＜Performances Cancelled＞Promenade Concert No.394 │ Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra

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Artists

Naoto OTOMO, Conductor
Kohei UENO, Saxophone

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.

Kohei UENO (Saxophone)

Born in Japan, Kohei started playing the saxophone at the young age of eight in his school band. He graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, instrumental music department.Kohei had attracted public attention from an early age and made his debut while still in school. Kohei made a sensational senior debut winning 1st prize at the 28th Japan Wind and Percussion Competition, youngest ever in its long history. In 2014, he won a prestigious 2nd prize at 6th Adolphe Sax International Competition in Belgium. Kohei has also appeared in various medias including the Japanese popular TV program “Untitled Concert” and ” Jonetsu Tairiku” . The host of a radio program on NHK-FM “Kakeru Classic”. In addition to music, Kohei loves trains and cars and continues to pursue them deeply.
http://uenokohei.com

Program

Dubugnon: Concerto Heroïque for Altsaxophone and Orchestra, op.81(2021)[World Premiere]

Program Notes
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No.2 in E minor, op.27

Program Notes

Editions Peters
dedicated to and commissioned by Kohei Ueno
World premiere in Tokyo, 22 January 2022 by the dedicatee, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Naoto Otomo (conductor)

2 Flutes (2nd doubling Piccolo), 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb (2nd doubling Bass Clarinet), 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, Harp, Strings, Solo Alto Saxophone

　I met Kohei Ueno in May 2017, in Paris. He came to see me because he wanted a concerto and remembered listening to my Battlefield concerto in Tokyo in April 2013, which made a strong impression on him and he kept this commission as an idea in his mind for four years.
　Later, in July 2018, Kohei came to my house in Picardie and we started discussing the piece and he demonstrated what he could technically do with the Alto Sax. I started listening to a lot of Alto saxophone music and to his recordings, to get acquainted with this instrument, because I hadn't written for this instrument before and I really wanted to make it special. I was very impressed by the incredible talent of Kohei, and knowing his great expectations from me, my idea was (humbly) to try to write the most heroic concerto that we might know for the Alto saxophone.
　However, I didn't start composing it before September 2020, as I felt distraught by the beginning of the Covid crisis and all the professional problems it created in the music world. I finished the short score on March 27th and orchestrated the score by May 11th 2021.

　I. Modéré (moderato) the concerto opens on the main theme, with the whole orchestra playing large chords in accelerando, the high and the low instruments going in contrary motion:

　After this short dramatic opening, the saxophone comes in playing the main theme accompanied by the strings and the harp, a tempo molto lento, in an introduction resembling a recitativo. In this slow passage, the saxophone also plays the 2nd theme (related to the 1st theme by the use of a 6-note mode: ½ tone – 1 ½ tone - ½ tone – 1 ½ tone etc.), slowly and in accelerando (Fig. 1):

　The saxophone plays more and more melismatic improvisatory phrases on those two themes, before reaching a short climax which is followed by a tutti a tempo moderato (Fig. 2). This leads into the Allegro tranquillo, the main part of this first movement, where the saxophone plays a moto perpetuo motif in repeated notes, quoting the 2nd theme at the end of the bar:

　This fast movement develops the two themes we previously heard, with some changes of mood, alternating virtuoso passages with more calm and expressive ones. After a short climax where the saxophone plays the 2nd themes in ascending arpeggios and very high trills, we hear a long tutti f - ff (Fig. 9) which progressively calms down, introducing a passage with decorating waves of triplets on top of which the soloist plays a cantilena based on the 2nd theme (Fig. 10-14). After a crescendo, the fierce moto perpetuo with repeated notes comes back in a big tutti (Fig. 15), then comes the saxophone playing fast scales.
　The triplets stop and the music becomes syncopated, with the return of the 1st theme (Fig. 16). The music is more and more agitated, poco più animato (Fig. 17-19) with funky rhythms in the lower strings accompanying the 1st theme with small ornamentations and which culminate in a short rhythmical passage based on the 2nd theme (Fig. 20). The music becomes even more agitated in a long groovy passage where the saxophone plays syncopated arpeggios (Fig. 21-22) and extremely fast scales (Fig. 23). After playing a series of trills accompanied by the 2nd theme in a very loud tutti, the saxophone plays a short cadenza reaching A♭6, one of the highest possible notes on the instrument. A tutti based on the 2nd theme follows, similar to what we heard previously at Fig. 20. This movement ends in a big collapse, on a coda based on the 1st theme.

　II. Lent et expressif (slow and expressive) begins very quietly with muted divided strings, playing the sensuous 3rd theme of this concerto, then followed by the soloist:

　This theme is punctuated by pizzicati in the celli and double basses on a Sicilienne rhythm, that we shall call Theme 3b:

　This music is developed and ornamented and comes to a short climax, which is followed by the 4th theme of the concerto, played by the solo violoncello (Fig. 28) un peu plus de mouvement (a little faster) which is very expressive with quasi-romantic harmonies underneath:

　The music is passionate and more and more agitated (Fig. 29-33) in a long development based on the 4th theme, with some elements of the 1st theme (the rhythm and descending thirds of its beginning and the ending triplet). It reaches a long tutti based on the 4th theme at a faster tempo, which accelerates into a big descending scale. This is followed by a cadenza of the soloist, who begins improvising on the 4th theme, then combines the 3rd theme with 3b, playing slap-tonguing effects to imitate pizzicati. This cadenza is in some places accompanied by the orchestra, in a kind of recitativo.
　The tutti comes back progressively, still playing the 3rd theme (Fig. 36-37) then moving on to a development of the 4th theme (Fig. 37-39) leading to a very quiet and expressive moment, which is more remotely based on the same theme (Fig. 40). This 2nd movement ends on a coda based on the 4th theme combined with the Sicilienne rhythm in pizzicato (3b).

　III. Moderato This finale begins with a similar “grand opening” that we had at the beginning of the concerto, with the addition of the soloist from the very beginning. The 1st and 2nd themes come back in a dramatic way, again with some melisma played by the soloist which end into obsessive trills in a descending arpeggio. The Rapide (fast) movement begins with the soloist alone, playing a series of slap-tonguing effects which imitate a walking bass (Fig. 43). The orchestra answers with the jazz inspired 5th theme of the concerto:

　This time the double basses and violoncelli take over the walking bass and the soloist joins in after a few bars. The music comes progressively to another theme, more inspired by music for Big Band, with comical glissando effects at the end of the phrase (Fig. 45):

　This joyous music, full of wit and surprises, displays a series of variations on those two themes in a progressively more frantic pulse. The music becomes even more agitated and reaches a big climax fff (Fig. 51-52) which is followed by a recapitulation of the 3rd theme of the concerto at a slow tempo (Lent) reminiscent of the 2nd movement, here played by the lower strings with the theme 3b as an accompaniment in pizzicati. The saxophone enters, playing the 4th theme (Fig. 53).
　The music becomes more passionate and leads to another brief recapitulation of the “grand opening” (Fig. 54) which accelerates and bring us to the fast ending coda of the concerto, which is based on the jazzy walking bass and a last surprising appearance of the theme 3b in tutti, repeated 4 times ff as a conclusive statement.

Richard Dubugnon was born in Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1968. He started music at the age of 20 after reading History in Montpellier and was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire in 1992. Dubugnon further studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. When he returned to France in 2002, he became the recipient of the Pierre Cardin Prize from the Académie des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 2015 he was awarded the Grand Prix SACEM. For the 2016/2017 season Richard was composer-in-residence with the Winterthur Musikkollegium. Described as “driven by a playful modern sensibility” by the New York Times, Dubugnonʼs music has been performed by many musicians. His masterpieces are Arcanes Symphoniques (2001-07), Violin Concerto (2008), Battlefield Concerto (2011) for two pianos and double orchestra, The tone poem Helvetia, Alpine Flight (2013), Klavieriana (2015), a concerto for piano, orchestra and “celeste obbligato”, Caprice III Romain (2016), and Caprice IV Es muss sein! (2017), among others. Richard is also a double bass player, who performed his music with the Béjart Ballet and freelanced with the Paris Opéra. Since January 2021, he is Legal expert in music at the Court of Appeal in Paris.

Ⅰ Largo - Allegro moderato
Ⅱ Allegro molto
Ⅲ Adagio
Ⅳ Allegro vivace

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Born on the estate of Oneg, near Semyonovo, April 1, 1873; died in Beverly Hills, March 28, 1943

　Few symphonies written in the twentieth century achieved the fame and popularity of Rachmaninoffʼs Second, composed in Dresden where the composer had gone in 1906 to escape the demands of public life in Moscow. The hour-long work was fully sketched by New Yearʼs Day of 1907. Revisions and orchestration took place over a longer period, both back home in Russia and during a return visit to Dresden. Rachmaninoff agreed to conduct the first performance, which took place on January 26, 1908 in St. Petersburg. He also led the Moscow premiere a week later, and an early American performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra in November, 1909. In each case the audience responded enthusiastically, and the symphony has enjoyed an unbroken run of popularity to this day. The score is dedicated to the composer Sergei Taneyev. Rachmaninoff himself authorized certain cuts in performance, and the expansive nature of the work has led many conductors to do their own editing, resulting in performances that may last anywhere from 38 minutes to over an hour. In May 2014 the manuscript score was auctioned by Sothebyʼs for £1,202,500.
　Most of the melodic material of the symphony derives from a single motif, heard in the opening bars in the somber colors of low cellos and basses. In a multifarious variety of guises and transformations, this “motto” haunts the entire symphony in both obvious and subtle ways, thus infusing it with coherence and compelling impetus. After its initial statement, the motto passes to other instruments, eventually giving birth to a sinuous violin phrase that grows to an impressive climax as it weaves its way through lushly orchestrated textures and luxuriant counterpoint. The main Allegro moderato section of the movement is ushered in with a shivering, rising figure in the strings. Violins then spin out a long, winding, aspiring theme based on the motto. The delicate, gentle second theme, divided between woodwinds and responding strings, also derives from the motto.
　The second movement, a scherzo, is built on the motif of the Dies irae, the medieval Gregorian chant for the dead. Four horns in unison proclaim a boldly exuberant version of the Dies irae, which itself has its seeds in the symphonyʼs motto. Two contrasting ideas of note are the warmly flowing lyrical theme for the violins and a brilliant fugato section that demands the utmost in virtuosity from the strings.
　The Adagio movement is one of the lyric highlights of all Rachmaninoff. No fewer than three gorgeous melodies are heard, beginning with one of the most popular ever written. Following immediately on this theme of great repose and tranquility comes one of the glories of the solo clarinet repertory – an extended theme full of ardent longing. American pianist Arthur Loesser wrote in 1939 that this music “gives off a vapor of drugged sweetness, of fatalistic melancholy.”
　The enormously energetic finale too is a broadly expansive movement, beginning with a boisterously robust idea that might easily conjure up the spirit of a kermesse (Russian carnival). This is followed by a dark, grim, march-like episode in the seldom-used key of G-sharp minor, then by another of the composerʼs most famous themes – a magnificent, soaring affair that sweeps onward over an expanse of more than one hundred measures. Quiet reminiscences of the first and third movements lead to the development section. One of the symphonyʼs most thrilling passages occurs in this section, where the tintinnabulating effect of St. Petersburgʼs great bells is recreated in orchestral terms − a slow accretion of descending scales at different speeds, registers and rhythms that culminates in a dense and spectacular swirl of notes. The recapitulation follows, and Rachmaninoffʼs longest, grandest, most expansive symphonic work ends in a veritable blaze of sound.

(Robert Markow)

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.

＜Performances Cancelled＞Promenade Concert No.394

Artists

Naoto OTOMO (Conductor)

Kohei UENO (Saxophone)

Program

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