Subscription Concert C Series

Subscription Concert No.989 C Series

This concert is over. Date: Fri. 8. December 2023 14:00 (13:00)

Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre Venue Info Seat

[Reger & Rachmaninoff 150]

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Artists

Kazushi ONO, Conductor
Nikolai LUGANSKY, Piano

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/

Nikolai LUGANSKY (Piano)

Nikolai Lugansky is a pianist who combines elegance and grace with powerful virtuosity. Recognised as a master of Russian and late romantic repertoire, Lugansky is renowned for his interpretations of Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Chopin and Debussy and has received numerous awards. Concerto highlights for the upcoming season include performances with Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Spanish National Orchestra as well as a UK tour with the St Petersburg Philharmonic. A regular recitalist the world over, during this season Lugansky appears in Paris, Vienna Konzerthaus and Flagey in Brussels. Lugansky regularly performs at international festivals includes BBC Promos, La Roque d’Anthéron and Verbier Festival. In 2019 Lugansky received the Russian Federation National Award in Literature and Art, for his contribution to the development and advancement of Russian and international classical music culture over the past 20 years. He records for Warner and Harmonia Mundi.

Program

Reger: 4 Tone Poems after Böcklin, op.128

Program Notes
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, op.1

Program Notes
Schumann: Symphony No.4 in D minor, op.120 (1851 Revised version)

Program Notes

Reger: Four Tone Poems after Böcklin, op.128

Ⅰ Der geigende Eremit (Hermit Playing the Violin): Molto sostenuto
Ⅱ Im Spiel der Wellen (Play amidst the Waves): Vivace
Ⅲ Die Toteninsel (The Isle of the Dead): Molto sostenuto
Ⅳ Bacchanal: Vivace

Max Reger: Born in Brand (near Regensburg, Bavaria), Germany, March 19, 1873; died in Leipzig, May 11, 1916

　Max Reger's life was short (just 43 years) but intense. Chamber music, orchestral works (but no symphonies), songs, and one of the most significant bodies of organ music since Bach account for the majority of his output of his considerable output (some 150 opus numbers plus many more unnumbered compositions). Reger saw himself as a late-nineteenth-century keeper of the flame that burned brightest in his classically oriented forebears like Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. Essentially conservative in outlook, his highest ideals were technical mastery and a command of contrapuntal resources, to which he wedded explorations in chromatic harmony and richly textured sonorities. Nearly all of his orchestral music was composed in the last few years of his life (Op. 90 was his first orchestral publication!). The most notable works in this category include a Piano Concerto (championed by Rudolf Serkin), a Violin Concerto, a Sinfonietta, Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy, the Mozart Variations, the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Hiller, and the work heard on this concert.
　The Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin were written in 1913 and inspired by paintings of the famous Swiss artist (1827-1901). Much like the four components of Respighiʼs Pines of Rome or Fountains of Rome, they constitute four independent short pieces built around a common theme; they can be performed individually or as a totality. Two slow, quiet pieces (Nos. 1 and 3) alternate with shorter, lively numbers. Reger conducted the municipal orchestra of Essen in the premiere on October 12, 1913.
　“Hermit Playing the Violin” has an almost otherworldly serenity to it – contemplative, reverent, even ascetic. The painting depicts a solitary old man playing a violin, standing but hunched over, seemingly oblivious to the cherubs looking on. He is obviously lost in a world of his own, concentrating totally on his music-making. Slowly shifting blocks of sonorous sound create an ecclesiastical mood for this monastic setting. There is little for winds or percussion to do in this movement; it is essentially a piece for solo violin and double string orchestra (one muted, the other not).
　Water nymphs and sea gods cavort in “Play amidst the Waves.” The evocation of sea foam, swirling eddies, splashing water, and heaving swells call to mind the analogous movement of Debussyʼs La Mer, composed a few years earlier with its sparkling orchestration (flutes, fluttering violins, triangle, and harp come to the fore). Short musical motifs are tossed around like ocean spray.
　Seasoned concertgoers may well recognize the title of the third Böcklin painting of Regerʼs four tone poems. The Isle of the Dead is one of Rachmaninoffʼs most masterly compositions, a 22-mintue evocation of a painting Böcklin did in no fewer than six versions (the last with his son), all somewhat different yet all immediately recognizable as coming from the same source of inspiration. The association with Greek mythology − Charon gliding across the black water of the Styx − is too close to be ignored. Böcklin, who spent much of his life in Italy, presumably had a specific Mediterranean island in mind for his painting (perhaps Pondikonisi, which lies off the shores of Corfu; some authorities maintain it was Ponza, largest of the Pontine Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea). Some twenty different composers have set this famous work of art to music, though Reger and Rachmaninoff are the only well-known ones. (Details of this and other Böcklin paintings set to music can be found at the invaluable web site musiknachbildern.at (music derived from paintings). Dark, somber, haunting, gloomy are the operative words for both painting and music. “Bleak, desolate despair … violent eruptions of pain [percussion] … and finally, a great transfiguration” is Regerʼs description.
　Reger brings us out of this morbid scenario with a “Bacchanal,” which in the words of one writer, “bursts forth with delirious energy, taking the entire orchestra on a whirlwind ride that would befit the grandest of Pagan festivals.”
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.
　

Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, op.1

Ⅰ Vivace - Moderato
Ⅱ Andante
Ⅲ Allegro vivace

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Born at Oneg, an estate near Novgorod, April 1, 1873; died in Beverly Hills, March 28, 1943

　Rachmaninoff wrote his first piano concerto while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory. He was just seventeen when he drew up the sketches, and he completed it in July of 1891. Rachmaninoff was as brilliantly precocious a composer as he was a pianist. By the time of his graduation from the Conservatory, a year ahead of his class at the age of nineteen, he had already written, in addition to the concerto, an opera, a scherzo for orchestra, two tone poems, a string quartet, several songs and much piano music. On March 29, 1892, the year of his graduation, Rachmaninoff as soloist gave the world premiere of the concerto with the orchestra of the Moscow Conservatory, Vasily Safanov conducting.
　A fellow student, Mikhail Buknik, wrote that at the rehearsals for the concerto, “Safonov had a hard time with Rachmaninoff. This student [Rachmaninoff] not only refused categorically to accept alterations, but also had the audacity to stop Safanov, pointing out his errors in tempo and nuance. This was obviously displeasing to Safanov. Rachmaninoffʼs talent as a composer was so obvious, and his quiet self-assurance made such an impression on all, that even the omnipotent Safonov had to yield.”
　Nevertheless, the concerto met with only a lukewarm reception, and Rachmaninoff realized that it did need revision. But various events in his life, including depression, much travel and concertizing, kept him from this task until 1917, just as the Revolution was breaking out. By this time, he had already written the immensely popular Second and Third Concertos, and he was eager that his First attain the same stature. So engrossed was Rachmaninoff in his work that he recounted: “I did not notice what went on around me. Consequently, life during the anarchistic upheaval, which turned the existence of a non-proletarian into hell on earth, was comparatively easy for me. I sat at the writing table or the piano all day, without troubling about the rattle of machine guns and rifle shots."
　Twenty-six years elapsed since he had written the original version. Rachmaninoffʼs experience and mastery of orchestration now led him to excise all superfluous elaboration, thick chords and heavy orchestration. By this time Rachmaninoff was at the height of fame and fortune as a traveling virtuoso. He noted with a touch of frustration that “when I tell them in America that I will play the First Concerto, they do not protest, but I can see by their faces that they would prefer the Second or Third.”
　The influence of Tchaikovskyʼs Fourth Symphony, barely a dozen years old when Rachmaninoff wrote his First Concerto, can be detected in the opening horn fanfare, which is immediately followed by a flourish of thundering double octaves in the piano. The first three notes of the piano flourish serve as a motto, found throughout the concerto in various guises and forms. Two lyrical themes are then presented, both full of expressive yearning and with “Rachmaninoff” stamped indelibly all over them. All three ideas are explored in the mighty cadenza.
　The slow movement, introduced like the first by a horn solo, is a dreamy nocturne. The piano takes up the hornʼs opening motif and reflects upon it at length.
　The finale is a barnstorming display of virtuosity. As its central episode Rachmaninoff inserts a big romantic theme that might easily have become one of his most famous had it been used in the Second or Third Concerto. The work ends predictably in a flurry of exciting flourishes for both piano and orchestra.
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.
　

Schumann: Symphony No.4 in D minor, op.120 (1851 Revised version)

Ⅰ Ziemlich langsam - Lebhaft (Fairly slow - Lively)
Ⅱ Romanze: Ziemlich langsam (Fairly slow)
Ⅲ Scherzo: Lebhaft (Lively)
Ⅳ Langsam - Lebhaft (Slow - Lively)

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

　In 1841, a year after marrying Clara Wieck, Schumann seriously turned to orchestral writing for the first time. This was precisely what she had long been urging him to do, for only in the arena of large-scale orchestral works did she feel her husband could compete with giants like Mozart and Beethoven. Hence, in 1841, Schumann wrote, in rapid succession, the Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major (Spring), the Overture, Scherzo and Finale, the Phantasie in A minor (which later became the first movement of the Piano Concerto), and the present symphony in D minor.
　Schumann at first thought of calling it a “symphonic fantasy,” knowing full well that “nothing arouses disagreement and opposition so quickly as a new form bearing an old name.” And new it certainly was! The work represents something of a landmark in the history of the symphony in its unprecedented cohesion and structural unity. Although nominally laid out in the standard classical four movements, the movements are connected by “speaking rests” (rather than long pauses) between. Even more significantly, Schumann adopts an initial melodic cell (the darkly brooding, slowly winding line in the strings heard in the opening bars) and pursues it in myriad forms and guises throughout the entire symphony, thus conferring what he called an “inner spiritual bond” on all its motifs and themes. “The finale should know what the earlier movements contained,” he said.
　The first performance of what Schumann designated at the time his “Second Symphony” took place on December 6, 1841 in Leipzig conducted by Ferdinand David. It was not a success, and the composer withdrew the work for revision. However, Schumann did not attend to this until a decade later, by which time two more symphonies had been written (in more traditional layout), today designated No. 2 in C major and No. 3 in E-flat major (Rhenish). Following substantial changes to the orchestration and new movement titles (now in German rather than Italian). Schumann again presented the D-minor Symphony, this time in Düsseldorf, on March 3, 1853 with the composer conducting. This time it was a success, and the score was published by Breitkopf und Härtel in December of that year as Op. 120. This is the version most often performed today.
　The slow introduction immediately presents the motivic cell that will unify the entire symphony − that darkly brooding line mentioned above. (Listeners familiar with the standard 1851 revised score will note immediately the differences in orchestration.) The first movementʼs principal theme gradually coalesces and assumes its full form when the propulsive Allegro arrives. A second lyrical idea is heard later, and becomes increasingly interlaced with the restless principal theme.
　The Romanze begins with a pensive theme sung by solo oboe and solo cello, followed by the subject from the symphonyʼs opening in darkly veiled colors. A contrasting, more brightly scored Trio section presents the same subject with delicate solo violin embroidery. A final statement of the oboe/cello theme rounds out the movement.
　The vigorous Scherzo presents the unifying melodic cell in still another guise, this time played in inversion (upside down) to a strongly insistent rhythmic figure. The Trio brings back the same melodic arabesques derived from the second movementʼs Trio. Both Scherzo and Trio are repeated.
　The passage connecting the third and fourth movements represents to Donald Francis Tovey “darkness before dawn which just avoids provoking comparison with that of the same point in Beethovenʼs C-minor symphony.” The finaleʼs exposition bursts forth in glorious D major, and Schumann puts now-familiar material through fresh paces while introducing a new lyrical idea as well. The pulse becomes increasingly faster as the symphony is propelled breathlessly to a brilliant 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.
　

【Soloist Encore】（12/8up）
Rachmaninoff：12 Songs, op.21-5 Siren' (Lilacs)
　（Nikolai LUGANSKY, Piano）

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