What a stunning night at Oji Hall - the World Premier of the seminal work which set off the whole chain of Symphonies for Strings was a wonder to hear. Good Heavens it was uncanny to hear a new Brahms Symphony - for so it seemed to me.


The Orchestra was in fine fettle especially after the interval, and over the champagne the rafters resounded with "masterly", "[the sinfonia] is really blooming now" and even, from one of our more doughty supporters, " Offers pleasing details without fussiness, and natural balances that serve the thematic threads".

And how nice to have those cute chocolates with the champagne - another first!

Tokyoguru

Last night was a blast!!! We performed in the Bolshoi Sal of the Russian Embassy and everything - the music, the ambiance and yes, the champagne, were all stunning.

Top of the list was of course the music - Alexei Komoarov, our guest pianist, awed the audience with his poetic interpretation of two very different pieces - a concerto from Bach and one (with a lyrical trumpet from Kazuyo Kitzono) in a much more dashing mode from Shostakovich.

Maestro Ryker led the strings of the Tokyo Sinfonia in these pieces, as well as in a wonderful interpretation of Stravinsky and a merry ending from Kachaturian, with his everpresent warmth which makes even the most challenging piece totally accessible.

The ambience of the Russian Embassy s as ever spectacular, and the champagne added a final zip. Thanks to everyone - and we are looking forward to our dinner concert at the FCCJ on the 8th of August - a lovely Italian serenade - with an Italian dinner of course.

Tokyoguru

Well well, that was a stunning week. We accomplished such a lot. Hans has got our website looking very pleasant and functional - and this is only version one! We shall be working on version two during the coming weeks - the real problem at the moment is the Japanese side of the site which is not quite up to scratch, mainly due to my abysmal performance in the Japanese language. Good heavens, I have been here for thirty years, and still sound like a baby when I'm talking.

This was nowhere more obvious than in our where I gave the introduction to the Press. Fortunately I was rescued by the spectacular performance of Mitsuyo Connelly, our Spokesman, who brilliantly expounded the philosophy and direction of the Tokyo Sinfonia. You can download a transcript of that, in English or in Japanese, from the home page of this site.



Maestro Ryker then expounded on his view about music, cultural differences in audiences, the future and the past, all rendered in to splendid Japanese by Mari Baba (unfortunately we have no transcript of that!)

Now I'm of to India on a business trip. I'll be back in a week, but in the meantime I'm resting in anticipation of the Beethoven Concert in Oji Hall on the 14th of March. Beethoven, re-orchestrated by Maestro, played by the Tokyo Sinfonia, now that's worth waiting for!!!

See you there??

Tokyoguru

Sunday - pleasant weather but cold and plenty of snow yesterday evening. Well, plenty for Tokyo - a mere couple of centimetres actually.

We are spending an inordinate amount of time getting the text of the website ready for next week - the Press Conference is on the 14th (Valentine's Day so I had better take some chocolate along as the American form is followed (anybody gets a Valentine), rather than the British (only for the real darllng of your heart, and always anonymous).

One may think that the difference is trivial, but actually it is because of that difference that I am married to Fumiko!! When we met I thought she was an unattainable princess, and would not dare to approach her with romantic notions. She however gave me a rather splendid key ring as a Valentine's gift - which in England would be a very strong sign that my approached would be more than welcome. I approached - and only after a couple of years of marriage did I find out that it was a mistake! And thirty years on, it has proven to be the happiest mistake of my life!!!

Anyway, revenons a nos moutons - the text for the web site is more or less fixed now. We are using Google Documents for on line editing which is a great way to share amendments to text but an abysmal way to prepare a final document as the formatting is rudimentary - and of course all my favourite ato text doesn't work. Ah dear, the things we do for our colleagues.

Tokyoguru

Tokyoguru