In April 2011, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (TSO) celebrated its sixty-fifth anniversary of foundation. Those related to the music circle are constantly paying close attention to TSO's Subscription Concerts based on the seasonal theme that is set ever year under the leadership of the music director Hubert Soudant. In July, 2011, TSO released its latest CD album of Bruckner's Symphony No.8 (N&F Label). Meanwhile, it received approval from the Cabinet Office to become a public interest incorporated foundation effective April 1, 2011.
TSO received the 21st Music Pen Club Awards/Concert and Performance Category for Schubert Zyklus presented at the Subscription Concert in FY2008. It was followed by receiving prizes in two categories of the same awards, namely Best Recording Product of the Classical Music Category and Best Recording of the Audio Category (recorded by N&F) for Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 that was released in October 2009. As TSO received awards for two consecutive years, it drew attention at once from various fields. In music magazines' orchestra rankings, TSO has gained highest positioning among Japanese orchestras. In July 2010, TSO was invited to Dalian Summer International Arts Festival in China, which was the first overseas tour with the music director Hubert Soudant. It was also the first time that a Japanese orchestra performed in Dalian and it was a great success. Following the tour of Dalian, 2011, TSO again visited Dalian and performed the Opening concert at the festival.
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The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra has been at the forefront of the orchestral world ever since its founding in 1946. Its many achievements include giving the premiere performances of many works by Japanese composers. Well over two hundred compositions were first performed by the orchestra. In recognition of its achievement in providing a forum for the debut of contemporary works, the TSO received the Mainichi Music Award in 1952 and the Minister of Education Award in 1954. Since 1988, TSO has risen to the challenge of performing such massive works such as Mahler's Symphony No.8 "Symphony of a Thousand", Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, Ives' Symphony No. 4, Britten's War Requiem, Schoenberg's Moses und Aron, Shostakovich's Symphony No.13 "Babi Yar," Bizet's Carmen, Webern's Kantata No.2, Berlioz's La amnation de Faust, Schoenberg's Die Jakobsleiter, Berlioz's Requiem, Mahler's Das Klagende Lied, and Macmillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross.
The TSO has 89 musicians, including musicians from China, England, France, Russia, and the United States. The TSO engages the following conductors: Music Director, Hubert SOUDANT; Laureate Conductor, Kazuyoshi AKIYAMA, following his historic forty-year tenure as TSO's Music Director; Permanent Conductor, Naoto OTOMO; Resident Conductor, Norichika IIMORI; and Guest Principal Conductor, Nicola LUISOTTI. Arvid JANSONS, Masashi UEDA, and Shinji TOYAMA are Permanent Honorary Conductors. Arvid JANSONS in particular has brought unmatched passion to raising the TSO to the level of a world-class orchestra. The TSO has also engaged two renowned Japanese composers, Akira Nishimra and Toshio Hosokawa, as Composer in Residence.
The TSO invited numerous internationally acclaimed artists in an age when such invitations were rare. Guest conductors included Eugen Jochum, Lorin Maazel, Arvid Jansons, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Jean Fournet, Pablo Casals, Zdenek Kosler, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Jarvi, Mark Ermler, and Daniel Oren. Among TSO's guest soloists were Joseph Szigeti, Alfred Cortot, David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Wilhelm Kempff, Wilhelm Backhaus, Janos Starker, James Galway, Pinchas Zukerman, Kiri Te Kanawa, Narciso Yepes, Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, Gwyneth Jones, Mstilav Rostropovich, Siegfried Lorenz, Siegfried Vogel, Ludek Vele, Dawn Upshow, Wolfgang Brendel, Julian Bream, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Rado Rupu, Jean Pierre Rampal, Joerg Demus, and Edita Gruberova.
The TSO has given 70 performances in 19 countries outside of Japan. In 1976 the Orchestra marked its 30th anniversary with a tour of the United States, Canada and Mexico. In 1982 the TSO was invited to the South Korean Music Festival. In 1986 the TSO gave concerts in China as part of the orchestra's 40th anniversary celebration. For its 45th anniversary the TSO toured Europe and the USA, giving acclaimed performances at the "UK Japan Festival 1991" in Royal Festival Hall, London, and the "UN Day Concert" in United Nation Conference Hall, New York. In 1993 the TSO visited Thailand and Singapore, and in 1994 was invited to Portugal for the "EC Japan Fest". In 1990 the TSO won the prestigious "Ongaku-no-tomo Award" for its superlative performances of contemporary works. In 1993 it received another illustrious prize, the "Kyoto Music Award." In 1996 the TSO embarked on a two-week tour of Europe, visiting over eight different countries, in commemoration of its 50th anniversary.
In January 1994, the Orchestra observed Mr. Akiyama's 30th anniversary as Music director and its 400th Subscription Concert with the highly acclaimed Japanese premiere of music from Schoenberg's opera, Moses und Aron. In recognition of its achievement, it received the Mainichi Art Award for the most distinguished performance of the year, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs Art Award for a CD of the live recording of the concert. Also, TSO received the Mobil Music Award in 1996, the 29th Suntory Music Award in 1998, and the Award for Children's Culture of the Minister of Health and Welfare in 1999.
Since 1996 the TSO has been supported as a leading orchestra in Japan under the Agency for Culture Affairs of Japan.
The TSO has been regularly performing various operas and ballets at the New National Opera Theatre since its opening in 1997.
Since becoming a semi-resident orchestra for the City of Niigata in 1998, the TSO has performed Niigata Subscription Concerts and special concerts as well as concerts at hospitals and schools.
In 2000 the TSO gave thus premier of The Little Match Girl, a work by H. Lachenman, one of the most important composers in the world today. The great success of this performance brought the TSO the Nakajima Kenzo Music Award. In 2001 the TSO cerebrated its 55th anniversary with a series of memorial events including a tour of Turkey and Italy, a performance of the opera Kojiki composed by T. Mayuzumi, and a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand." In recent years, the TSO performed music from Janacek's opera series, The Cunning Little Vixen (1997); Kata Kabanova (2000, semi-stage performance); From the House of the Death (2003, semi-stage performance); and the opera El Nino by John Adams (2003, Japanese premiere), which was lauded as "a significant performance marking a new era of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra"; music from the opera Das Verrantene Meer by H.W. Henze (2004,); music from Turandot with Berio finale (2005, Japanese premiere); L'upupa (2007, Japanese premiere) by H. W. Henze; and A Flowering Tree by John Adams.
The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra reached an agreement with the City of Kawasaki to expand its concert activities by becoming the resident orchestra of the Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall, which opened in July 2004, and to perform a Kawasaki subscription series and various concerts. The TSO is active in performing at schools, hospitals, and other facilities in Kawasaki, and at venues elsewhere. The orchestra also enjoys collaborating with Kawasaki Frontale, a professional soccer team, and composed and has performed a fight song for them.
As well, the TSO enthusiastically gives educational concerts for children, called Orchestra Experience from Age Zero and, in collaboration with Suntory Hall, Kodomo Teiki Ensokai (Subscription Concerts for kids). Both the TSO's novel ideas and peformances of those concerts are drawing attention in various fields.
The TSO recordings include Beethoven's 9th symphony and Mozart's 29th & 39th symphonies on the Tokyo Symphony label, and Schumann' s complete Symphonies <Mahler edition> released in 2010 as well as Bruckner's symphony No.7 & No. 8., all conducted by Music Director, Hubert Soudant on N& F label |
