Claudio Abbado conducts Russian works at Suntory Hall in Tokyo
There is nowhere else in the world that the Berliner Philharmoniker have been received with more warmth, enthusiasm, and for so many years, than in Japan. Recorded in Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 1994, this concert with Claudio Abbado gives an impression of just the kind of reception they are given. The programme includes major Russian works by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Stravinsky which are shown to their best advantage in the outstanding acoustics of this concert hall.
Suntory Hall, which was opened in 1986, is a kind of home-from-home for the Berliner Philharmoniker – it even stands in Tokyo’s Herbert von Karajan Square. Karajan actually played a significant role in the designing of the hall, recommending for example the “vineyard” seating arrangement which people knew from the Philharmonie Berlin. Karajan was highly delighted with the result, calling Suntory Hall “a jewel box of sound”.
The concert programme reveals the variety of Russian music around the turn of the 20th century, with Pyotr Tchaikovsky blending Slavonic passion with the Western symphonic form in his Fifth Symphony, while Modest Mussorgsky in his Night on Bald Mountain celebrates the primeval power of music which lies beyond any tradition. Like Mussorgsky, Igor Stravinsky takes up the power of Russian folklore in his Firebird, intensifying its effect by enriching it with his own pioneering musical language.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Claudio Abbado
© 1994 EuroArts Music International
Category
Artists
Our recommendations
- 2002 Europakonzert from Palermo with Claudio Abbado and Gil Shaham
- 1994 Europakonzert from Meiningen with Claudio Abbado and Daniel Barenboim
- Claudio Abbado conducts works with a maritime theme at the 1998 Europakonzert from Stockholm
- Claudio Abbado and Viktoria Mullova at Suntory Hall in Tokyo
- 1996 Europakonzert from St Petersburg with Claudio Abbado
- Claudio Abbado conducts Mozart at the 1991 Europakonzert from Prague
