MUSIC TODAY 21: Part I

MUSIC TODAY 21 is a festival of contemporary music that happens every summer here in Tokyo. Last year, I had the pleasure of attending the Japanese premiere of Thomas Ades’ Violin Concerto “Concentric Circles”. Thrilling. Another work on that program, Tansy Davies’s Tilting, was also intriguing.
So it was with some excitement that I attended two concerts at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall last week. The first, conducted by Ryusuke Numajiri, featured pieces by Italian Salvatore Sciarrino, American Augusta Read Thomas, Briton Luke Bedford, and Hungarian Peter Eötvös.
Sciarrino – 4 Adagi per flauto dolce e orchestra: A kind of concerto for recorder. A very quiet piece. The many silent spaces gave it an eerie feeling at times. A little bit like movie music, but in a good way. The soloist (Toshiya Suzuki) gave a passionate performance.

Thomas – Violin Concerto “Juggler in Paradise”: The best piece on the program. Soloist Eiichi Chijiiwa seemed a little uncomfortable in the more romantic passages, but was rhythmically precise as he juggled a melody over the orchestra’s more fragmented accompaniment. I’d love to hear another performance that had been given more rehearsal time.
Bedford – Wreathe for orchestra: The repeated theme (I counted at least seven) passed around by various solo players was great, but didn’t develop all that much. That being said, the orchestration was exciting. (However, the poor contrabass clarinetist didn’t have much fun fighting with his instrument in the quiet passages. Must have been a rental.)  Would love to here more from this young composer.
Eötvös – Konzert für zwei Klaviere und Orchester: Great performance by the two pianists, but I’m still not sure why two were needed (same goes for the two tubas). The music was very energetic and lively, but felt lacking in organization and purpose. Noisy and virtuosic, but ultimately pointless. But I may be wrong.
I’ll discuss the second concert in a future post.