A Triumph!

East Meets West in an Anglo Japanese Concert – 23 March 2009

On Monday 23 March at Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre, nine months of careful preparation became a reality when the 75 strong symphony orchestra from Tokai High School in Nagoya, Japan joined forces with its counterpart from Abingdon School. The enterprise was a true cultural exchange - the Japanese boys were accommodated in host families of Abingdon boys for two nights from 21 to 23 March.

The Japanese orchestra proved to be a very disciplined outfit. Their 10 hours of rehearsal each week after school resulted in outstandingly impressive performances of Schumann’s symphony no 1 and Dvorak’s Carnival in the second half of the concert.

The first half of the concert witnessed the premiere of a new work, “Abingdon Tokai, A Festive Overture”, written specially for the occasion and commissioned by the Abingdon School Music Society - a work by Simon Whalley, whose new role as Abingdon’s Composer in Residence was announced by the Headmaster at the concert. It was an impressive way to start the concert, exploiting Abingdon’s orchestral strengths to the full and incorporating the famous “Sakura” folksong from Japan, evoking the notion of cherry blossom in the middle section of the work.

The main excitement of the concert, however, was experienced in a performance of Wagner’s Mastersinger’s Prelude with both orchestras combined – an ensemble of 108 performers, of Wagnerian proportions, including eight horns, six trumpets, six trombones and two tubas.

It was a magnificent and exuberant sound, which really “raised the roof.” The concert’s first half was concluded with Tchaikovsky’s exciting Romeo and Juliet Fantasy – a performance in which several Tokai musicians also collaborated.

The whole project was deemed to be a fascinating and highly successful collaboration of two very different cultures and much was learned and friendships forged between young musicians from different sides of our planet. It is exciting to think that a return visit to Japan by Abingdon’s orchestra might become a reality in 2010.

MAS

24 March 2009