2002.6.24  Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space

　

　

　Tokyo New City Orchestra was established in 1990 (formerly started in 1980 with other name) under a conductor, Akira Naito, its current music director. This orchestra appears in its regular subscription concerts, concerto concerts, opera and ballet performances, family concerts and recordings.

　 In particular this orchestra is known for its wonderful performances with celebrated opera singers from all over the world, Renata Scotto, Alfredo Kraus, Hermann Prey, Carlo Bergonzi, Katia Ricciarelli, Agnes Baltsa, Marierra Devia, Maria Chiara, Gloria Scalchi , Lucia Valentini Terrani, Nicola Martinucci, Pietro Ballo, Luciano Pavarotti, to name a few.

　 Tokyo New City Orchestra has appeared in many ballet performances, with such companies as The Birmingham Royal Ballet, The Leningrad State ballet in memory of Moussorgsky, les ballet de Monte-Carlo, Academic Bolishoi Ballet, Theatre of Belarus Republic, The Australian Ballet. In the year 2000, it will appear with the ballet of La Scala,Milano in September and with the ballet of the Bordeaux Opera Theatre (from France) in November in Tokyo and other main cities in Japan.

　 Guest conductors and performers from Italy and other European countries always praise this orchestra with surprise for its good sound quality compared with orchestras in Europe.

　 On January the 16th, 2004 Tokyo New City Orchestra performed the true and correct ‘Madama Butterfly’ for the first time in the world with various Japanese original and traditional bells which Puccini must have hoped eagerly but no one else couldn’t have used before. The Japanese bells were used in order to express Japanese atmosphere and also indicate the conflict between Buddhism and Christianity also and an important underplot of the tragic end of the opera. The big success of this performance surely marks the begining real ‘Madama Butterfly’ in the world.

　 Tokyo New City Orchestra is a young orchestra, but it has well-selected capable musicians who are also very warm-hearted. Consequently this orchestra is well-known for its exceptional musicianship and joyful atmosphere enjoyed by both the performers and the audience.
18.Feb.2004

　

AKIRA NAITO (music director ,conductor)　

　

 

   Maestro Kazuo Yamada, one of the greatest conductors in Japan saw in his student Akira Naito the potential of an ideal conductor and strongly advised him to accept the change in vocation from a scientist to the career of a musician.

   After having graduated from the University of Nagoya, he was enrolled at the master course of Toho Institute of Music, one of Japan’s most profound musical institute where he was taught Maestro Seiji Ozawa, Maestro Kazuyoshi Akiyama (Director of Vancouver Symphonic Orchestra, etc), Maestro Tadaaki Otaka (Director of BBC Wales Symphonic, etc) and other prominent conductors.

   After finishing official education, he was appointed the chief conductor of Yamagata Symphonic Orchestra.

   Akira Naito has conducted most of Japan’s major orchestras, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, just to mention a few.

   His musical success took him outside the country where in Europe, his engagement with Belgrade Philharmonic and Moscow Symphony was received with great ovation. In May 1996, he was invited to conduct “The Barber of Seville” at The Voronezh National Theater (Russia) and he received loud acclaim for the performance. In May 1997, he conducted “Madama Butterfly” at the Belarus National Opera Ballet Theater. In March 2001, Naito has been requested by the organizing producer to give the Russian premier of “November Steps” in St. Petersburg with St. Ptersburg State Academic Symphony of Capella, which was sponsored by the municipal government and the Japanese consulate to celebrate the renovation of the notable capella hall, the oldest and prominent in St. Petersburg. In the autumn of 2001, he was requested to become the principal guest conductor of Ulyanovsk National Academic Symphony orchestra (Russia).

   He is noted for his ensemble with the voice: especially in opera and choir. His appearance counting more than 70 times a year.

   His annual concert with the choir and the orchestra opens the season at the “Hokutopia” concert hall every year. On January the 16th in 2004,with his orchestra‘Tokyo New City Orchestra’, he performed the true and correct‘Madama Butterfly ’for the first time in the world with various Japanese original and traditional bells which Puccini must have hoped eagerly but no one else couldn’t have used before, because there were no such music instrument in the world. Because such bells are only ones for religion of Buddhism and so on. Of course they don’t have special pitch for music. Mr. Naito made these bells have music pitch with big effort. The Japanese bells were used in order to express Japanese atmosphere and also 1ndicate the conflict between Buddhism and Christianity also and an important underplot of the tragic end of the opera. The big success of this performance surely marks the beginning real ‘Madama Butterfly’in the world.

   Presently Akira Naito is Music Director of Tokyo New City Orchestra,　Music Director of Tokyo Choral Society as well as being an executive member of the board of Japan Conductors’ Association.
18.Feb.2004

　

akira.naitou@nifty.com

 

subscription concert information                                                            

■2006/4/18 Tue. 19:00  Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space Large Hall

　Daisuke Soga(Conductor)


　　　Tchaikovsky:Fantasy Overture“Romeo and Juliet”
　　　　　　　Prokof'ev:Concert Suite“Romeo and Juliet” (excerpt)
　　　　　　　Daisuke Soga:Fantasy for“Romeo and Juliet”
　　　　　　　Bernstein:“Symphonic Dances”“Somewhere”from「West Side story」

Secret Solist/Solo


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03-5933-3222(Weekday 10：00～18：00)

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-----Tokihiko Umezu-----MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS February 5,2004

From three small holes in the shoji (sliding paper door), three shadows, large, medium and small are staring out. They belong to Madam Butterfly, a boy who was born to her and an American naval officer Pinkerton and their servant Suzuki.

Nobody had believed that Pinkerton would return a second time to Japan and so they had tried to convince Madame Butterfly to forget him but, just as she had insisted, a warship with Pinkerton on board had arrived in Nagasaki bay.

Behind the shoji in their refuge of love the three wait for Pinkerton’s visit. Flowers from the garden lie sprinkled in the room. Time seems flow gently but the audience knows Pinkerton’s real purpose. He has come with his wife from America in order to take his son back.

The eyes through the shoji represent the whole of Puccini’s “Madam Butterfly”. The opera depicts different viewpoints. Viewpoints born from a multitude of cultural contexts become, through mistakes and misunderstandings, the tragic core of the work.

From Pinkerton’s point of view their past encounter was just child prostitution in an exotic country (Madame Butterfly was only fifteen years old at that time); for Madame Butterfly it represented adoration and longing towards the West; for her relatives who were priests, it was a religious battle between Buddhism and Christianity. It is obvious that there is also the underlying problem of the economic gap between America and Japan around 1895.

In his music Puccini gives expression not only to a sensuous melody but also to the different cultural context of each group with astonishing precision. The rearranged versions of the American national anthem, “Echigo ji shi” and “Miya-san, Miya-san” are aspects of his melody which are easy to understand, but he also arranged sounds that he heard at the time into the composition as a whole.

It does not say with an exact name, but mentions from a small bell (used for a ring on the domestic Buddhist altar) meant to be A scale and a middle-sized bell (used for reciting sutra) meant to be tuned up to twelve melody to a temple bell and a wind bell.

However, due to the fact that there is no materials in Europe and there are many in Japan which are not tuned for western scales, a temple bell has been substituted by a Chinese gong and a wind bell by a vibraphone, and a bell for sutra has been left unplayable in the west and east over the century since the first performance.

The “Madam Butterfly” conducted by Akira Naito which employed the concert style attached a semi-sized stage reproduced Puccini’s sound with the fact that he produced the instruments exactly acting on his designation, which was completely new to the audience’s ear.

Given that the music instruments has been reproduced by his intention, the aspect of a conflict over the culture, thought and religion comes up clearly to the surface. For example, during the luscious duet of love between Madam Butterfly and Pinkerton under the night sky at the end of the first act, a bell for a sutra adds an ominous melody to it constantly as though it predicts the ruin that is coming afterwards.

The melody lines which are considered never to encounter create a harmony only one time. At the stage observed through the three holes of the shoji a church bell and a temple bell meet in the same melody very gently. After that, the scene goes into the catastrophe of Madam Butterfly commit suicide, however, this latest version of the performance made it clear that she had already forgiven all the facts and it brought her a relief to some extent. Miwako Matsumoto, who was in charge of the execution, kept its form balanced and made the “Madam Butterfly” even more vivid, and therefore covered a subtle disadvantage of its high tone.

Bells



-----Robert Ryker-----Japan Times  November 7,1999

Sept.23, Akira Naito conducting in Hokutopia Sakura Hall___ "The Barber of Seville"Overture (Rossini), Symphony No.35 inD Major,KV385 "Haffner" (Mozart); "Stabat Mater"(Rossini) featureing The Tokyo Choral Society 

   The Tokyo New City Orchestra under Akira Naito presented its 14th regular subscription concert in Hokutopia Sakura Hall.  Founded in 1990, the 57member orchestra appears mainly in family concerts, concerto concerts, opera and ballet performances and recordings.  This performance was presented jointly with the 35-member Tokyo Choral Society, founded in1984, for whom the event was its 16th annual subscription concert.

    As a newcomer in Tokyo's music scene, the TNCO understandably wishes to be ranked among the city's major orchestras, at least for the quality if not the quantity of its performances.  Naito showed that he can select capable musicians and mold them into an excellent ensemble.

   Sounding capable and experienced, the orchestra got off to a good start with Rossini's frolicking overture to the "barber of Seville".  The playing was light and clean in fine Rossini style.  The "Haffner" symphony was a better test.  In Mozart's music the notes are simple, but the craftsmanship and transparent textures unerringly reveal to the ear the slightest eccentricity in ensemble, expression or elegance.

  Naito elected to reduce the string body by one contrabass player.  It seemed to make no difference, for the orchestra sonority was already suited for Mozart, as it was for Rossini.  The singing style of the phrasing appeared to have been set in the rehearsals, as it varied but little throughout.  the first oboe and first bassoon were notable among the group of accomplished young musicians.

   It was a treat to hear Rossini's "Stabat Mater".  It was not only fresh to the ear, being infrequently performed, but particularly well prepared.  Here the conducting gestique appeared more interesting and informative.  Naito placed the chorus at the center stage between the two quadrants of the orchestra,  so the sound was well balanced among the components of the ensemble,  allowing the individual parts to be heard with refreshing clarity.

   He also called on members of the chorus for the solos, duos, and quartets in the oratorio, a worthy if long-range artistic policy.  It was effective way to draw good talent, maintain high moral and promote vocal excellence in the ensemble as a whole, and it proved winning in execution. I was particularly taken with the contribution of soprano Saori Adachi.

   Forming and fielding a new ensemble is neither easy nor immediate, but the human rewards along the way make the challenge well worth the demands on energy, effort and endurance.

       

THE DAILY YOMIURI　　　November 27, 2003


TOKYO NEW CITY ORCHESTRA

   Address:  3-22-15 Symphony Plaza 2F Higashi-oizumi Nerima-ku Tokyo,JAPAN 　178-0063

     E-mail: newcity@ymail.plala.or.jp  

    Telephone: 81-3-5933-3222                                                

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