Suntory Hall’s 10th Chamber Music Garden Festival

Due to the developing COVID-19 situation, please note that all programmes listed in this article are subject to changes. For the latest information and updates, please refer directly to the organiser’s website.

• Suntory Hall’s early summer festival of chamber music celebrates its 10th year.
• To mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, three of his chamber music cycles will be performed.
• Young rising stars, making their name on the global stage, come together to explore exciting and diverse repertoire.

Image Courtesy of Suntory Hall

Suntory Hall’s annual Chamber Music Garden (CMG) festival takes place over 16 days from 6 – 21 June in the intimate space of its Blue Rose (Small Hall). This year, a total of 23 concerts will be held, including three of Beethoven’s chamber music cycles.

Founded in 2011 for people to experience chamber music in a cosy atmosphere and enjoy the musicians perform up close, Chamber Music Garden has now developed into one of Japan’s largest chamber music festivals.

This year’s CMG kicks off in style with an evening of all five Beethoven cello sonatas (6 June), produced and performed by the cellist and hall’s President Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi with pianist Mami Hagiwara. This also marks the beginning of its celebration of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary in which three of his chamber music cycles will be performed across the festival.

The Atrium String Quartet, the charismatic Russian group, takes on the string quartet cycle, which has become a prominent annual feature of CMG (7-15 June). Furthermore, the AOI Trio, recent ARD competition winner and alumni of the Suntory Hall Chamber Academy, will survey all nine piano trios with opus number (10 – 18 June).

This year, CMG welcomes a two-day visit by the professors and soloists of the Kronberg Academy from Germany, the internationally renowned course for elite string players (19, 20 June). They will perform a glorious programme including Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence and Brahms’s String Quintet No.2, together with guest Japanese musicians. During their visit, they will also have an opportunity to work with the fellows and faculty of the Suntory Hall’s Chamber Academy.

Among the regular festival features, the casual Precious 1pm series is a particularly popular programme with the audiences (11, 12, 16, 19 June). It is a series of one-hour concerts held on weekday lunchtimes and include talks from the artists from the stage. This year’s attractive line-up is led by top Japanese artists Michie Koyama (piano), Reiko Watanabe (violin), and Naoko Yoshino (harp), as well as Naruhiko Kawaguchi, prizewinner at the inaugural International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments, who will perform a mainly French programme including Debussy’s piano trio on the hall’s historical 1867 Érard piano.

Meanwhile, the weekday evening Discovery Night series (12, 17 June at 7:30pm) also features outstanding musicians including Shigenori Kudo (flute), Yasuji Ohagi (guitar), Makoto Yoshida (clarinet), Gen Yokosaka (cello) and Kotaro Fukuma (piano). The programmes are an eclectic mix of repertoire including world premieres of new works by Atsuhiko Gondai and Dai Fujikura.

Asia-Ensemble at Tokyo, another regular fixture which brings together chamber musicians from the Asia region, will see the collaboration of Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo, winner of the Cliburn 2018, with Japanese string players including violinist Masanobu Yoda (Suntory Hall Chamber Academy alumnus), and emerging cellist Haruma Sato (winner of ARD competition 2019), in an intimate chamber version of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21 (16 June). In the grand Finale concert, many of the participating artists and groups will come together in a festive and fun programme from J.S.Bach to Dvořák (21 June).

Now in its tenth year, CMG continues to expand its programmes and aims to cater for a diverse audience (including an event for challenged children) by having concerts at different times of the day. This year we feature a particularly strong line-up of young internationally rising stars. From chamber music beginners to connoisseurs, there is plenty for everyone to enjoy at CMG.

Full listings of CMG 2020 can be found at the following:
https://www.suntory.com/culture-sports/suntoryhall/feature/chamber2020/

Text by Nahoko Gotoh, music journalist