Japan (history of great Gastspiele)

 

Trawling through Youtube I find more and more evidence of performances by the cream of Western musicians on tour to Japan going back a long way.

All the greats seem to have performed there: Carlos Kleiber, Celibidache, Stockhausen, Karajan and all as well as major Western opera companies not once but many times and reaching back into the 1950s. The more you search the more comes to light. So the Japanese have a rich experience of great music making. This belies the unsupported prejudice that the Japanese somehow lack experience in Western culture. Quite the contrary. It may be that Tokyo has seen more great music than anywhere else.

PS. The Leningrad Philharmonic toured Japan but there was always the problem that Mravinsky refused to fly and therefore had to get there by surface transport (Trans-Siberian railway and ship?). One day Mark Ermler was waiting in the departure lounge at Narita Airport and saw to his amazement Mravinsky sitting there. He went over to talk to him and asked how it was that he was taking a flight. Mravinsky replied that he was now happy to fly and assured Ermler 'It's the only way to travel.'


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