A concert tour in Japan

In March 1999, Hildegard Behrens joined Maestro Seiji Ozawa, conducting the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, in a concert tour of Japan that was received with great acclaim. The program featured excerpts from Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung, with alto Jane Henschel singing Walraute, that included:

• Siegfrieds Rhinefahrt
• Act 1, Scene 3
• Siegfrieds Trauermarsch
• Brünnhildes Schlussgesang

The concerts were held in some of Japan's finest concert halls.

This tour gave us occasion to ponder the elevated status of western classical music in Japan, leading to a greater appreciation of the universality of music.

Classical music, first introduced from Europe and the United States in the Meiji era (1868-1912), is one of the great beneficiaries of Japanese post-war prosperity. Yes, the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Wagner enjoys a popularity in modern Japan comparable to that in Western capitals. But more importantly it has become so tightly woven into the fabric of modern Japanese culture that it has held its own through the economic downturn of recent times. Its fate in the next the next milennium is not a cause for worry. And why not? One answer lies in the country's music education program, which may well be the envy of music educators in America today. Throughout Japan, instruction in Western classical music is a continuing process which begins at the compulsory-education level and continues on to the level of the colleges and the schools of music. In contrast, instruction in traditional Japanese music is left largely to the initiative of private organizations and individuals. This bifurcated system has succeeded in sustaining a culture of music, both traditional and western, at the grass roots level.

Is it any wonder that recent decades have seen an emergence of world-class musical talent from Japan (and other Asian countries such as China and Korea which take music seriously)? Consider some musical facts* about this country of 125 million - about half the US population living in an area roughly the size of California:


• The first symphonic performance in Japan took place on February 19, 1887 during the commencement exercises of the Tokyo Conservatory of Music in which a chamber ensemble of strings and winds played the second and third movements of Beethoven's First Symphony.
  
• The first professional symphony orchestra was founded on October 5, 1926 following the success of a Japanese-Russian 1924 goodwill concert at the Kabuki Theater in Tokyo. First known as the New Symphony Orchestra, it metamorphosed into the Japan Symphony Orchestra in 1942, becoming in 1951 the NHK Symphony Orchestra, considered Japan's preeminent orchestra. Today, there are 28 professional symphony orchestras and over 580 amateur orchestras.
  
• Most all major cities and prefectures have their own orchestras. But in the metropolitan Tokyo area alone can be found the largest number of professional orchestras of any city in the world. Annually, about 4,000 professional performances are offered in the Tokyo-Yokohama corridor - that's more than 25 a day, again more than in any other city in the world!
  
• In the 1990s, performances by foreign artists, ensembles and orchestras accounted for about 25% of all classical music presentations in Japan, the percentage rising or falling by a few points depending on the economy. There were more than 1,000 such presentations in Tokyo in 1997.
  
• Today, the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony ("Choral") is a year-end tradition, accounting for a great number of concerts - one Tokyo orchestra recently presented Beethoven's Ninth 29 times during the year, and in December alone there were 77 performances of the symphony by local Tokyo area orchestras! So popular that the "Ode to Joy" has become a favorite in sing-alongs. Handel's Messiah and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker are also very popular during the holiday season.
  
• Music festivals are held regularly, of which the best known is the Pacific Music Festival founded in 1990 by the late Leonard Bernstein to foster international understanding through music. Held in Sapporo every year, the festival offers concert performances by some of the the world's most renowned musicians some of whom are engaged to conduct educational programs in which talented young musicians, selected through worldwide auditions, participate. In 1999, the festival takes place over 25 days from July 10 to August 3 and the Artistic Director will be Michael Tilson Thomas, Director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. (Among the festival's guest artists in 1997 were Fanfaire's featured artists Hildegard Behrens and Jean-Yves Thibaudet who returns in 1999.)
  
• And finally, is it any wonder that Japan has an abundance of concert halls, possibly the greatest number in the whole world? (The Tokyo area alone boasts of 150!) Many of the concert halls completed in the last two decades are architectural masterpieces incorporating the most advanced acoustic technology.
  
  It was in five of these halls that Hildegard Behrens performed in concert (from March 20 to 29, 1999) excerpts from Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung.
  
  Click any item below for a quick survey of five of Japan's, and indeed the world's, finest concert halls.
  
  Minato Mirai Hall          Kyoto Concert Hall        Sapporo Concert Hall
                 Sumida Triphony Hall              Suntory Hall
  
  
  *For an extended discussion of the data presented here, see : "Orchestras in Japan" by Robert Ryker; "Japanese Symphony Orchestras: Present and Future" by Moroishi Sachio; and "Overview of the Performing Arts and Appreciation of Orchestral Music in Japan" by Geidankyo (Japan Council of Performers Organization) at http://www.jpan.org/orches/index.html