NHK Symphony Orchestra with Paavo Jarvi, conductor

Performers
NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo
Paavo Järvi conductor

 

Program:
Toru Takemitsu: Requiem for strings
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.6

 

There will be no interval in this performance which will end at approx. 9.15pm

NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo perform Takemitsu’s haunting Requiem for strings alongside Mahler’s passionately melancholic Sixth Symphony.

It was Stravinsky who first brought international attention to Takemitsu’s music after he came across a recording of the Requiem on a visit to Japan in 1959. Its slow, yearning melodies lead into Mahler’s monumental ‘Tragic’ Symphony, known for the three sledgehammer blows in its final movement, which represent the blows of fate. The most traditional of Mahler’s symphonies, it draws listeners into its bleak yet irresistible momentum.

 

Considered by many to be Japan’s foremost orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1926 and over the years has attracted such illustrious conductors as Herbert von Karajan, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Herbert Blomstedt.

 

Tickets: £50 £35 £20 £10 Premium £65