- In October 2016, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) will embark on a five-city European Tour in celebration of its 70th Anniversary. It will visit Wrocław (EU Capital of Culture 2016), Zagreb, Vienna, Rotterdam and Dortmund. Led by the dynamic Jonathan Nott, who has been its Music Director since the 2014/2015 season and has committed himself to the orchestra until 2026, it will perform two varied programs that will showcase the orchestra at its best.
- Throughout its seventy-year history, the orchestra has commissioned and premiered many works by Japanese composers. For the program being performed in Wrocław and Rotterdam, it have chosen to perform Takemitsu’s Requiem for Strings (premiered by the TSO in 1957), also in memory of the 20th anniversary of the composer’s death. The work will be combined with Debussy’s La Mer, which was famously inspired by a Japanese woodblock print, and Brahms’s Symphony No.1.
- In the other program, being performed in Zagreb, Vienna, Dortmund, the renowned German violinist Isabelle Faust will join Nott and the orchestra in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and will surely captivate the listeners with her insightful and faithful interpretation. The program will conclude with Shostakovich’s epic Tenth Symphony, a special work for the TSO as it gave the Japanese premiere in 1954.
- Through this European Tour, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra hopes to make its presence known in Europe as well as to promote the lively Japanese orchestral scene in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Repertoires・Tour Schedule
Programme A
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major (Violin = Isabelle Faust)
Shostakovich: Symphony No.10 (Japan premiered by the TSO in 1954)
Programme B
Toru Takemitsu: Requiem for Strings
(commissioned and premiered by the TSO in 1957)
Debussy: La Mer
Brahms: Symphony No. 1
*First visit
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Concert 1
October 20, 2016 Wrocław, Poland*
<European Capital of Culture 2016>
Thursday, 19:00/National Forum of Music
Jonathan Nott, conductor
Toru Takemitsu: Requiem for Strings
Debussy: La Mer
Brahms: Symphony No. 1
» details
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Concert 2
October 22, 2016 Zagreb, Croatia*
Saturday, 19:30/The Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall
Jonathan Nott, conductor
Isabelle Faust, violin
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major
Shostakovich: Symphony No.10
» details
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Concert 3
October 24, 2016 Wien, Austria
Monday, 19:30/Musikverein Groser Saal
Jonathan Nott, conductor
Isabelle Faust, violin
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major
Shostakovich: Symphony No.10
» details
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Concert 4
October 26, 2016 Rotterdam, Netherlands*
Wednesday, 20:15/de Doelen Concert Hall
Jonathan Nott, conductor
Toru Takemitsu: Requiem for Strings
Debussy: La Mer
Brahms: Symphony No. 1
» details
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Concert 5
October 27, 2016 Dortmund, Germany*
Thursday, 20:00/Konzerthaus Dortmund
Jonathan Nott, conductor
Isabelle Faust, violin
Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major
Shostakovich: Symphony No.10
» details
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JONATHAN NOTT, Music Director
Jonathan Nott is Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. In January 2017, he will commence the position of Music and Artistic Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
A regular guest conductor with the world’s leading orchestras, he has worked with the Berlin, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Concertgebouw, Santa Cecilia, Cleveland, Tonhalle, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Staatskapelle and Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony orchestras. The 2015-16 season saw Nott return to the Wiener Philharmoniker for highly acclaimed performances and a live Sony recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the tenor, Jonas Kaufmann and his second visit to the Chicago Symphony.
Nott has a distinguished recording career, including recordings of Gyorgy Ligeti’s complete orchestral works with the Berlin Philharmonic for Teldec and an award-winning discography of works by Mahler, Bruckner, Schubert and Stravinsky recorded with his Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under the Tudor Records Label. In 2010 their recording of Mahler Symphony No 9 was awarded the Midem Award for best symphonic recording. -
TOKYO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1946 and celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2016. Jonathan Nott, who has been Music Director since 2014 season and recently extended his tenure to 2026. The line-up of conductors who have conducted for the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in the past including distinguished names such as Arvid Jansons, Hidemaro Konoye and Masashi Ueda.
TSO has a reputation for giving first performances of a number of new contemporary music and opera including Requiem for Strings by Toru Takemitsu as a commissioned work in 1957. Through these activities, the orchestra has received most of Japan’s major music awards such as the Minister of Education Award, the Grand Prix of Kyoto Music Award, Mainichi Art Award, Agency for Cultural Affairs Art Award and Suntory Music Award. In 2013, the orchestra received the Kawasaki City Culture Award, which is given to an individual or organization in recognition of their remarkable efforts in developing and advancing culture and the arts in Kawasaki City.
Since becoming the resident orchestra of the City of Kawasaki in 2004, a semi-resident orchestra agreement with the City of Niigata in 1999, and a partnership agreement with Hachioji College Community & Culture Fureai Foundation in 2013, the orchestra has been enthusiastic for school concerts and community concerts.
Moreover Tokyo Symphony Orchestra has been regularly performing various operas and ballets at the New National Opera Theatre, Tokyo since its opening in 1997.
Outside of Japan, the orchestra has performed 71 concerts in 53 cities since 1976.