Tokyo Sinfonietta, a contemporary music ensemble, will hold a concert featuring new work by composer Eric Montalbetti at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Ueno, Tokyo, on July 9.
"Performing new works can be proof that we lived in such a time," music director Yasuaki Itakura said, referring to the coronavirus crisis.
Montalbetti was born in France in 1968. Although he is not well known in Japan, the composer has been gaining popularity in Europe. His flute concerto was performed by the famous Orchestre de la Suisse Romande last year with a solo by world-renowned flutist Emmanuel Pahud.
"In his pieces, elaborate details create an enormous beautiful world. That's his charm," Itakura said.
Tokyo Sinfonietta performed "Vaste champ temporel a vivre joyeusement" for the first time in Japan in 2015. The ensemble will play the work again in the upcoming concert.
The main feature of the program will be "Fenetres simultanees sur la ville," Montalbetti's new piece that was a cocommission of Lemanic Modern Ensemble of Switzerland and Tokyo Sinfonietta.
According to Itakura, the piece is inspired by the works of abstract painters Robert Delaunay and his wife Sonia. It is an orchestral piece composed of five movements. "It is clear what kind of music he wants to listen to himself," Itakura said. "That makes this piece beautiful as a whole."
Initially, Tokyo Sinfonietta planned to play all five movements as the Japan premiere. However, the Swiss group opposed the idea after its performance planned for an earlier date was canceled due to the pandemic. The group is stuck on the idea of performing the world premiere in Switzerland. After much discussion, the two sides agreed that Tokyo Sinfonietta will play only the first, third and fifth movements in Tokyo as a "partial premiere," so that the Swiss group can still premiere the entire work.
"This work is the one most affected [by the pandemic]," Itakura lamented. But the ensemble receives various subsidies for its performances, so it is not easy to change the program. Above all, Itakura feels the piece has to be played now because it is a contemporary work.
"A new work is born and played now. That becomes proof that we lived in the time of the new coronavirus," Itakura said. "The fact that the composer lived now and we [performers] lived now will be handed down to later generations as culture. So I definitely want to play the piece."
Itakura participated in the establishment of Tokyo Sinfonietta in 1994 because he felt it would be "necessary for the times" to establish a group in Japan like France's Ensemble intercontemporain, which was founded by contemporary music master Pierre Boulez, who actively performed the music of the time.
"It is our duty to reproduce existing musical works as they are written and leave them to later generations," Itakura said. He takes pride in the fact that "each musician [in the ensemble] is so persuasive with each sound that the music can connect [to later generations]."
The ensemble will take all possible measures to prevent coronavirus infections at the concert. However, Itakura jokingly said, "The seats at a contemporary music concert never get crowded." Listeners don't have to be alarmed that contemporary music is hard to understand. What is needed is to have an open mind and not feel as though you have to "confront [contemporary music] as an extension of classical music," he said.
"Works such as those by Beethoven and Wagner are the cultural heritage of humanity, aren't they?" Itakura said. "Let's enjoy and listen to music that could possibly become like that."
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