Architecturally, Suntory, though in what was a still untraditional so-called \u201cvineyard\u201d layout for the seating, is more conventional than Gehry\u2019s radical Disney. But acoustically they share Toyota\u2019s genius for immediacy, transparency and sonic oomph that goes straight to the gut. Even so, Suntory sounds more straightforward. The music comes directly to you. In Disney, the orchestra sounds like it surrounds the audience as much we do the musicians. We feed off each other.<\/p>\n
Japanese concert audiences sit up straight and listen with exceptional concentration. That tradition also goes back to Noh theater, where any applause makes the performers, whose devotion is their practice, not the audience, uneasy.<\/p>\n
Such restraint is hardly the case with modern concert audiences here, but standing ovations remain rare. Mahler\u2019s Second, moreover, could almost be a typically ghost-haunted Noh play. It begins with death in the form of a startling half-hour funeral oration, looks back at life, what it was (and was it anything?) and then answers with an overpowering affirmation that includes large chorus, two vocal soloists and organ added to the massive orchestral forces.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform Mahler 2 at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on Oct. 25, 2025.<\/p>\n
(Junichiro Matsuo \/ Suntory Hall)<\/p>\n
There was utter silence from the audience at the matinee performance on a rainy, wintry Saturday during the 90-minute performance. No stirring during the break after the first movement as members of the local New National Theatre Chorus walked on stage with the ceremonial slow gliding movements of acolytes in a temple.<\/p>\n
In Disney, Dudamel\u2019s \u201cResurrection\u201d had the quality of rapture in surround sound. Offstage brass were above and behind and among us. Dudamel created a magic illusion of the orchestra and the audience being one, leaving listeners at the end rising and cheering as one.<\/p>\n
In Suntory, there was no room for the offstage brass to be anywhere but offstage. The sound of the orchestra was more central, more sharply focused. The strings had a bite. A solo oboe was a prophetic voice in the wilderness. Tympani had the impact of taiko drums. The playing was airtight. <\/p>\n
The ovation didn\u2019t come at once, but one after another in the audience stood until most of the hall was on its feet. Applause remained movingly subdued, as if wanting to maintain a sense of awe. After several curtain calls, Dudamel motioned for the players to leave the stage. The ovation continued nonetheless. Musicians lingered, paused for selfies and after a long while Dudamel casually returned on stage to wave. The ice was broken, and Suntory become Disney-like.<\/p>\n
Dudamel\u2019s program the night before was differently received. It began with Adams\u2019 new symphony, \u201cFrenzy,\u201d which was dazzlingly played, and included Stravinsky\u2019s Suite from \u201cThe Firebird\u201d along with the \u201cRite.\u201d Maybe it was the orchestra\u2019s greater familiarity with the intricate score, but \u201cFrenzy\u201d had less frenzy and greater in impact in Suntory than it had in Disney.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirebird,\u201d on the other hand, lacked the glow of L.A.\u2019s acoustical light. But the \u201cRite\u201d came across as shock therapy. It is a work that has great resonance for the Japanese. Susanna M\u00e4lkki, the L.A. Phil previous principal guest conductor, had just conducted with the Tokyo Symphony to reportedly great acclaim the week before. An avant-garde butoh troupe is busily performing its own erotic version in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
But, like no other orchestra, Stravinsky\u2019s \u201cRite\u201d is in the L.A. Phil DNA. Stravinsky lived longer in L.A. than anywhere else, and conducted the L.A. Phil. Salonen made the score the showpiece of Disney. For his part, Dudamel\u2019s Disney \u201cRite\u201d replaced frenzy with robust splendor. In Suntory, the oracular power of Dudamel\u2019s \u201cRite\u201d proved outright shock therapy. No standing over, just stunned applause.<\/p>\n
Orchestra tours have up and down sides. Wowing a foreign audience isn\u2019t necessarily worth the great expense, transporting, in this case, 123 musicians along with staff and instruments. The carbon footprint exacted is significant. Ten years ago on a Japan tour, Dudamel and the L.A. Phil demonstrated their worth by including members of YOLA. The kids played with young musicians from the Fukushima<\/a> region still recovering from the nuclear reactor disaster.<\/p>\n