TMSO Special "Beethoven's 9th"（12/24）

This concert is over. Date: Fri. 24. December 2021 19:00 (18:00)

Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre

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Artists

Kazushi ONO, Conductor
Atsuko KOBAYASHI, Soprano
Akiko TOMIOKA, Mezzo-Soprano
Takumi YOGI, Tenor
Yuma SHIMIZU, Baritone
Nikikai Chorus Group, Chorus

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/

Atsuko KOBAYASHI (Soprano)

Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts, at Tokyo University of the Arts. Completed the training program of Master Class Opera Singers at The Japan Opera Foundation. She moved to Italy as a trainee by the Japanese government, the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Since her debut at The Fujiwara Opera in 2000 as Giannetta from “L’elisir d’amore”, she has made her title role debut in “Madama Butterfly”. She has received high praise for Anita in “La Navarraise” in 2018. She has played the title roles in “Madama Butterfly” and “Tosca” at Opera Appreciation Class for high school students held in the New National Theatre. She has played Lady Macbeth in “Macbeth”, Donna Anna in “Don Giovanni”, the title role in “Aida”. Also, she has sung for many concerts, such as Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 & “Missa Solemnis”, Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem”, Mahler’s Symphony No.2 “Resurrection”.
It is fresh in our memory that she substituted the title role in the New National Theatre Opera “Tosca” in 2018 and received high praise. Member of The Fujiwara Opera.

Akiko TOMIOKA (Mezzo-Soprano)

After graduating from Tokyo University of the Arts with her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees, Akiko Tomioka studied at Conservatorio di Musica "Arigo Boito" di Parma, Italy with a scholarship from the Rohm Music Foundation, obtaining her doctorate with highest honors. Awards include second prize at the Music Competition of Japan in 2011 and prizewinner at Flaviano Labò International Singing Competition. In opera, she has performed the role of Rosina in ll barbiere di Siviglia for Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto and at Nissay Theatre in Tokyo, and for Nikikai she has sung Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana and Ines in Il Trovatore. Abroad, she has sung many roles including Clarice in La Pietra di Paragone at Teatro Regio di Parma and Maddalena in ll Viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Recent roles include Adalgisa in Norma (semi-staged production) for Tokyo Nikikai in March 2018, for which she received high praise. In concert, she has performed as soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Das Klagende Lied, and Bernstein’s Symphony No.1Jeremiah. She is a member of Nikikai.

Takumi YOGI (Tenor)

Yuma SHIMIZU (Baritone)

Nikikai Chorus Group (Chorus)

Nikikai Chorus Group, the first professional chorus group in Japan, was established in 1953. Centering its activities in opera performances, Nikikai Chorus Group also makes guest appearances with major orchestras, gives original concerts and performs in schools. The chorus appears regularly with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra at concerts of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9.

Program

Beethoven: Symphony No.9 in D minor, op.125, “Choral”

Program Notes

Ⅰ Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
Ⅱ Molto vivace - Presto
Ⅲ Adagio molto e cantabile
Ⅳ Presto - Allegro assai

Ludwig van Beethoven: Born in Bonn, December 17, 1770; died in Vienna, March 26, 1827

In its grandeur, elemental power, cosmic scope and affirmation of the universal human spirit, Beethovenʼs Ninth (THE Ninth) embraces a world of emotional expression ranging from deep pathos to exult-ant joy, from demonic fury to seraphic tranquility, from motoric energy to beatific stasis. The span of this seventy-minute work seems to depict a vast structure forming “before our ears” … its opening moments as coming “out of the void,” as Cleveland Orchestra annotator Klaus G. Roy put it. “Fragments begin to cohere; thematic atoms and molecules form larger structures. To most listeners, the same sense of awe, wonder and mystery that accompanies contemplation of the starry night applies to the Ninth.”
Twelve years separated the completion of Beethovenʼs final symphony from the Eighth (1812). Ideas, sketches and fragments had coalesced over a period of many years, but work commenced in earnest only in 1822. The symphony was finished in early 1824, and the premiere took place on May 7 of that year. Having decided to incorporate Schillerʼs ode “An die Freude” into his Ninth Symphony, Beethoven struggled greatly to find the proper way to introduce the vocal element into an otherwise purely in-strumental symphony. His solution consisted of an instrumental introduction in which brief references to the three previous movements are peremptorily rejected by a recitative-like passage for cellos and basses. This “recitative” presents the musical material for the first vocal entry (baritone), which pro-claims, “Oh friends, not these tones! Let us sing of more pleasant and joyful things,” whereupon the famous theme, formerly played by the orchestra, is now sung (“Freude, schöner Götterfunken”). This theme, of almost naive simplicity, caused Beethoven no end of difficulty. Dozens of variants are found in his Sketchbooks, leading to the final, perfected form he retained.
The symphonyʼs opening is one of the most famous in the repertory. Barely a moment is required for the listener to recognize that mood of hushed expectancy, created by the sound of stark fifths in the horns, the strange rustling in the lower strings, and the violinsʼ thematic fragments that soon coalesce into a mighty unison outburst for the full orchestra. Though laid out in sonata form (exposition − de-velopment − recapitulation − coda), the movement contains a wealth of thematic ideas, and is far too complex to discuss in terms of the traditional contrasting first and second themes. The principle of con-tinuous growth pervades instead, with much of the musical material distinguished by its rhythmic ra-ther than melodic interest. The development section involves a lengthy working out of the principal theme (the initial unison outburst). The approach of the recapitulation is signaled by two immense, terrifying statements of the principal theme in D major over rumbling timpani. Leo Treitler writes of the “horrifying brightness that the major mode can have. It is, all in all, the shock of being now pulled into the opening with great force, instead of having it wash over us.” The movement ends with an apocalyptic vision.
For the first and only time, Beethoven precedes the slow movement of a symphony with the Scherzo, a plan Bruckner was to follow seventy years later in his own Ninth (also in D minor). As music of relent-less, driving power, the Scherzo is unsurpassed. This huge structure consists of a sonata-form Scherzo with two important themes. But like the first movement, this is anything but a conventional sonata form. The rhythmic pattern hammered out in the opening bars and its characteristic octave drop per-vade the fugally developed first theme, in addition to becoming the accompaniment pattern to the robust and joyous second theme heard in the unison woodwinds. The central Trio section brings much-needed relief − a breath of fresh air and sunlight. Brighter colors, the major mode and more transparent textures all serve to contrast the Trio with the demonic power of the Scherzo, which is then repeated in full.
The Adagio movement, one of the most sublime ever written, stands in stark contrast to the propulsive energy and forbidding grimness of the previous movements. Two lyrical and well-contrasted themes of transcendent beauty are alternately elaborated in a double variation form. A mood of quiet exaltation and profound peace reigns by the closing pages, only to be shattered by one of the most horrendous outbursts in all music.
After the finaleʼs long instrumental antecedent is finished, the movement unfolds in free variation form. Beginning with the baritone soloistʼs first stanza, the “Ode to Joy” moves through a series of highly varied treatments: twice for solo vocal quartet (followed by choral response); a Turkish march featuring characteristic “Turkish” instruments − triangle, bass drum, piccolo − with tenor solo; an elaborate orchestral fugue answered by a mighty choral affirmation of the “Ode to Joy”; a stately new theme beginning with “Seid umschlungen, Millionen” (Andante maestoso), initially for male chorus and trombones, which in the following section (Allegro energico) combines with the “Ode to Joy” in a great double fugue; a spirited vocal quartet introduced by skittering violins, and joined later by full chorus. This leads to the famous cadenza for the soloists, where the operatic implications of voices joining orchestra are fully exploited. Each soloist climbs to the top of his or her range. In a final burst of frenzied joy, The Ninth ends in the realm of Elysium, light years removed from the cares and toils of daily life.
Beethoven scholar Maynard Solomon, in an address in Detroit some years ago, summed up the import of Beethovenʼs Ninth in these words: “Beethovenʼs life and his art can be envisaged as a search for Ely-sium, for ‘one day of pure joy,ʼ for fraternal and familial harmony, as well as for a just and enlightened social order. With the ‘Ode to Joyʼ of the Ninth Symphony that search found its symbolic fulfillment.
“Beethovenʼs Ninth has been perceived by later generations as an unsurpassable model of affirmative culture, a culture which, by its beauty and idealism, some believe, anesthetizes the anguish and the terror of modern life, thereby standing in the way of a realistic perception of society … If we lose the dream of the Ninth Symphony, there may remain no counterpoise against the engulfing terrors of civilization, nothing to set against Auschwitz and Vietnam as a paradigm of humanityʼs potentialities.”

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.

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