TMSO Concert at APRICO Hall

This concert is over. Date: Sat. 2. October 2021 15:00 (14:00)

Venue: OTA KUMIN HALL Aprico

[PDF download]

Artists

Naoto OTOMO,Conductor
Ayana TSUJI,Violin

Profile

Naoto OTOMO (Conductor)

Since his debut with the NHK Symphony Orchestra at the age of 22, Otomo has led the highly competitive music scene of Japan. He currently serves as Music Director at the Ryukyu Symphony Orchestra (Okinawa) and Artistic Director of Takasaki City Theatre, and previously held the posts of Principal Conductor/Music Director at the Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo, Kyoto and Gunma Symphony Orchestras and Osaka Philharmonic.

Otomo has appeared repeatedly with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Romania, Indianapolis Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, and he led the Philharmonia Orchestra on its tour to Japan.

Otomo has performed with numerous world-renowned soloists, such as Radu Lupu, Mikhail Pletnev, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nobuko Imai, Mstislav Rostropovich, among the others.

Well-known for his wide repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary works, Otomo has premiered numerous new works, conducting especially the first performances in Japan of several pieces by James MacMillan and the opera “A Flowering Tree” by John Adams. He was also awarded for his performance of Italian premier of Shigeaki Saegusa’s Jr. Butterfly at the Puccini Festival.

Ayana TSUJI (Violin)

Ayana Tsuji is one of the most promising young violinists of Japan. Born in Gifu in 1997, she started the violin at age 3. She was awarded First Prize at the 2016 Montreal International Competition, together with 5 other prizes.　She has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphoney Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra. Ayana graduated from Tokyo College of Music. She studied with Kenji Kobayashi, Toshiko Yaguchi, Kimiko Nakazawa, Machie Oguri, Koichiro Harada and Régis Pasquier. In 2018, she received the 28th Idemitsu Music Award. Ayana plays a Joannes Baptista Guadagnini 1748, on loan from the Yellow Angel NPO Corporation.

Program

Mozart: Symphony No.35 in D major, K.385, "Haffner"

Program Notes
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, op.64

Program Notes
Mozart: Symphony No.41 in C major, K.551, " Jupiter"

Program Notes

Ⅰ Allegro molto appassionato
Ⅱ Andante
Ⅲ Allegretto non troppo - Allegro molto vivace
(played without pause)

Felix Mendelssohn: Born in Hamburg, February 3, 1809; died in Leipzig, November 4, 1847

Mendelssohn wrote his E-minor Violin Concerto for his friend Ferdinand David, concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. In July of 1838, the composer had written to David: “Iʼd like to write a violin concerto for you next winter; one in E minor sticks in my head, the beginning of which will not leave me in peace.” One year later Mendelssohn wrote again, saying that he needed only “a few days in a good mood” to write the concerto. “But it is not, to be sure, an easy assignment; you want it to be brilliant, and how should someone like me do that? The whole first solo will consist of high Eʼs.” Early sketches reveal that Mendelssohn had indeed written a large number of high Eʼs, but by the time of the finished product in 1844 he had obviously reconsidered. Along the way, while David waited and waited for his concerto, those “high Eʼs” seem to have become something of a private joke. Mendelssohn finally completed the work in September of 1844.
It was well worth the wait. The sense of facility and effortless grace, its polish and eternal freshness, and the amiable, genteel mood it generates totally belie Mendelssohnʼs effort to compose it. Critic Philip Hale asserted that “the concerto always, under favorable conditions, interests and promotes contagious good feeling.” David was of course the soloist at the premiere, which took place at a Gewandhaus concert in Leipzig on March 13, 1845.
There is no opening orchestral introduction; the soloist enters with the main theme almost immediately. All three movements are joined, with no formal pauses to break the flow. Mendelssohn places the cadenza at the juncture of the development section and the recapitulation, with the soloist continuing on as accompanist after the orchestra reenters. Thus, the cadenza assumes a more important dramatic and structural role within the movementʼs design. The term “well-bred” is often invoked to describe this concerto, and nowhere better does it serve than for the quiet rapture and poetic beauty of the second movementʼs principal theme. A moment of sweet melancholy in A minor intrudes briefly, with trumpets and timpani adding a touch of agitation. The principal theme then returns in varied repetition and a gently yearning passage, again in A minor, leads to the finale. As in the two previous movements, the soloist gives the first presentation of the principal theme, one of elfin lightness and gaiety. The mood of this movement has often been compared to that of the fairyland world of an earlier Mendelssohn score, his music for A Midsummer Nightʼs Dream.

Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.

Ⅰ Allegro vivace
Ⅱ Andante cantabile
Ⅲ Menuetto: Allegretto
Ⅳ Molto Allegro

During the incredibly brief period of less than two months in the summer of 1788, Mozart turned out his last three symphonies: No. 39 in E-flat, No. 40 in G minor, and No. 41 in C (“Jupiter”). Equally incredible is the fact that these works − all monuments of the genre − were written for no apparent immediate purpose, and that Mozart quite possibly never heard any of them played. Yet all have remained audience favorites for well over two hundred years − two joyous, life-affirming works (Nos. 39 and 41 framing a dark, deeply serious symphony that looks forward to the romantic era.
Mozartʼs valedictory effort as a symphonist represents the supreme heights of symphonic craftsmanship welded to artistic inspiration. Mozart did not assign the nickname “Jupiter” (it came years after his death from the impresario Salomon, Haydnʼs London sponsor), but it seems absolutely appropriate for music that evokes images of Olympian pomp, nobility, grandeur and perfect mastery of construction. Klaus G. Roy sees in this music a “classic divinity … Nowhere else in his entire output does Mozart convey so directly the atmosphere of mastery, imperiousness, even omnipotence. … It was, in this medium, the final thunderbolt of the chief of the musical gods.”
The first movement contains three distinct themes, each a perfectly balanced entity in itself. The first consists of a brusque, imperious call to attention followed by a graceful, lilting figure. The second consists of ascending and descending scale-like fragments, of strings alone and then combined with woodwinds. The third has a mischievous, capricious quality to it.
The second movement is profoundly expressive, filled with pensive eloquence and restrained elegance. The first theme is one of the longest Mozart ever wrote. The use of muted violins throughout lends a shadowy, introverted character to the music.
The dignified Menuetto, like the first movement, combines contrasts of loud and soft, graceful and imperious, smoothly lyrical and sharply detached, in music of exquisitely balanced form.
The finale opens with a four-note motif followed by several additional themes and motifs. Mozart builds everything into an effortlessly flowing web of counterpoint, all fashioned into a dazzling display of tonal architecture.

Robert Markow's musical career began as a horn player in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. He now writes program notes for orchestras and concert organizations in the USA, Canada, and several countries in Asia. As a journalist he covers the music scenes across North America, Europe, and Asian countries, especially Japan. At Montreal's McGill University he lectured on music for over 25 years.

【Soloist Encore】
Bach:Partita for Solo Violin BWV1006, Ⅲ.Gavotte en Rondeau
（Ayana TSUJI,Violin）

【Orchestra Encore】
Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik K.525, 1st movement

Members: end of sale
Single ticket: end of sale

Purchase Ticket (Japanese)

Performers and programs are subject to change, or performances may be cancelled.
No refunds except for cancelled performances.
Please contact us for unsold seat situation.
TMSO Guide 0570-056-057 Hours: 10-18 MON-FRI Closed on SAT, SUN and NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

This number cannot be reached by international calls, some IP phones and prepaid mobile phones.