, I instantly became convinced of Nodoka Okisawa’s genius.

May 2026.
This is a photographic work of roses at Nagai Botanical Garden, photographed on days of brilliant clear weather.
The core of the work is Nagai Botanical Garden on May 11.
That day was, quite literally, a cloudless clear day.
The roses photographed under that light became a truly splendid series of images.
To this, I added roses photographed at Nagai Botanical Garden on May 19.
At first, I considered using all 232 photographs from May 11 and all 71 photographs from May 19.
However, in order to match the duration of the music, I finally reduced the number of images.

The music used here is Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Op.25, performed by the NHK Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Nodoka Okisawa.
The performance lasts 16 minutes and 20 seconds.
Just a short while ago, I watched the NHK Symphony Orchestra’s performance newly released on YouTube.
It was a concert held in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, in March of this year.
In July, I will attend a concert at The Symphony Hall in Osaka, where Nodoka Okisawa will conduct the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra.
Before that concert, today, after hearing this performance, I instantly became convinced of Nodoka Okisawa’s genius.
She is magnificent.
The following is an explanation of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Op.25.
Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Op.25, is formally Symphony No.1 in D major, Op.25, “Classical.”
It was composed between 1916 and 1917, when Prokofiev was still in his mid-twenties.
The premiere took place in 1918 in Petrograd, conducted by the composer himself.
As its title suggests, this work is called the Classical Symphony.
However, it is not merely an imitation of the Classical style.
Prokofiev wrote it with the idea of what kind of symphony Haydn might have composed if he had lived in the twentieth century.
In other words, the outer form is Haydnesque.
But the inner substance is entirely Prokofiev.
It is light, bright, transparent, brief, and beautifully balanced.
Yet within it are sharp twentieth-century rhythms, surprising modulations, irony, humor, and the dry brilliance unique to Prokofiev.
The first movement begins at once with the bright sound of D major.
It is clear like a Classical symphony, and the rhythm is light.
Yet in the leaps of the melody and the movement of the harmony, one already hears Prokofiev’s characteristic sharpness.
It is music that wears the elegant clothing of the Classical style, while occasionally showing a modern smile.
The second movement is a Larghetto.
It is elegant and slightly dreamlike.
Yet here too, it is not merely beautiful.
Within its Classical grace, there is a strange sense of floating.
The melody is smooth, but the color of the harmony is somehow unusual.
Prokofiev’s lyricism appears here in an extremely refined form.
The third movement is a Gavotte.
This is one of the great characteristics of the work.
Where a Classical symphony would normally place a minuet or scherzo, Prokofiev placed an old-fashioned dance, the gavotte.
This gavotte has elegance and charm, but also a slight irony.
The fourth movement is an extremely fast and witty finale.
It moves lightly and with a springing energy.
The whole orchestra moves like a precise machine, yet vividly alive.
Here, Classical clarity and Prokofiev’s sharp rhythmic character are brilliantly united.
The appeal of this work is not heaviness.
It is not a work that depicts a vast spiritual world.
Rather, in a short span of time, it contains clarity, wit, intelligence, youthfulness, and perfect craftsmanship.
If Brahms’s Symphony No.3 is the music of autumn in life, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony is the music of a young intelligence smiling.
It does not weep gravely.
It does not shout loudly.
Yet within its lightness, there is an extremely high degree of perfection.
This music does not call for heavy roses.
It calls for light, speed, wit, youth, and transparent air.
That is why I chose the roses of Nagai Botanical Garden under a clear May sky.
The roses of Nagai Botanical Garden have brightness.
They have openness.
And they possess a lively light that resonates with the graceful intelligence of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony.
The refreshing opening of the first movement.
The elegant Larghetto of the second movement.
The old-fashioned and charming Gavotte of the third movement.
The swift and witty finale of the fourth movement.
Throughout the work, Nodoka Okisawa’s conducting revealed not only youth, but firm architecture and vivid musicality.
This photographic work was born from the emotion I felt at the moment I heard that performance.
The clear sunlight of May.
The roses of Nagai Botanical Garden.
Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony.
Nodoka Okisawa conducting the NHK Symphony Orchestra.
These four elements came together as one work.