Last performance while still a Tokyo resident
Although I am on my way to a new life in Seoul, I will perhaps attend yet more musical performances in Tokyo when I visit. But, the final performances while residing in Tokyo were at the Tokyo International Forum as part of La Folle Journee, a three-day festival of Russian music.
The first was by the Capella de Saint Petersbourg of Rachmaninov's Vespers (or All Night Vigil). Wow. I am familiar with the work from recordings, and I do love Russian liturgical music, but hearing it live sung by people who know what they're doing and including those profound Russian basses, it was one of the top musical events of my life. Most moving and memorable.
Later that day, a performance of Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto in a hall so huge that there were screens at the side with high definition shots of the very handsome orchestra members (Orchestre de Pau Pays de Bearn) as well as the soloist Igor Tchetuev. I have heard this piece innumerable times, and this was an excellent performance and a great way to end my concert-going in Tokyo.
I have been so lucky to have heard some wonderful and strange music in Toyo the past 17 years. I hope that Seoul can measure up.
Winter Spring Tokyo 2012
Mahler's 9th - Triphony Hall - New Japan Philharmonic - Daniel Harding: one of my favorite works, decent performance, but nothing comes close to the Bernstein live recording on DGG
St. Matthew Passion - Seoul Arts Center - Leipzig Gewandhaus and Thomanerchor - during a trip to Seoul I got to hear this amazing, riveting performance. The European tradition came through and I was transfixed and transported.
Edogawa Phiharmonia - Steven Charette - Supe's Light Cavalry Overture (ta da dum da dum, ta da dum da dum, ta da dum da dum da da dum da), Dvorak Cello Concerto, Brahms' 4th symphony - went to support Steven, thought the music dark but well performed, repetoire not my cup of tea, enjoyed the Nimrod variation as an encore.
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra under the incomparable Eliahu Inbal performed Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde (my second hearing of that this year) at Suntory Hall with soloists Iris Vermillion (what a wonderful name) and Robert Gambill. A thoroughly engaging and inspiring performance..
Mahler's 8th
It is the centennial of the death of Mahler, and the Japanese like to commemorate such anniversaries. In the past few weeks I have hear “Das Lied von der Erde”, the Adagio from the 10th Symphony, the Rückert songs, the 4th Symphony, and yesterday the 8th - all performed by the NHK Symphony Orchestra at NHK Hall. If I wished, I could hear several more performances of “Das Lied von der Erde” over the next months performed by some of the other seven major orchestras in metropolitan Tokyo as well as the First, Third, Fifth and Ninth Symphonies.
I grew up listening to the Bernstein recordings of the Mahler symphonies recorded in the 60’s. Mahler’s music has continued to resonate with me. There is something about the grandiosity bordering on the bombastic, the rhapsodic episodes, the sorrowful adagios, the dissolution of major into minor, and the death rattle of Romanticism that have made me a life-long devotee. Bernstein’s first recording of the 8th, with the LSO, is still my favorite.
My first live performance was in San Francisco with the SF Symphony conducted by Seiji Ozawa as part of the festivities to open the new symphony hall. It was thrilling to hear the “universe ring and resound”, as Mahler described his largest-scale work. But, I remember being a little disappointed that the live performance didn’t measure up to the recording. And so it has gone for years.
Living in Tokyo has allowed me to hear multiple performances of my favorite works. I have heard a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies conducted by Michiyoshi Inoue and the New Japan Philharmonic. Most noteworthy was the first performance in the cycle in which, during the first few measures of the First Symphony, Inoue had gotten himself so wound up (he is of the dance-around-the-podium school of conductors) that he fell off the podium. He landed on his back while still waving his baton. Realizing the futility of the situation, he then pulled himself up and walked off the stage. Japanese people do not like unexpected events, and the hall was deathly silent (unlike what I could only image to be the whispers and speculations of an audience elsewhere). About three minutes later he re-emerged and started over. In any event, his performance of the 8th was otherwise unmemorable as have been a previous performance by Dutoit, two conducted by Gary Bertini (hearing the 8th on two consecutive days is not a good idea), and one by Eliahu Inbal during which I was seated in the second row – another mistake. The only performance that has come close to being ideal was by Christian Arming and the New Japan Philharmonic.
All this has led me to speculate that the symphony is so vast and the demands, particularly on the soloists, so great that any live performance is going to have its weaknesses, and the recordings sound so much better simply because the conductor gets to take sections over until they are perfect. This is hardly an original insight.
(Strangely, after writing the last paragraph, I took a walk and part of the 8th came up on shuffle on my iPod. It sounded so immediate and subtle, so unlike anything that could be heard in a large concert hall.)
So, this performance, too, did not quite measure up. On the positive side, Dutoit paced the work nicely. I have always found the beginning of the second part a little slow, but this was graceful and kept my attention. The double choir was excellent, but the childrens’ chorus was a little too robotic for my tastes. The children sang without scores but also without much finesse. The orchestra sounded fine – no noticeable horn flubs, which can be a problem with Mahler. The four harps were celestial, the violin solos soaring, and even the mandolin plucked away with panache. The choir of horns in the back of the hall at the finale was dramatic – and loud.
However, I didn’t come away floating, as I seemingly fruitlessly desire. Part of the problem this time were the demands made upon the eight vocal soloists. The three men particularly (a New Zealander bass, a Japanese baritone, and a German tenor) were unable to fill the vast hall with their forte climactic moments without sounding strained. The five women were better, particularly American soprano Erin Wall who sang beautifully.
Primarily it is a matter of dynamics. I have gotten so used to hearing every detail and shade through recordings that a live performance of such a grand work is bound to sound a little muddy. Additionally, since it is a work that is not performed very often, I suppose that some conductors are flying on one wing since they have not performed it anywhere nearly as often as they might have Beethoven’s 7th, for example.
So, although I’ve heard more live performances of Mahler’s 8th than most ordinary mortals, give me Lennie’s recording.
Fall 2011
I'm tired of writing about each performance, so for a while I'm just going to maintain a list. So far this fall:
- A danced version of the St. John Passion - visual diversions during the slow parts
- Brahms Requiem conducted by Andre Previn with NHK - he has gotten old and feeble and the orchestra seemed to get away from him a few times
- The ballet "The Prince of the Pagodas" - which I had hoped one day to see, entertaining
- Mahler: Adagio from the 10th and Das Lied von der Erde: NHK, adagio pretty good, Das Lied's tenor was poor but the alto very good. What a strange piece of music - the last movement is wonderful.
-the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Mahler's death continued with NHK under Jun Märkl doing the 4th and the Ruckert Lieder. Beautifully done - the best NHKSO has sounded in a long while. I was reminded of George Plimpton playing the sleigh bells while Leonard Bernstein conducted, and Lennie not being amused.
British Embassy Choir
In aid of the earthquake victims, this concert featured excerpts from Bach's B-Minor Mass preceded by some dreary pieces by dead German composers.
The beginning featured a guest organist, a very tall German fellow, who tossed off the Prelude and Fugue in D-Minor like it was child's play. A mesmerizing 10 minutes.
Then we had five pieces by the likes of Schutz, Haydn and Rheinberger which would have kept the dead asleep. The choir sounded a little ragged throughout.
The excerpts from the Mass were the Kyrie and Gloria. The choir did much better on its parts here, and the soloists were also very good for amateur musicians. The final chorus was taken at a devilishly fast pace, and it was exciting to see if the whole thing would fall apart - which it did not.
The pianist was heroic - most impressive. Mariko Sano deserves a pat on the back for her accompaniment.
The whole Mass will be offered in the fall with orchestra. We'll see.
A show, a concert, and three operas
The show was "Once upon a Mattress" at TIP. It is an amusing show with instantly forgettable music. Jonathon Hagans was terrific, as always, as the wizard, and it was a pleasure to see Yayoi Dreisker on stage although in a role too small for her considerable talents. I thought that the leads were dull, but enjoyed Michelle Yamazaki's Queen Aggravain and Andrew Martinez's Jester. Otherwise the cast was very young, the directing uninspired, and the music dreary.
Contrasting was the ISSH Spring Concert which was consistently top-notch from beginning to end. Highlights were the Rautavaara settings of Lorca, the Five Hebrew Love Songs of Eric whitacre, and Psalm 84 of Grayston Ives. Dori Baunsgard's final show was a tour de force. She will be missed.
Then there were two Menotti shows in Shibuya - probably in celebration of the centennial of his birth. The first included a collection of soprano arias mostly adequately sung but with horrendous English diction. The highlight was "To This We've Come" from "The Consul", an opera which should be performed more often. The second half was a piano-accompanied performance of "The Old Maid and the Thief" unfortunately sung in Japanese, adequately sung by the women but with a pretty weak Bob. The second day included "Chip and His Dog" and "Help, Help! The Globolinks." "Chip" was new to me, and had some delightful moments. "Globolinks'" music is pretty forgettable, but the performances were tight and pretty well sung. The orchestra was electronic but quite convincing, and the conducting was excellently accomplished by Steve Charette. The acting was outrageously overdone, but it was a good afternoon in the theater for someone who wants to hear something a little different.
Korngold and Sibelius
Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra
Suntory Hall
April 24, 2011
I went primarily to hear the
Korngold Violin Concerto - a piece I have always liked although I think the opening theme of the first movement sounds like the theme from the old TV series "Star Trek". The advertised soloist - a European - was replaced by a Japanese,
Yasushi Toyoshima, who, if my reading of Japanese is correct, is the concertmaster for the New Japanese Philharmonic, an ace group. I am assuming (perhaps wrongly) that the European bowed out because of the ongoing "crisis" which was, at that point, many weeks old.
In any event, the performance was very good, although not electrifying. It was preceded by Sibelius' tone poem,
Tapiola (which I always naturally associate with tapioca) - not his most interesting orchestral short piece. And it was followed by Sibelius' Fifth symphony, which is a big
favorite of mine and which was admirably performed. The
conductor, a Finn named
Hannu Lintu, presumably knows his stuff, and I liked the pace and the phrasing, although the very end was a bit over the top.
The final piece was
Finlandia, but I passed on hearing that old chestnut again. We had heard unexpectedly at the beginning of the concert a Bach Air in honor of the deceased in
Tohoku, so I was ready to roll without another
elegiac moment.
