2017.07.23

Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa « Festival of Organ and Orchestra »

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Performers
Conductor：Michiyoshi Inoue
Orchestra：Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa
Organ:Thierry Escaich
Cello：Ludovit Kanta
Program
T.Escaich:Improvisation
F.Schubert:Symphony No.7(8) in B minor, D.759 "Unfinished"
C.Saint-Saëns:Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor, op.33
T.Escaich:Organ Concerto (Commissioned by Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa 2016)
Price
All seat designation ￥3,000 Under 25years Old ¥1,500

【Message】

A month before the concert tour, I recognized at a glance that this new score would be difficult to play. And it later emerged that, to our astonishment, the Ishikawa Ongakudo Hall’s acoustics were not suitable for an organ concerto on this kind of writing style, though usually the hall sounds quite clear in a way that is perfect for the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. That means, everything is not always perfect.
On the other hand, the Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall was perfectly suitable to the playing style of the orchestra and I in all the aspects including its interior color and its modern architecture. Wouldn’t you agree? Directors from all the halls equipped with organs in the Tokyo area came to the concert, but with this audacious program, we struggled in vain to attract an audience for all the concerts held in Nasu, Matsumoto and Kawasaki. Recently the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa hasn’t been distributing lots of complimentary tickets, and this time their policy seemed to be too strict.
I guess, it’s understandable. A French composer named Thierry Escaich, who is apparently internationally famous, will premiere his own new concerto…. Moreover, the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa with a limited number of players on stage, will perform with a soloist who will use organs of different designs at each concert. Who dares witness this musical adventure? People normally think of Poulenc or Saint-Saëns when it comes to organ concertos. Or, they associate this instrument only with solo performance or religious music.
However, I would like to tell them “Not always the case”! We could call this kind of attitude conservative. Japan has the highest concentration of halls with organs in the world, but their usage is too outdated. That’s why we came up with the project, and from the very beginning, this concerto was supposed to be premiered in Kanazawa before being performed at the halls in France (Lyon) and the US, who were the co-commissioners of this piece. But, who will try to go to listen to this work which was, “probably written in a French contemporary musical style with top-heavy with ideas, which seems a matter of uncertainty”? Those who came to listen to the concert must be truly adventurous, they are deserving of praise!
They maybe came to our concert believing in me… or in the recent achievements of the orchestra…? Impossible!
They might to be duped by something. Or they were also fans of Mr. Kanta who served as the soloist for Saint-Saëns’ concerto for cello.
In any case, the audience who kindly came didn’t leave the hall until the end. They clapped their hands and called Mr. Escaich back to the stage to appraise him even after the orchestra members left. These kinds of amazing things are starting to happen even in Japanese small cities, which is deeply moving to see.
This astonishing phenomenon is similar to the fact that, recently, more and more works by Shostakovich are programmed here in Japan, though they were hated by all the orchestras in the past.
I flatter myself that, in Kawasaki, I had an excellent idea of giving Escaich a theme for his solo improvisation “B-C sharp-D-B-A”, based on Schubert’s B minor symphony and Godzilla’s main theme. Ha-haha!
The orchestra played Shubert’s “Unfinished” symphony with a truly romantic sound (someone also praised them, saying their performance reminded him of a watchmaker from Switzerland). The soloist Mr. Kanta for Saint-Saëns’ concerto gave a divine Bach music as his encore.
The concert ended successfully and I have no regrets.
It is summer now! I will enjoy it and compose, too!