Berliner Philharmoniker Special Session

The special session, which took place in the Blue Rose small hall of Suntory Hall in Tokyo on Thursday, November 23, a national holiday, was attended by 230 students studying music at junior high school or above, chosen by lottery. Of them, 30 students were also invited to watch the main performance by the Berliner Philharmoniker taking place on the same day.

Before the special session, a pre-lecture was given by Akira Senju, who continues to be active on the frontlines as a composer. Arisa Iida, a classical music facilitator, served as navigator. In their discussion titled “Here’s Why! Grand Dissection of the Wonderful Berliner Philharmoniker,” they looked at what makes one of the world’s foremost orchestras sparkle. During the pre-lecture, the participating students used their smartphones as communication devices. They challenged quizzes, such as listening to multiple phrases from Symphony No. 7 by Anton Bruckner and guessing which were Berliner Philharmoniker performances, and also used their devices for questions and answers. This interactive approach, which enabled the students to participate in a positive manner, enlivened the event.

In the second half of the pre-lecture, Mr. Senju spoke about the Berliner Philharmoniker’s program for its performances in Japan this time, commenting from an original angle about how it gave a sense of the extraordinary passion of the maestro Kirill Petrenko and the program composition. As a special present, the Berliner Philharmoniker also gave participants limited access rights to its online Digital Concert Hall broadcasts. This was immensely popular, because it enabled even students who could not watch a main performance to listen to the same program as the one for the performances in Japan via the Internet.

After the pre-lecture, five orchestra members representative of the Berliner Philharmoniker appeared on the stage: Wenzel Fuchs (clarinet), Daishin Kashimoto (violin), Kotowa Machida (violin), Kyoungmin Park (viola), and Ludwig Quandt (cello). They played the Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581, a very famous piece of chamber music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

After the performance, there was a talk session on the theme of “Music and Dreams.” The five musicians spoke about such things as their reasons for starting music and what they placed importance on in their younger days. Daishin Kashimoto gave a message to the students, saying that “It is very important in life not only to practice an instrument but also to make many friends and experience food, scenery, and various cultures.” At the end of the session, the musicians called for questions from the students, and many hands shot up from the excited audience.

The plentiful program, which lasted for two hours in total, seemed to flash by. But for the students, it was a precious opportunity to feel the essence of the Berliner Philharmoniker and to have a direct dialogue with admired artists.

Excerpts from Participant Questionnaires
・I was happy to watch a really marvelous performance and to hear talk that gave me dreams. I learned how important it is to cultivate an eye for appreciating true art.
・I learned about various things that are important in pursuing music. I was surprised that the members of the Berliner Philharmoniker who performed for us today had not just practiced music all the time but had had lots of other experiences too.
・It was useful for me in facing up to my own performances from now on.
・It gave me motivation for the future.

Concert Information

Performances in Japan by the Berliner Philharmoniker
Conductor: Kirill Petrenko
The Berliner Philharmoniker, one of the world’s top orchestras, was visiting Japan for the first time in four years. From Tuesday, November 14 to Sunday, November 26, it performed a total of 10 concerts in six cities (Takamatsu, Nagoya, Himeji, Osaka, Tokyo, and Kawasaki).

Since its first performance in Japan in 1957, the Berliner Philharmoniker had visited the country 23 times. Conducted by the likes of Herbert von Karajan, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle, and Zubin Mehta, who was the conductor last time, on each occasion the orchestra has treated Japanese audiences to the most eminent sounds of the times.

The 2023 tour was the long-awaited first visit to Japan by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko, who was appointed as its chief conductor and artistic director in 2019 and with whom the orchestra has already built an unshakeable relationship of trust. The visit, which etched its mark in the history of performances by overseas orchestras in Japan, turned out to be one of the most talked-about musical events of the current fiscal year.