Joe Hisaishi: The Boy and the Heron, Symphonic Suite
When a film that has touched generations of audiences finds its way from the cinema to the concert platform, something rare takes shape: the chance to hear a beloved score anew. With his Symphonic Suite for The Boy and the Heron, Joe Hisaishi reshapes the film score for which he received wide recognition in 2023 into a self-contained symphonic work for piano and orchestra. At his side is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with which the Japanese composer shares one of the defining partnerships of his international career.
Deutsche Grammophon releases the recording on 6 November 2026, inviting both long-standing connoisseurs of the Ghibli universe and curious newcomers to discover Hisaishi’s musical language between screen and concert hall. Both on the podium and at the piano, the composer presents his music here in its most fully realised concert form.
From cinema to concert hall: how the suite came about
The Boy and the Heron, known in Japanese by its original title Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka (‘How Do You Live?’), was released in 2023 as Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature film in ten years and marked a high point in the joint work of director and composer. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA Award, while critics regarded Hisaishi’s score as one of his most poetic works: clear, restrained and of great emotional depth.
For the concert version, Hisaishi transferred this film music into a symphonic form that follows its own dramatic logic. In place of individual scene miniatures, a continuous arc emerges in which the piano as solo instrument and the colours of a large orchestra enter into dialogue with one another.
The suite already passed its baptism of fire in the concert hall: in summer 2025 Hisaishi presented the work to Japanese audiences together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and shortly afterwards its European premiere followed at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall. This release now makes that concert experience permanently available.
Joe Hisaishi and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Joe Hisaishi ranks among the most influential composers for film and classical music worldwide. He rose to fame through his decades-long collaboration with Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, on films such as My Neighbor Totoro‚ Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. At the same time, as a conductor, pianist and composer of an extensive contemporary catalogue, he has established a firm place in concert life. Since 2023, Hisaishi has been an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon, which has previously released, among others, the Ghibli soundtrack collection A Symphonic Celebration, the acclaimed album Joe Hisaishi in Vienna and the celebrated performances captured on Joe Hisaishi Conducts.
As Composer-in-Association of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hisaishi enjoys a particularly close artistic relationship with the ensemble, one that already underpinned the acclaimed album A Symphonic Celebration and found its echo in sold-out concerts from London and Paris to Tokyo. In the Symphonic Suite for The Boy and the Heron, this experience and a deepened mutual trust come together in an interpretation through which Hisaishi, as conductor and pianist, conveys his own musical language at first hand.
Formats and collector’s editions of The Boy and the Heron soundtrack
For collectors, the work appears as a coloured vinyl edition that combines the sonic warmth of the analogue format with the design pedigree of the Yellow Label. This places the title alongside the series of high-quality Hisaishi releases on Deutsche Grammophon and offers lovers of physical formats an object of lasting value.
Experience the magic of Joe Hisaishi’s The Boy and the Heron Symphonic Suite at home!
The Symphonic Suite is not only to be enjoyed on record: in autumn 2026, Joe Hisaishi returns to Europe with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for his World Dream Tour, which also takes in selected cities in Germany and Switzerland. As conductor and piano soloist, he presents the European premiere of his newly composed Concerto for Orchestra alongside the suite for The Boy and the Heron. Anyone who first discovers the music at home can then experience it in its full impact in the concert hall soon afterwards.
You can obtain the vinyl edition of the Symphonic Suite for The Boy and the Heron in the DG Store, and you can find further recordings and current dates for the composer on his artist page at Deutsche Grammophon.
Discover it now and follow the journey from cinema to concert hall!
