Ensemble InterContemporain conducted by Matthias Pintscher at Suntory Hall, August 22nd 2021

 


A brief take on the August 22 concert. It was the first one of an oddly timed tour of Japan just a couple of weeks after the end of the Olympics in the midst of the higher number of daily corona cases this country has experienced yet. The date was at Suntory Hall and the first thing that caught my attention was the laid-back approach at the entrance. No temperature taken, didn’t see lots of hand sanitizers either.

Sorry for the grumpiness but that approach put me in a not so great mood from the get-go. It might have been one of the reasons why I didn’t particularly enjoyed this concert. I was pumped to see the legendary group founded by Boulez in the seventies, whose recordings of pieces by Ligeti and Berio I’ve enjoyed through the years. The program also looked quite interesting. A chamber opera by Toshio Hosokawa (I’m not kidding when I said that at least one of his pieces have been performed in every single contemporary music concert I’ve been to in Tokyo) and a not so often performed Mahler piece, very close to his mythic symphonies. 

The opera -The Maiden from The Sea- didn’t do much for me. I’m a fan of Hosokawa and have thoroughly enjoyed and have been moved by his work in past concerts. This time around, though, that wasn’t the case. The idea of drawing a parallel between traditional ancient Japanese stories and refugees’ tragic attempts for dignified lives is a brilliant one. Personally the casting of the operatic lead reminded me of the fetishization of everything white and blonde that’s very common in Japan. It was a huge turn off and in my opinion contradicted the above mentioned parallelism. I’m not denying the singer’s talents which were obvious; but her as a refugee? Really? By the way the EIC is seriously lacking in color, if you catch my drift.

Call me bias but I wasn’t feeling it. The Mahler piece -Das Lied von der Erde- is an incredibly powerful piece. Apparently it was a different arrangement from the full orchestra ones I’m used to from the recordings. It didn’t sound that different and in a way rescued the concert from oblivion. It lacked, though that outstanding memorable moment that unforgettable performances have. It was, in the opinion of this definitely average spectator, a run of the mill one. 

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