Commemorating 150 Years Friendship Japan-Austria, Wiener Philharmoniker (the Vienna Philharmonic) Week in Japan 2019

Suntory Hall invited one of the most acclaimed orchestras in the world, Wiener Philharmoniker (The Vienna Philharmonic) and hosted ‘Wiener Philharmoniker Week in Japan 2019 – 150 Years Friendship Japan-Austria – from November 5th to 15th. To commemorate the 150 Years Friendship of Japan and Austria, the Wienner Philharmoniker (WPh) performed Viennese Waltz or Polka, which is just the same as WPh’s famous New Year Concert broadcast live over 90 countries worldwide, as the opening special programme for this special occasion on the 5th, conducted by Christian Thielemann who conducted the actual New Year Concert 2019 in Vienna.

WPh has nearly 180-year-history, and 2019 was their 35th Japan tour since their first visit in 1956. Suntory Hall launched “Wiener Philharmoniker Week in Japan” in 1999 so that the Japanese audience can listen to the magnificent music of WPh on regular basis, which is recognised as special as “WPh week in New York” held at the famous Carnegie Hall. This year, the orchestra performed under the baton of, not one but two maestros, Christian Thielemann, the revered Principal Conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle and Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival, and the increasingly in demand Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who currently holds music directorships of the Houston Symphony and the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony). Thielemann’s previous visit to Japan with the WPh was six years ago, whereas it was Orozco-Estrada’s first appearance with them in this country. Those two maestros and the orchestra toured and gave nine concerts in four cities including Kawasaki, Nagoya, Osaka, and Tokyo. Apart from the concerts, Suntory Hall and WPh presented a masterclass by a tuba player, and the Open Rehearsal for high / junior high school students to enhance educational programmes, which successfully showed our wider contacts to society.

To coincide with Wiener Philharmoniker Week, Suntory Hall hosted two exhibitions in the Ascot Hall of nearby Hotel Okura Tokyo from the 2nd to 17th of Nobember. One was an exhibition from the Archive-Library-Collection of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien focusing on “Nineteenth-century Vienna and Japan”, and the other a photographic exhibition of backstage portraits of Wiener Philharmoniker players during previous Japan tours. The talk sessions and gallery concerts also attracted the public attention and the NHK World covered the exhibitions.

Furthermore, during the tour, the conductor Orozco-Estrada and six selected musicians of orchestra visited Sendai city, Miyagi prefecture on “The Vienna Philharmonic & Suntory Music Aid Fund” having continuously supported to rebuild and rejuvenate the affected areas by the Great East Japan Earthquake since 2012, where they provided a workshop directly and played together with the Sendai Junior Orchestra. The activity was also covered by a local paper.

The WPh calls Suntory Hall their second home and looks forward to coming back to Japan in November next year.