Word: concertants
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With this year marking the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation between Australia and Japan, the just-completed Sydney Symphony concert tour perhaps best exemplifies the new-found harmony between these two once warring nations. Invited by Asia Orchestra Week as "a glory of the Southern Hemisphere," the Australian orchestra's bass-heavy Sydney sound was let loose in the more rarefied acoustics of halls in Tokyo and Osaka. "The technique in Japan is really polished, highly trained, actually perfect?no mistakes," says Tokyo-raised, Sydney-based contrabassoonist Noriko Shimada. "I like...
...classical music appreciation, were immediately answered in the cross-cultural fanfare of Brisbane composer Liza Lim's Flying Banner (after Wang To). And upon completion of their spectacular rendition of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, the orchestra received the kind of review money couldn't buy. Attending the opening concert in Tokyo was Crown Prince Naruhito, himself an accomplished viola player. At a supper afterwards, he sipped Australian wine while chatting with a small group of musicians. "He said that the whole program was very fine and he enjoyed it all," recalls concertmaster Dene Olding. As a boy, the Japanese...
...Australia-Japan Year of Exchange proves anything, it's that with a foundation of mutual curiosity, exchange can be as meaningful one-on-one as it is between 90 musicians and 1,700 audience members in an Osaka concert hall. And it's even more thrilling to watch the process in its chrysalis phase. In this respect, the masterclass between five Sydney Symphony woodwind players and 100 budding band members at an Osaka high school was the high point of the tour. The stage was a plastic-covered gymnasium floor, with headmaster Yoshio Shinohara's office standing in as green...
Royal protocol aside, the 2006 Japan tour might be remembered as the year the Sydney Symphony got its ears back. In the six years since its last overseas tour, the orchestra has been largely confined to the acoustically murky Sydney Opera House. By contrast, "Japan is full of fine concert halls," says violinist Dene Olding. "They make quite a science of the acoustics." Indeed, baritone soloist Jos? Carbo says he has never sung on a better stage than Tokyo's. "It was such a crisp, true rebound," he raves. With singing, he explains, "it's the monitoring of what...
Which is the difference between a great hall and the Sydney Symphony's home stage. Speaking of which, the tour has reaffirmed artistic administrator Wolfgang Fink's commitment to improving the acoustics of the Opera House concert hall, now in its feasibility-study stage. In the meantime, he says, the best way of tweaking the orchestra's sound is by more touring, for which Japan is a natural destination. "It is the closest, most interesting marketplace for Australia," says Fink...