The Tokyo Concert Experience

This year didn’t disappoint. Most genres were covered, the top two being Classical and Extreme Metal. I could check off some items of my bucket list, l finally saw The Cure, Tom Zé and Vijay Iyer. I also was able to cover the Fuji Rock Festival this year and even though I didn’t go to venues I usually go to every year, like Blue Note, Club Quattro and WWW, I visited several live houses in the Tokyo area. The blog also expanded to cover musicals, stand up comedy, theater and movies. All in all it was a fruitful year for the Tokyo Concert Experience. Bubbling under the top 5 were shows like Voivod and Giovanni Guidi from back in January. The amazing double bill of Neurosis and Converge in February. One of Sylvain Cambreling’s farewell concerts conducting the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra and their performance of Scielci’s and Grisey’s works. The unique sensorial experience that was Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Fever Room at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater. Neal Brennan’s stand u...

Over the course of three weekends, from November 23rd to December 7th,  François-Frédéric Guy  performed the 32 piano sonatas written by Ludwig van Beethoven . The cycle was performed almost in the exact order throughout nine concerts, two on Saturday and one on Sunday each week. It was an exhilarating journey that reflected, not only on the genius of creation at its peak, but also on the fascinating historical evolution from the Classic era to the Romantic one. By the last decade of the Eighteenth Century the piano replaced the harpsichord as the preferred keyboard instrument among composers and performers. Beethoven started composing his cycle in 1795 and those three concerts on the first weekend showcased the first period of his piano sonatas. Still indebted to Haydn, his teacher, but at the same time announcing an imminent revolution. I enjoyed these early pieces a lot. It was the beginning of the nine concerts set, which it’s always exhilarating. These pieces also r...

Thirty years have passed since that infamous night (for some) when Jethro Tull beat Metallica for Best Metal Album of the year at the Grammys. It was the first year that category was introduced at the awards ceremony. I remember watching it live and the shocked expressions from the presenters when instead of reading And Justice For All form the envelope, they read Crest of a Knave . At the time I owned both albums, I liked them both and thought they both rocked. Jethro Tull’s was another late eighties prog band type of record, like Yes’ Big Generator ; while Metallica’s was of course a landmark. Thirty years later Metallica is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Jethro Tull isn’t. On the other hand the flagship current band of the extreme metal genre sounds more like Jethro Tull than Metallica. Opeth released an album this year, In cauda venenum , their first sung entirely in Swedish. It’s the latest in a string of prog inspired albums that started around ten years ago with H...

There’s a picture on the internet of the Arditti Quartet that it is one of the most badass pictures I’ve ever seen. It was taken a while ago, with Irvine Arditti sporting a full-on black afro. The four members are all crouching down in the front row. The second row, behind them, is occupied by three towering figures of the arts in the Twentieth Century: Elliott Carter, La Monte Young and John Cage. This unique document that reunites these three individuals represents Arditti Quartet’s influence and unquestionable relevance in contemporary music. Their role as promoters of some of the most challenging music from the last fifty years can not be understated. This evening’s program went back further and showcased pieces written over a hundred years ago in some cases, among the most contemporary fare. The turnout was more than decent, the concert hall was almost full. Right on time they came out on stage and started the program with one of the six string quartets written by  Béla...