TMSO Special（4/21）

This concert is over. Date: Thu. 21. April 2022 19:00 (18:00)

Venue: Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall Venue Info Seat

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Artists

Kazushi ONO, Conductor
Mao FUJITA, Piano
Tatsuya YABE, Violin（Solo-Concertmaster of the TMSO）

Profile

Kazushi ONO (Music Director)

Kazushi Ono is the definitive musical citizen of the world, having been born in Tokyo, studied in Munich and forged his early career in Zagreb, Karlsruhe and Tokyo. This variety of influences has shaped an inquiring and profound musical intellect and an ability to communicate meaning across languages and cultures, leading to longstanding relationships around the world.
Ono trained in Europe under Wolfgang Sawallisch and came to public attention winning first prize in the 1987 Toscanini Competition. Since his first appointment at Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1992 he has held continuous positions, including at Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Karlsruhe Opera, La Monnaie, Opéra National de Lyon, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, and currently, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, New National Theatre Tokyo and Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra.
A favourite of orchestral players, he has lasting friendships with orchestras around the world and regularly guest conducts groups such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
His passion and curiosity for repertoire takes him in different directions – to the standard classics but also to new music. He often commissions works and has collaborated several times with Mark-Anthony Turnage, including on Silent Cities, Hibiki (which won a Royal Philharmonic Society award) and Time Flies, which was originally commissioned for the 2020 Tokyo Olympiad. Recent commissions at NNTT include Asters by Akira Nishimura and Dai Fujikura’s A Dream of Armageddon. His programming there also includes Baroque, 20th-century and bel canto masterpieces.
In Europe he conducted the world premieres of Toshio Hosokawa’s Hanjyo in Aix-en-Provence, Arnulf Hermann’s Der Mieter at Oper Frankfurt and Kaija Saariaho’s Emilie at Opéra de Lyon, as well as new productions of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and L’Enfant et les sortilèges at Glyndebourne and Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher at Opéra de Lyon. He has worked closely with boundary-breaking directors such as Dmitri Tcherniakov, Romeo Castellucci, Pierre Audi, William Kentridge and Mariusz Treliński
Ono is a vocal advocate for the role of culture in all our lives. During his time in Lyon he took part in a programme bringing opera to prisons and at TMSO he leads the inclusive SaLaD Music Festival, as well as working with community organisations for people with disabilities. In his new role in Brussels he will be part of an integration scheme for refugees. During the initial stages of the pandemic, he led ground-breaking research into the transmission of particles and the use of ventilation that meant that orchestras could get back to playing for audiences safely.
In 2017 he was awarded ‘Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ by French cultural minister Françoise Nyssen, adding to the prestigious Asahi Prize in January 2015, for his contribution to the development and progress of Japanese society.
https://www.kazushiono.com/

Mao FUJITA (Piano)

Born in Tokyo, Fujita was still studying at the Tokyo College of Music in 2017 when he took First Prize at the prestigious Concours International de Piano Clara Haskil in Switzerland, which first brought him to the attention of the international music community. He was also the Silver Medalist at the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow where his special musical qualities received exceptional attention from the jury of leading musicians as well as Valery Gergiev, who has invited him on a number of international tours since; in Tokyo in 2019, he jumped in at two days’ notice to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.2 with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev to rapturous acclaim.In November 2021, Fujita signed an exclusive multi-album deal with Sony Classical International. The new partnership will see Fujita explore many facets of the repertoire across several releases, starting with an eagerly-anticipated studio recording of Mozart’s complete Piano Sonatas, planned for release in Autumn 2022.

Tatsuya YABE (Violin)

Tatsuya Yabe was born in Tokyo. He graduated from the Soloist Diploma Course of Toho Gakuen School of Music in 1989. In 1990, at the age of 22, Yabe was chosen to be solo concertmaster of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. He has been actively performing as soloist with numerous orchestras under the baton of world-renowned conductors such as Asahina, Ozawa, Wakasugi, DePreist, Fournet, Inbal and Bertini.

Program

Valentin Vasylyovych Silvestrov: Prayer for Ukraine Arrangement for symphony orchestra by Andreas Gies (2022) [Japan Premiere]
Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, op.54

Program Notes
R.Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, op.40

Program Notes

　 Ⅰ Allegro affettuoso
　 Ⅱ Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso
　 Ⅲ Allegro vivace

　Robert Schumann: Born in Zwickau, June 8, 1810; died in Endenich, July 29, 1856

　“I cannot write a concerto for the virtuosos − I must plan something else.” These words, written in 1839 to his future wife Clara Wieck, embody Robert Schumannʼs attitude towards piano writing. In an age addicted to the showy glitter and bravura displays of pianists like Liszt and Thalberg, it is not surprising that Schumannʼs concerto did not capture the public fancy. Following the first performance, Clara received the questionable compliment of “praiseworthy efforts to make her husbandʼs curious rhapsody pass for music.” Due to the importance of the orchestral contribution, Liszt called it a “concerto without piano.” The work remained for the most part unappreciated until the twentieth century, by which time audiences finally recognized its true worth.
　Schumann made three attempts to write a piano concerto before achieving success: one in F minor, 1829; one in F major, 1830; and one in D minor, 1839. (There was even a fourth, if we count the Piano Sonata No. 3 of 1835-36, subtitled “Concerto without Orchestra.”) In 1841, Schumann brought forth a single-movement work he called Phantasie, which was destined to become the first movement of the Piano Concerto in A minor. The exuberance, freshness and poetry of this Phantasie all reflect Schumannʼs great personal happiness in life with his new wife. Its deeply lyrical impulses may also be seen as an extension of the previous yearʼs outpouring of songs (well over a hundred); Musicologist Klaus G. Roy calls it “nothing if not an effusion of song-without-words.”
　Furthermore, Schumann finally achieved his goal of combining successfully piano and orchestra. Clara recognized this quality immediately, and commented: “The piano is most skillfully interwoven with the orchestra − it is impossible to think of one without the other.”
　But publishers were not impressed, and no one was interested in printing this single-movement work. Schumann tried using different titles, including Allegro affettuoso and Concert Allegro, to no avail. Flashy concertos were in vogue; subtle, poetic Fantasies were not. Four years later he wrote two additional movements called Intermezzo and Finale, which became the concertoʼs second and third movements. Clara Schumann was soloist in the world premiere on December 4, 1845 in the auditorium of the Hôtel de Saxe (a private affair), and the Schumannsʼ friend Ferdinand Hiller, to whom the concerto was dedicated, conducted. The score was published the following year.
　Schumann dispenses with the traditional orchestral exposition found in classical concertos. Instead there is a peremptory “shout” from the full orchestra, followed by a cascade of chords from the soloist. A wistful, plaintive theme from the solo oboe − as tenderly lyrical and poetic an idea as any Schumann ever conceived − is taken up immediately by the piano, indicating at this early stage the close relationship that will prevail between soloist and orchestra.
　The coy, playful, four-note idea that figures prominently in the opening section of the Intermezzo is really no more than a cleverly disguised fragment of the familiar first-movement theme. One of the most ravishing passages in the whole concerto is the Intermezzoʼs central episode featuring cellos in a theme of soaring lyricism and romantic passion.
　Following the return of the Intermezzoʼs opening material comes a short bridge passage which contains the embryo of the Finaleʼs main theme. This, to no oneʼs surprise by now, is also generated by the fertile theme from the first movement. The most notable feature of the movement may well be the recurring second theme with its tricky syncopations. Some listeners hear it as a peg-legged march, whose rhythmic ambiguity is created through a quick two-step set against a slower pulse of three beats. A lengthy coda brings the concerto to a radiantly happy conclusion.

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.

　Richard Strauss: Born in Munich, June 11, 1864; died in Garmish-Partenkirchen, September 8, 1949

　A mere glance at the number of musicians required for Ein Heldenleben (A Heroʼs Life), as well as the title itself, suggest that this work will provide an unusually exciting listening experience. Indeed, Ein Heldenleben is replete with opulent sounds, glowing orchestration, huge climaxes, enormous energy, and a veritable kaleidoscope of tonal colors. Claude Debussy, in his capacity as critic, once remarked about Strauss that “after a minute or two, one is captured first by the tremendous versatility of his orchestration, then by the frenzied energy which carries one with him as long as he chooses. … It is a book of pictures, or even a cinematography.”
　Much discussion has ensued over the autobiographical elements in the score. There is plenty of evidence to support almost any viewpoint, including a statement made by the composer himself (writing in the third person): “He presents in Ein Heldenleben not a single poetic or historic figure, but rather a more general and free ideal of great and manly heroism … that heroism which describes the inward battles of life, and which aspires through effort and renouncement towards the elevation of the soul.”
　Strauss was just 34 when he wrote Ein Heldenleben in 1898 (sketches were made in the previous year). He was already at the height of fame and fortune, lionized by the press, and could count himself one of the half dozen most talked-about composers alive or dead. He had no inhibitions about showing his pride in heroic terms. He told Romain Rolland: “I do not see why I should not compose a symphony about myself. I find myself quite as interesting as Napoleon (referring to Beethovenʼs Eroica Symphony) or Alexander.” But as Norman Del Mar observes in his three-volume survey of all Straussʼs music, “a truly great hero needs equally great and honest opponents, or his victory will be a worthless bubble.” The opponent in Ein Heldenleben is a collective force − music critics, which are depicted in all but the first of the six sections that make up the 45-minute score. Strauss uncharitably portrayed the critics not as a worthy adversary but as a bunch of sniveling, cackling imbeciles. To infer that these were the very 　men who wrote about Straussʼs own music would be an injustice, for he was generally well treated in the press.
　The first performance of Ein Heldenleben took place at a Frankfurt Museum concert on March 3, 1899, conducted by the composer. It might be interesting to note that an obscure Danish composer by the name of Christian Frederik Emil Horneman (1840-1906) also wrote a work called Ein Heldenleben (a concert overture) and that the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer (1933-2021) in 1968 fashioned a modern-day parodistic re-interpretation of the Strauss original called Son of Heldenleben.
　The six sections, all connected except for the pause ending the first, run as follows:
　I) THE HERO − A swashbuckling, energetic theme sweeps up magnificently from the depths of the orchestra across a span of three octaves. This theme is extensively developed and is heard in combination with additional melodic ideas.
　II) THE HEROʼS ADVERSARIES − The critical fraternity is uncharitably depicted in angular, disjointed, dissonant, confused music, with such performance directions as “snarling,” “cutting and pointed” and “hissing.” The two tubas solemnly state a four-note motif that incorporates a bête noir of traditional harmonic practice, the progression of parallel fifths.
　III) THE HEROʼS COMPANION – Straussʼs capricious, domineering wife Pauline is portrayed by the solo violin in a series of cadenzas, each more difficult than the last. “Sheʼs very complex,” Strauss explained, “very much a woman, never twice alike.” A richly scored love scene ensues, but is spoiled at the end by a return visit from the malicious critics.
　IV) THE HEROʼS BATTLEFIELD − Three offstage trumpets sound the call to battle. Our hero leaps up, ready for action. In one of the most celebrated battle scenes in all music, Strauss depicts the hero, wife at his side, bravely fending off his assailants in a riot of orchestral colors and effects. The scene is one of great chaos and purposefully ugly sounds. The enemies are finally routed, and a sumptuous victory song ensues, with all eight horns in unison joining in for the triumphant, climactic moment.
　V) THE HEROʼS WORKS OF PEACE − As the hero reflects on a lifetime of achievements, we hear a retrospective tapestry of 31 themes and motifs from nine previous Strauss compositions, including six tone poems, two songs, and the opera Guntram. (Complete details can be found in Del Marʼs study, Vol. I.) The hero slips into a deep reverie, but one last bout with a surly critic is still to come. Flaring up in anger, he crushes his opponent decisively and again lapses into musings on the past as softly throbbing echoes of the tone poem Don Quixote lead into the calm of the final section.
　VI) THE HEROʼS RETREAT FROM THE WORLD AND FULFILLMENT − The serene ending to the heroʼs life is marred only by a brief memory of critics − “the impression of a bad dream experienced by an old man dozing in his armchair,” as Del Mar puts it. The wife (solo violin again) returns to comfort him, and remains to the end in a tenderly moving dialogue with solo horn, each instrument reaching its own fulfillment on high (violin) and low (horn) E-flats. One final, monumental presentation of the hero theme, played by brass and woodwinds, sends the hero on his way to another world.

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】(4/21up)
Mozart :Piano Sonata in C Major, K.545
I Allegro
（Mao FUJITA,Piano）

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