The Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra's 2021-22 season program is a daring one that includes many rarely performed epics and hidden gems as well as many Japanese premieres. The orchestra will also display fresh aspects of familiar works and will be joined by various conductors and soloists, from veteran masters to promising newcomers. A total of 44 concerts will be given during the season in Tokyo and Kawasaki.
The new season will be the third year for Sebastian Weigle to lead the YNSO as its principal conductor. He is steadily building a good rapport with the orchestra and will expand the repertoire he performs with the YNSO in the coming season. He will conduct Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in August, Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 in December, and a concert-style performance of the opera "Elektra" by Richard Strauss in February 2022.
Kazuki Yamada, the YNSO's principal guest conductor, has been eagerly taking on works by Japanese composers. In the new season, he will conduct Symphony No. 3 by Saburo Moroi in March 2022.
"Moroi's music sounds like authentic German music. When you listen to it, it even evokes the music of Richard Strauss," Yamada said.
The symphony was written during World War II.
"Art starts to shine when people face a life-and-death situation," the conductor said of his impression of the work.
Masato Suzuki was appointed the YNSO's associate conductor and creative partner in April last year and already proved his resourcefulness. Last July, he conducted the orchestra's first concert following a period when all YNSO concerts were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also took on an epic piece by Messiaen in October, stepping in to replace Sylvain Cambreling, the conductor laureate of the orchestra, who could not come to Japan.
"I could exert my abilities when I was required to tackle problems creatively," Suzuki said, reflecting on the 2020-21 season. In the new season, he will give programs that mix classics with works by contemporary composers, such as Dai Fujikura, Thomas Ades and Michel Camilo.
"My basic policy as a musician is 'onko chishin,'" Suzuki said, using a term from the Analects of Confucius that describes learning new things by studying old things. "I will always include new music in my programs."
Among other concerts to check out are the April concert featuring Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" and the October one with Smetana's "My Fatherland," both conducted by special guest conductor Ken-ichiro Kobayashi. The July concert of Bruckner's Symphony No. 2 under the baton of Cornelius Meister, who was the YNSO's principal guest conductor until the 2019-20 season, should not be missed either. The well-planned program of the May concert conducted by Tatsuya Shimono, which features Symphony No. 3 by Martinu, is another must-hear.
A dazzling lineup of foreign conductors scheduled to make guest appearances includes two talents from France: Marie Jacquot, who will make her debut with the YNSO in January 2022 in a concert featuring Ravel's "Bolero," and Maxime Pascal, who will conduct the second suite from "Daphnis et Chloe" in March 2022.
Similarly fascinating is the lineup of guest soloists, such as violinist Akiko Suwanai and pianist Michie Koyama, who will both appear in April. Cellist Dai Miyata will be the soloist for the Japanese premiere of "Azul," a cello concerto by Osvaldo Golijov in September.
"I felt the rhythm that had existed in human bodies from before we discovered language," Miyata said of his reaction to the concerto. "It's like looking back on the past of the Earth and makes me curiously nostalgic. I'm really looking forward to creating this work with the YNSO."
Up-and-coming violinist Rennosuke Fukuda, 21, will play Saint-Saens' Violin Concerto No. 3 under the baton of Kobayashi in April. The concert will be a much-awaited occasion for Fukuda, who said, "I've idolized [Kobayashi] ever since I was an elementary school student and dreamed of becoming a conductor."
More star instrumentalists with panache are sure to create excitement at YNSO concerts during the new season. Among them are popular pianist Kyohei Sorita playing Schumann's Piano Concerto in June; Selina Ott, the first woman to win in the trumpet division at the ARD International Music Competition Munich, who will play Trumpet Concerto by Peskin in July; and world-famous flutist Emmanuel Pahud playing Flute Concerto by Reinecke in November. Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson will be the soloist for the Japanese premiere of Ades' "In Seven Days" in October.
The Yokohama Minato Mirai Holiday Popular Series, one of the YNSO's long-loved subscription series, will be suspended due to renovation work on the venue, the Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama. Instead, the orchestra will introduce the Kawasaki Matinee Series with four concerts at Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall in Kawasaki.
-- Weigle: Audiences are part of concerts
On Dec. 9 last year, Sebastian Weigle conducted the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra for the first time in 15 months. Without using a baton, the principal conductor of the YNSO added fine carves and polishes to Bruckner's Symphony No. 6, to the delight of the audience.
"I felt with my skin that the audience were craving live music. Being grateful was all I could do," Weigle said.
Since the applause did not stop, he came on stage to take one last bow after all the orchestra members had left the stage.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, his scheduled visits to Japan in March and July last year were canceled. He flew to Japan in mid-November and spent 14 days in quarantine. In December, he conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 "Choral" with the YNSO seven times.
"None of the performances were the same," he said.
In February, he stepped in at short notice to conduct the YNSO performing Wagner's "Tannhauser" with the Tokyo Nikikai Opera Theatre, because the conductor who had been scheduled to conduct the production could not come to Japan due to immigration restrictions. Weigle's stay in Japan therefore was extended to three months.
"I ate nice food, visited friends and also went to see kabuki. I never got bored," he said.
His tenure with the YNSO will enter its third year in April.
"[The YNSO] is a very flexible orchestra. Even if I don't explain many things to the members, they spontaneously understand my intentions if I give them a little cue. No time is wasted," Weigle said.
The core of the 2021-22 season is a concert-style performance of Richard Strauss' opera "Elektra," which Weigle will conduct in February 2022. It is a masterpiece in which a cruel story based on a Greek tragedy is combined with mesmerizing music.
"The genius of Strauss is that he can express everything with music," Weigle said. "Just listen to the music, and you'll know which scene it is. You may even think there's little need for stage direction. The concert style is the right answer.
"The orchestra sounds very loud in 'Elektra.' Perhaps it features the loudest orchestra sounds in the history of operas. For a conductor, it's difficult to get the right balance [of sounds] so that the orchestra won't drown out the singers' voices," he said.
Weigle, who used to be a horn player, has a special attachment to works by Strauss in which the horns play major roles.
Illuminating little-known gems
In June, Weigle will conduct Symphony No. 4 by Austrian composer Franz Schmidt. Just as he performed Hans Rott's Symphony with the YNSO in 2019, the conductor chose the Schmidt symphony because he wants to shed light on lesser-known composers and compositions.
He will also continue to take on works by Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms. "Their works are essential to improve an orchestra," he said.
He expressed his hope to rediscover Shostakovich together with the YNSO and chose the Russian composer's Symphony No. 5 and Cello Concerto No. 2 for a program in August.
"I grew up in East Germany, where we were surrounded by things Russian. So I feel closeness to Russia," Weigle said.
He chose works by other Russian composers as well, such as Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, for some of the concerts he will conduct in the coming season.
The pandemic is severely restricting performance opportunities in Europe, including for the Oper Frankfurt in Germany, where Weigle is the general music director. Japan offers musicians precious opportunities to give performances with live audiences.
"The audience is an essential part of a concert. I hope they will take care of their health and come to our concerts," he said.
--Tickets
Tickets for the five annual subscription series of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra's 2021-22 season are now on sale. The series are: Subscription Concerts, Popular Series, Saturday Matinee Series, Sunday Matinee Series and the Kawasaki Matinee Series. Student memberships with a discount are available for students aged 25 or younger.
To purchase tickets or apply for a subscription series, call (0570) 00-4390 from
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily (in Japanese) or visit the online ticket service site for the orchestra
(http://yomikyo.pia.jp). For information in English, visit the English-language page on the YNSO's official website (https://yomikyo.or.jp/e/).
Tickets for four chamber music concerts in the Yomikyo Ensemble Series go on sale on March 30.
Subscription tickets are less expensive than regular tickets. Subscribers can enjoy various benefits, such as a complementary gift of a CD.
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