I've been into trends lately, so after the Three Tenors, I went to another super trendy concert: the Stradivarius Summit Concert.
This concert was a gathering of six Stradivarius violins, two violas, and two cellos, and was performed by concertmasters from orchestras around the world. It was a project that seemed like it would be very popular. I actually went because I was a big fan of it, so it was a success. I went to the concert at Suntory Hall.
However, as soon as the first piece started, I felt something was off. The sound was certainly soft, but even before that, it felt like the ensemble was disjointed. At first, I thought there was a time lag, but if that was the case, I would hear instruments that should have been heard later first. Still, after all, these were concertmasters from various countries, including the Berlin Philharmonic. I thought that it must be my fault, and listened to the first half of the program (Wolf's Serenade Italiano in G Major, Grieg's Hofburg Suite op.40).
The second half was another typical Vivaldi Four Seasons. I couldn't help but hear the soloist's pitch as unstable and the tempo as unstable. However, I told myself that it was probably just my everyday fatigue that was causing my ears to waver. However, that doubt was cleared when "Summer" began. In "The Four Seasons," a different soloist performed for each season, spring, summer, fall, and winter, and in summer the concertmaster of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra was the soloist. The moment he began to play, the ensemble tightened up, and to my ears, the pitch and tempo sounded perfect. "That's it! The person playing Spring was tone-deaf after all!" I finally felt like I could listen to the piece with peace of mind.
What went wrong was what happened afterwards. The former concertmaster of the Lugano National Orchestra was the soloist, but I couldn't really understand what "Autumn" was doing from start to finish. There was a "dull" sound and it ended there. The words "Hey, this isn't a children's recital!" crossed my mind.
The concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic was the soloist for the final movement, "Winter." The performance itself was not that good, but what I thought was impressive was that he was able to grasp the ensemble firmly. The way everyone moved under his control was truly Berlin Philharmonic.
(By the way, the Hungarian cellist was also good.)
The container is first-class. The instruments used are top-notch.
But in the end, it's the person playing who moves people.
In this case, it would be better to audition a student or something to play it.
It must have been a great performance. (But that's not enough for the fans.)
I guess they won't.)
As for the Stradivarius, the sound is completely different for each instrument. I got the strong feeling that the sound was not "harsh," but listening to only Stradivarius, I don't usually go to many violin concerts, so it didn't really click for me.
As an educational consideration, next time I would like them to include Amati and other famous instruments so that we can compare them.