Composer Toshifumi Hinata Says Working on New Album with Hungarian Orchestra Budapest Scoring ‘Evolved My Musicality’

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:30 JST, September 26, 2025

Composer Toshifumi Hinata, known for the soundtrack to the TV drama “Tokyo Love Story” and the music for Le Couple’s “Hidamari no Uta,” has released a new album, “the Dark Night Rhapsodies,” through Sony Music Labels Inc. For this work, he commissioned a Hungarian orchestra for the first time while he focused on composition.

“I thought it would be difficult to create orchestral pieces not tied to an anime or film, in regard to the number of musicians and combinations of instruments,” Hinata said. “Fortunately, I found a Hungarian orchestra on social media that said, ‘We’ll play for you.’”

That orchestra was Budapest Scoring. Their playing was immaculate, Hinata says. They accurately understood the style of each piece and the instrumental combinations required, and they set an efficient recording schedule.

“I was reassured and confident with the orchestra,” Hinata said.

The philosophy of the new album is based on his thoughts about the global situation, social issues and young people who cannot see their future.

Many of the pieces were created from his daily reflections.

Among the pieces in the album, Hinata spoke about “Enigma”: “In the world today, happy music can’t be happy. For the past two or three years, I’ve wanted to express, through music, my feeling about how incomprehensible the world is.”

When creating the orchestral pieces for the album, Hinata said: “I wanted all the pieces to be shorter than four minutes long. I know it can be hard for people to find the motivation to listen to a long symphony by an unfamiliar composer.”

Unexpectedly for him, the most challenging thing in the recording project with the overseas orchestra was communication.

Hinata found that his typical Japanese reserve of not being too direct or straightforward sometimes worked against getting the orchestra to express his feelings as he wanted it to. “I had to work efficiently,” he said. With these experiences, the project “has evolved my musicality, I think.”

In 1986, Hinata released his violin and piano piece “Reflections.” It gained worldwide attention and has reached 130 million plays on music streaming services.

“People who like Taylor Swift or Harry Styles also listen to this kind of music,” Hinata said. “A vast number of music pieces are available, regardless of release date or genre. Users can stumble upon my pieces as they navigate through them. I suppose music streaming services offer such opportunities.”