CSO in Sapporo

(first published in the Cincinnati Post, Friday, November 7, 2003)

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra winged its way to Japan Monday, first leg on a seven-city, eight-concert tour, its first international tour with music director Paavo Järvi.

Armed with all four of its Telarc CDs with Jarvi - three of them keyed to concerts on the tour - and a reputation honed on previous visits (in 1990, 1997 and 1998), the 103 musicians, 12 staff and crew members, Järvi, assistant conductor Sarah Ioannides and tour physician Dr. Eric Warm raced the sun on the way over, crossing 10 time zones and arriving "tomorrow" at Tokyo‘s Narita Airport. (They crossed the International Date Line over the Pacific.)

After a domestic flight to Sapporo on the northernmost island of Hokkaido and a 30-minute bus ride to the Hotel Arthur Sapporo, the weary band was treated to a welcome reception and comfortable beds for the first time in two days. A banner in the hotel lobby proclaimed "Welcome Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Japan Tour 2003." There were American and Japanese flags at the door and a brightly lit Christmas tree out front. (There were still brightly painted pumpkins on the lawn behind the hotel, evidence of Japan’s love of holiday celebrations.)

The trip was "extremely difficult," said second violinist Stacey Woolley. "There was lots of "hurry up and wait."

There were long lines at security checkpoints. "At the end of this is a piece of cheese," quipped CSO president Steven Monder of the maze at Delta Airlines security in Cincinnati. And there were flight delays, a full hour going from Cincinnati to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, where bad weather caused a slowdown.

There were some real highs on the way over, however, including a spectacular view of the snow-clad Alaskan Rockies, digitally photographed in all their glory by flutist Kyril Magg.

Their reward was a free day Wednesday in Sapporo, a bustling modern city of 1.8 million ringed by mountains and forests, many of the trees still tinged with fall color. Sunny skies alleviated the nip in the air (highs were in the 50s).

Jarvi spent part of the day browsing through the bins at the local Tower Records. A clerk recognized him and began playing Estonian composer Eduard Tubin's Symphony No. 5 from the CSO’s 2002 Sibelius/Tubin CD. (CSO CDs were on sale at the concert Thursday and in all the record stores.)

CSO members fanned out over Sapporo’s busy shopping district, sampling the food in the self-contained Findlay markets that are a feature of Japanese department stores. (Clarinetist Ixi Chen especially enjoyed the freshly made Chinese dumplings at Mitsukoshi Department Store, she said.)

Others jogged or went for walks, some up into the hillsides surrounding the city. Magg and second violinist Harold Byers boarded a train for Otaru, a coastal city on the Sea of Japan. It was a way of "making ourselves stay awake and get used to the time zone," Magg said.

In the evening, several visited Sapporo Beer Garden named after the city’s famous beer. With long tables and its own brand of "Gemutlichkeit," it is much like European models, said Woolley, except for the mutton barbecue (guests could tuck their jackets into garment bags draped over the backs of their chairs to avoid picking up the smoke). Others sought out Sapporo’s famous ramen, a meal in itself with lots of accoutrements, said second violinist Cheryl Benedict. Ramen was also the cuisine of choice for a CSO staff party honoring stage manager Joe Hopper’s birthday.

The orchestra got down to "business" Thursday night with their first concert, at Sapporo's sparkling new, acoustically warm "Kitara" Concert Hall located in Nakajima Park behind the hotel.

Guest artist was violinist Akiko Suwanai in Brahms" Violin Concerto (which she performed at Music Hall in October). Suwanai, winner of the 1990 Tchaikovsky International Competition, is a native of Hakodate, Hokkaido’s second largest city. Hakodate was one of Japan’s first treaty ports when the country opened up to the west in the late 19th-century and a haven for Russian aristocrats after the Bolshevik Revolution. As a young violinist, Suwanai became enamored of the Russian violin school exemplified by David Oistrakh and Efrem Zimbalist and longed to pursue her studies there.

"There were no relations between the two countries, so applying for the competition was the only way to go to Moscow," she said. Taking the top prize in the competition - at 18, she was the youngest first prize-winner in its history - was icing on the cake.

The audience (the hall was about three-quarters full) showed its affection for its native daughter by calling her back for five bows. A young man approached the stage and handed her a wrapped gift. Such tributes, which can be flowers or any other small gift, are a traditional way of honoring a performer in Japan.

Järvi opened the concert with Sibelius’ "Finlandia," where he made a marked contrast between the dramatic, struggle-filled opening and the tender chorale melody. Centerpiece was Berlioz’ "Symphonie fantastique," which Järvi led on CSO concerts in October. He stirred up a spine-tingling "Witches’ Sabbath" in the color-drenched work - the "Dies Irae" bells (Verdin bells in Cincinnati) were loaned by Japan’s NHK Symphony - drawing out the last blazing chord as if there were no tomorrow. The audience showed its approval with lengthy applause - standing ovations are not the custom in Japan - and Järvi rewarded them with three encores, "Rakoczy March" from Berlioz’ "Damnation of Faust," Sibelius’ "Valse triste" and Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5.

The CSO moves on to Mito north of Tokyo for a concert Friday evening which Järvi will precede by lighting a Christmas tree outside Ibaraki Prefectural Concert Hall, then on to Yokohama Saturday and Tokyo’s famed Suntory Hall Sunday.

The tour continues until Nov. 15 with concerts in Kitakyushu on the southern island of Kyushu, then to Tokyo’s Metropolitan Art Space, Osaka and Yamagata. The orchestra returns to Cincinnati Nov. 16.

Cincinnatians who wish to follow the tour in depth can do so at the CSO website www.cincinnatisymphony.org. Seven CSO musicians - concertmaster Timothy Lees, second violinist Chika Kato-Wu, percussionist Richard Jensen, clarinetist Ixi Chen, piccoloist Joan Voorhees, violist Paul Frankenfeld and trombonist Cristian Ganicenco - plus assistant conductor Ioannides will act as tour guides, filing reports from each city beginning with Lees in Sapporo. The site also contains a tour schedule, photographs, audio clips, reviews and articles about the tour, information about the artists and the music, an introduction to the tour cities and concert halls and links to further information about Japan. You can even send a postcard to your favorite CSO musician.