Ono Kazushi - Shostakovich: Shosta Kovichi - Import CD

Credits:

Ono Kazushi

Description:

Razor-sharp characterisation and a dazzling, festive brilliance Kazushi Ono and the Barcelona Symphony in Shostakovich for a new generation A live recording with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, of which Kazushi Ono has been Music Director since 2015. The sound quality is excellent and conveys the fine chemistry and considerable potential of this partnership in full measure. This is a Shostakovich of bright, transparent colour, with vivid irony and a deft ability to read between the lines and then between those lines again. As Mitsutoshi Kyo notes in his booklet essay, the performance suggests the world of opera - a staged work with the direction fully worked out. Even the second movement, which can easily come adrift, is played with the overall balance in mind, and the sense of structure is superb. The festive brilliance of the finale is thrilling. Because Ono is so thoroughly at home in Shostakovich's operas, he draws from this symphony an expressive vividness worthy of the stage. The march-like passage at the end in particular has a comic quality that recalls Hindemith. (from the booklet essay by Mitsutoshi Kyo) Born in Tokyo. Graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he studied piano and composition with Hisayoshi Ando and conducting with Masahisa Endo. He went on to study with Wolfgang Sawallisch and Giuseppe Patanè at the Bavarian State Opera, and in 1987 won first prize at the Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition in Italy. His previous posts include Music Director of the Zagreb Philharmonic (1990-96), General Music Director of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe (1996-2002), Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (1992-99, now Conductor Laureate), Music Director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (2002-08), Principal Guest Conductor of the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra (2012-15) and Principal Conductor of the Opéra National de Lyon (2008-17). Since 2015 he has been Music Director of both the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. He made his debut at La Scala, Milan in June 2007 and has since appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, Glyndebourne and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. His many honours include the Akeo Watanabe Music Foundation Prize, the Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists, the Idemitsu Music Award, the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award, the ExxonMobil Music Award, the Suntory Music Award, the Japan Art Academy Prize together with the Imperial Prize, and the Asahi Prize. He has received the Medal with Purple Ribbon and has been designated a Person of Cultural Merit. In 2017 the French government made him an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. King International