The Pittsburgh Symphony's Far East concert tour began auspiciously Thursday evening in Osaka Festival Hall in Japan, where violinist Midori, Mariss Jansons and the orchestra captivated a packed house.
The musicians performed Dmitri Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto and Gustav Mahler's First Symphony, repertoire they played in Pittsburgh earlier this month to standing ovations. Different cultures express their approval in their own ways. In Europe, rhythmic clapping and foot stomping are superlative praise.
Japanese audiences are enthusiastic, and musicians comment on the rapt silence with which they listen. But standing ovations are rare in Japan. Yet at the end of the second encore, the "Farandole" from Georges Bizet's music for "L'Arlesienne," most of the audience was on its feet, according to WQED/FM station manager Jim Cunningham.
Before intermission, "there were lots of ovations for Midori," percussionist John Soroka says. "They didn't want her to leave, but she didn't do any encores, just as in Pittsburgh. Even when Midori was bowing, when Jansons turned and asked the orchestra to rise, there was a distinctive cheer from the audience for the orchestra."
The musicians left Pittsburgh on Monday morning and arrived 24 hours later at the Hilton Osaka Hotel after an uneventful trip. Heightened security was apparent but efficient, and the only problem was extremely cramped seating for the 13-hour flight to Japan.
But Tuesday morning became evening for the Pittsburghers, because Japan is halfway around the world and 14 hours ahead of eastern U.S. time.
Wednesday was a day off for the musicians, who adjusted to the time change and enjoyed the third-largest city in Japan, after Tokyo and Yokohama. Osaka is a densely packed city, as is common in Japan. Its 2.6 million people live on 80 square miles. By contrast, the 1.28 million residents of Allegheny County occupy 730 square miles.
A former national capitol, Osaka is rich in historic sites but also is a major modern industrial and trading force, producing 40 percent of Japanese manufacturing products and 25 percent of the country's exports.
The variety of products on display at the Yoshi Bada department store was astonishing, says French horn player William Caballero, who shopped on Wednesday afternoon.
"I've never seen so many goods in my life," Caballero says. "My wife, Kathy, and I are looking for a special air conditioner for the third floor of our house, and there are only a couple of places in Pittsburgh that sell one. At this place, there were more than 200 models on display.
"This store didn't miss a thing. There were hundreds of regular cameras, studio-quality digital cameras, curling irons, vacuum cleaners, telescopes, mini-disc recorders, you name it, from the cheapest to the most expensive models."
Caballero is one of the orchestra's Sushi mavens, but food can be extremely expensive in Japan. On a previous tour, one musician paid $180 for three pieces of Sushi at a fancy restaurant. Caballero ate in the department store, where prices are reasonable and the quality good.
"You can't go wrong. The food floor was just spectacular beyond spectacular." In addition to dozens of kiosks, where everything from pastry to raw fish was on sale, the sushi was delivered on a conveyor belt that was emptied as fast as it was filled.
"I couldn't believe how busy those areas were, and we went at 4 in the afternoon, when most people are at work." Caballero says he paid $10 for two dozen pieces of sushi, a meal that would cost more than 10 times as much in Pittsburgh.
Nevertheless, he is looking forward to a better experience at sushi bars.
"You sit and watch the chef as he makes your meal. When he sees you taking an interest, he makes an extra effort, too, in preparation. The next thing you know, by the end of the evening, you're friends. It's one of the reasons my wife and I enjoy sushi very much."
Thursday morning, Jansons led a rehearsal in the concert hall that was built for the opening of Osaka Festival in 1958. Caballero says the hall has surprisingly good sound for a multi-purpose hall, and that musicians could hear themselves well. Cunningham says the sound for the audience was "clear and bright but not particularly warm, which you wouldn't expect from such a big hall."
Midori hosted a post-rehearsal luncheon for the orchestra in a banquet room in the Rihga Hotel complex that includes the concert hall. The cuisine was widely varied, from miso soup to western fruit salad, but often the food was enjoyed without the diners knowing its name.
Cunningham says the detail work in the morning's rehearsal paid off in the evening's performance. Mahler's First Symphony is full of interesting effects, and he says the off-stage trumpets were evocative and Jeff Turner played the double-bass solo in the third movement beautifully.
"People seemed most impressed by the French horns," he says, "especially after they had risen to their feet for the final page. The horns received the biggest bravos."
Friday morning, the musicians left Osaka for a 2 1 / 2 -hour trip on a Bullet Train to Tokyo, 250 miles away. Bullet trains reach speeds well in excess of 100 miles an hour on welded rails, a design copied by Europeans for their high-speed InterCity Express service. After a few hours to settle into their new hotel, they boarded buses for a 90-minute trip to Tokorosawa for the evening's concert.
