Joyful Mozart from Ton Koopman and the NHK Symphony

María Dueñas’ Tokyo performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto is less about display than about the living drama between held breath and release. 

As a leading exponent of Franz Schmidt's music, conductor Fabio Luisi leads the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo in a rare performance of his Fourth Symphony for the orchestra's season opener.

Conducted by Fabio Luisi, Japan's premier orchestra serves up a superb blend of Eastern and Western music and influences. 

For whatever reason Fabio Luisi chose Verdi's Requiem for his inauguration concert with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo, it turned out to be an apt and poignant choice.

Igor Stravinsky once described Sergei Rachmaninov as "a six-and-a-half foot scowl". His Second Symphony – often a lugubrious affair – was here turned into something urgent and vital.