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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...
Play out they did, and those who wondered what an Australian orchestra could possibly offer the Japanese, famously finicky in their 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...
...Sydney Symphony, the lessons have been as much cultural as musical. Before taking off to Japan, orchestra members were briefed by a former Australian consul-general in Osaka, John Montgomery, and a booklet was prepared, subtitled "Food and the Getting of It" and setting out such cultural niceties as the proper pronunciation of Kyoto (kyo-to not ki-yo-too) and how to order up big in a noodle bar: ramen oh-mori! The most important phrase? "Probably onegaishimasu," says tour manager John Glenn. "Please can you help me. And just being able to say thank you, arrigato. Or arrigato...
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...
...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...