THE WANDERER'S CHRONICLE
N.21

T O K Y O 2006

As so often already words fail the Wanderer. On the one hand this is a sign of the quality of the performances he has heard and of the emotion he has felt. But on the other hand it is rather sad when he has to own up to it.

The Wanderer had the good luck to be able to spend ten days in Japan (in the company of three friends) and to listen to the concerts of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.

Already this summer in Lucerne the concerts were exceptional due to their quality, their intensity, their emotion. They were exceeded by those in Tokyo – a fact that the Wanderer fails to understand.

Right from the start, from the first movement of Mahler’s 6th Symphony, a breath-taking tension and decisive will could be felt. By the end – brutal, unconditional – the Wanderer had not yet recovered. He seemed continuously out of breath.

Abbado’s conducting was full of emotion and intensity. He gave an enormous amount of this to the orchestra - and received back twice as much.

What, amongst many other things, impressed the Wanderer very much was the silence. In a town as noisy as Tokyo this is all the more remarkable. Silence reigns as soon as you enter the concert hall, during the performance and in particular afterwards. The prolonged silence at the end of the 6th Symphony was a small miracle.

The second evening (14.10.) the first movement was slightly less scintillating but apart from that the masterful interpretation was repeated. And, once again, what an impressive silence at the end – in complete contrast to the surroundings.

Tokyo is really a very loud city. Quite apart from the traffic (heavy at any time of the day) everywhere you have people shouting advertisements, at traffic lights loudspeakers are in use, cars pass by with announcements trying to attract your attention. The Wanderer experienced a most interesting country full of contrasts and contradictions, full of loud colours and with an extremely helpful population.

He also took the opportunity of visiting the country on the days without concerts, travelling to Nikko, Kamakura and in particular to Kyoto. Here once again many contrasts: in Nikko for example the temples are very bright, in Kyoto on the contrary of extreme simplicity.

In the second series of concerts (Brahms, Bruckner) Maurizio Pollini played Brahms’ 2nd Piano Concerto and appealed much more (at least to this Wanderer) than he had done in Lucerne. Once again (especially on the second evening) there was barely an interlude between the first and the second movement, but at least this time orchestra and conductor were warned.

What is there to say about Bruckner’s 4th Symphony? Already in Lucerne the Wanderer had been taken aback by the brilliance of the interpretation. What luck to be able to hear it again! Right from the beginning, when Bruno Schneider’s horn sets in, a great tension reigns. In particular the 3rd movement is extremely clear and precise with the variety of themes and rhythms erupting. The only cloud on the horizon: this time the audience clapped too soon.

But all this was nothing compared to the rendering of the symphony on the 2nd evening…

The Wanderer has been extremely spoilt over the past years, but this performance will remain forever graved in his memory. The majesty of the first movement, the beauty of the second, the litheness of the third and the emotion of the last movement stunned him.

And thus the Wanderer returns to the beginning: words are powerless and fail to express what he has heard.

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Claudio Abbado surpassed themselves in Tokyo and for that we must all be very happy and grateful.