Tokyo Performances

Dutoit conducts the NHK Symphony

On April 15 I attended a subscription program of the NHK Symphony in NHK Hall under the baton of Charles Dutoit.

The program began with Ravel’s “Rapsodie Espagnole” one of my least favorite of Ravel’s orchestral pieces. Dutoit naturally knows his way around French music, and the orchestra responded vigorously. This was followed by Mozart’s 20th piano concerto with Piotr Anderszewski, who performed beautifully. How is it that these soloists look so young and turn out to be much older than they appear?

The second half of the program was much more interesting. Anderszweski returned to be the soloist is Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 4, in which the piano plays a concertante part. This was my kind of music – post-romantic, energetic, enigmatic, emotional, lush. An altogether satisfying performance of a piece I’d like to hear again.

The concert ended with Ravel’s “La Valse” wherein I suppose he tries to recreate the success of “Bolero”. A nice, light piece of music, again with that Frenchness that a French conductor can squeeze out of a Japanese orchestra.

All in all, this was a satisfying couple hours on a gloomy Saturday afternoon. But my last experience of Dutoit, in which he conducted a piece by Tan Dun in the same hall with the same orchestra, was one of those evenings I’ll never forget.

posted by Larry Wells @ 3:30 PM