Konnichiwa. There’s no holding back from Paavo Järvi, who’s at pains to dispel some of the misconceptions about Japanese musicians: “We need to examine our own prejudices,” he says. As Chief Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra since 2015, and with conducting experience in Japan for well over twenty years, he should know. In a wide-ranging conversation I had with him in London, he points to the high-profile individuals who are concertmasters in places like Berlin, with the Philharmoniker as well as at the Staatsoper, or at the Tonhalle in Zürich where he is now also in charge. So, he continues ironically, they might just be good enough for a few such appointments in European orchestras – the eyebrow is raised to hint at lazy and misinformed thinking in some quarters – but a whole sea of Japanese faces altogether in an orchestra that is aiming for the highest international standards? How could that possibly work?
The short answer is that it does. Very often, and this is especially true of the younger players, their first teachers in Japan have already accumulated musical insights all over the world, and they themselves have studied in centres of European tradition in Germany, Russia, France, Italy and the UK, as well as attending numerous masterclasses. The technical quality is there, no question. But then comes the next instance of prejudice: “Ah, but they play without understanding”.
Järvi is determined to shoot down that myth about his orchestra. It is precisely because the NHK reveres everything old and German that it has built up such a fine tradition in its core repertory. Amongst the regular visitors during the second half of the 20th century were not only Herbert von Karajan but Otmar Suitner and Horst Stein, who both embodied all the qualities of the reliable and dependable Kapellmeister. They knew how to rehearse painstakingly, had amassed invaluable experience of breathing with singers in opera houses and had a clear idea of the sound they wanted to create that was appropriate in the big Romantic works. On return visits they would then go back to the same pieces over and over again. Järvi singles out Wolfgang Sawallisch – who spent almost 40 years as the NHK’s conductor – as being especially formative in developing an understanding of the works of Richard Strauss. And the sound of this orchestra, Maestro Järvi, what exactly is that? “Dark, very legato, very tenuto, very sostenuto.” He even uses the word “glutinous” to describe the degree of expressiveness, at some remove from the generally light and fast playing he finds elsewhere.
Self-evidently the NHK has a huge advantage by being a radio symphony orchestra. It is mainly funded by the Japanese public, it pays its musicians more than any other Japanese orchestra, who in turn enjoy the kind of job security normally accorded only to public service employees. This kind of stability is one factor in understanding why the NHK is not only Asia’s top orchestra but is undeniably, according to Järvi, part of the international front-rank. This will come as no surprise to anybody who heard the stunning performances of Mahler Sixth which it gave on its previous European tour in 2017. But there’s something else which helps to explain the success. It is, as he says, “an amazingly disciplined ensemble”. This is in part a reflection of Japanese society as a whole, where “organisation has been transformed into an art”, putting ideas of German super-efficiency very much into the shade. Everybody in the orchestra automatically buys into the concepts of clarity, mutual respect and vertical togetherness. It is always obvious, for example, in rare cases of disputes, who to go to and which procedures need to be followed. Like so many other ensembles, NHK now has its own orchestral academy.
With such a solid core of tradition behind it, did Järvi feel he had to make any changes when he took over? Here he seizes another chance to debunk western notions about Japanese society. Admittedly, the international face of Japan is that of a highly technological state, but that is only part of the picture. There are huge swathes of the country which have no public wifi access; the country rarely turns outwards and instead expects others to come to it. He was quite shocked on his arrival to learn that the orchestra had no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts. That has now all changed, with a lively presence on social media helping to raise the international profile of the orchestra as well as providing a domestic forum for reactions to whatever the orchestra happens to be doing. The regular TV and radio broadcast of concerts is already offering a high degree of visibility. What astonishes though is the fact that every single concert is also being filmed in ultra-high definition, to a standard not yet commercially available and well in excess of what is available on Blu-ray. This is just one example of the way in which Japan is continuing to keep abreast of technological developments.