CSO and Järvi Set to Embark for Japan

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Oct. 31, 2003)

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra embarks on its first international tour with music director Paavo Jarvi this weekend. Following the conclusion of Sibelius' Second Symphony Saturday night at Music Hall, cargo trunks containing 18,509 pounds of instruments, wardrobe, sound gear and props will be loaded into a 53-foot, climate-controlled trailer for the trip to Chicago, where it will be loaded onto a 747 cargo plane for Japan.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra embarks on its first international tour with music director Paavo Järvi this weekend.

Following the conclusion of Sibelius' Second Symphony Saturday night at Music Hall, cargo trunks containing 18,509 pounds of instruments, wardrobe, sound gear and props will be loaded into a 53-foot, climate-controlled trailer for the trip to Chicago, where it will be loaded onto a 747 cargo plane for Japan.

Monday morning Järvi, CSO assistant conductor Sarah Ioannides, 103 musicians, seven staff members and tour physician Dr. Eric Warm will follow.

The two-week tour comprises eight concerts in seven cities: Sapporo, Mito, Yokohama, Tokyo, Kitakyushu, Osaka and Yamagata. In Tokyo the CSO will perform at legendary Suntory Hall and Metropolitan Art Space, two of the finest venues in Japan.

Their mission, said Järvi, is "to promote Cincinnati and our life together here. Our relationship is new and it is something that needs to be made real. We now have a track record of CDs (four so far for Telarc). People know that we are together and are developing and doing good things. But the thing is to see it and be part of it. You can listen to a CD and it may sound good, but it's sort of conserved."

Why Japan?

Japan "has a fanatical following for classical music," Järvi said. "It is still one of the most important markets for touring and recordings."

And it will challenge the orchestra, he said. "It is a country that has had the resources to invite the best. Even in the smaller cities, audiences are used to seeing good concerts and famous orchestras. They know exactly what's good."

"If you can do well in Japan, that's a real feather in your cap," said Jack McAuliffe, vice president of the American Symphony Orchestra League.

Sponsor of the tour is Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, headquartered in Northern Kentucky. Representatives of Toyota in Japan will attend concerts on the tour.

"The symphony is an extraordinary resource for Greater Cincinnati," said Dennis Cuneo, senior vice president of Toyota North America.

"It is a tremendous selling point for business and economic development. Our future is tied to the continued good energy of the community, and the symphony is a significant part of that."

The Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce has scheduled its annual marketing mission to Japan to coincide with the trip, and will conduct business seminars in Tokyo and Osaka for companies that may be interested in locating in Cincinnati. They will attend the concerts with their Japanese contacts.

The CSO is putting together a "virtual tour" so the folks at home can follow along at its Web site, www.cincinnatisymphony.org. Ioannides and seven orchestra members will provide briefings on each city visited, with photos, graphics, audio clips from CSO recordings and commentary.

The tour is getting lots of exposure in Japan. Universal, which distributes Telarc in Japan, has packaged all four of Järvi's CSO CDs with band rolls around them containing the texts translated into Japanese. Japanese journalist Kaoru Harigaya visited Cincinnati in September to interview Jarvi for a story that was published in October in the monthly music magazine Ongaku no Tomo. All of the concert programs will be printed in both Japanese and English.

"Japan is our largest foreign investment country," said Neil Hensley, senior director of economic development for the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Over 80 Japanese companies have a presence in Greater Cincinnati, including Mitsubishi, Fujitec and Mazak.

"We definitely wanted to take advantage of the symphony's tour because we have found that quality of life issues are increasingly important for Japanese companies as they make U.S. investment decisions. And what better way to show off the outstanding quality of life in our region than to take them to a performance of one of our own cultural treasures in their own country."

Japan has been prepped for the CSO visit by previous tours by the CSO and the Cincinnati Pops. Pops exposure is more recent, conductor Erich Kunzel having led Pops-only tours to Japan in 1997 and 1998. The CSO toured Japan in 1990 under music director emeritus Jesús López-Cobos, its first international tour since the late '60s.

Pops and CSO recordings are well known in Japan. The Pops' "Disney Spectacular" was the best-selling crossover album in Japan in 1989. In 2002, the CSO received the Governor's Excellence in Exporting Award ("E" Award) for its recordings and international tours; nearly half of its 8.7 million recording units having been sold in foreign countries.

CSO recordings, including its just-released "Romeo and Juliet" Suites by Prokofiev, will be on sale at the concerts and in record stores in Japan. Järvi will sign CDs after concerts in Yokohama and Tokyo.

Concert programs -- keyed to Järvi's CSO recordings -- will feature Berlioz' "Symphonie fantastique," Sibelius' Second Symphony and Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite." Ravel's "La Valse" will preview an all-Ravel disc to be released in 2004.

Other repertoire includes New York composer Charles Coleman's "Streetscape," a work Järvi commissioned for his inaugural concert as CSO music director in September 2001, Sibelius' "Finlandia," Grieg's Piano Concerto with Chinese pianist Yundi Li and Brahms' Violin Concerto with Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai.

Encores -- ovations in Japan are "very long and steady," said Järvi -- include the "Rakoczy March" from Berlioz' "Damnation of Faust," Sibelius' "Valse Triste," Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 and Gershwin's "Walking the Dog."

The conjunction of Järvi and the CSO is an added plus for the tour, since he is well known in Japan, having guest conducted there on many occasions. (Järvi's father, Neeme, is principal guest conductor of the Japan Philharmonic.)

When Järvi became CSO music director, "an invitation to come was almost immediately forthcoming," said Steven Monder, CSO president.

Li and Suwanai are popular in Japan. Li, 21, a native of Chongqinq and winner of the 2000 International Chopin Competition, is "like a movie star," Järvi said.

Youngest-ever winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Suwanai is an established artist and "very famous," he said. Both Li and Suwanai recently performed with the CSO at Music Hall.

The orchestra will travel 16,566 miles on the tour.

Monder cited one advantage of touring: "The orchestra gets even better. There's nothing like performing every night. It raises the level and when you come home, there's residual value."

Touring is also "one of the things that major orchestras do."