Akiyama, VSO mark 40 years of adventure
Japanese conductor was the perfect choice for the young orchestra when he arrived
Vancouver has celebrated several anniversaries this year: the City of Vancouver made it to 125; The Vancouver Sun turned 100; and it’s just 40 years since conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama began his association with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
The VSO’S focus this weekend is on music ( a trio of Mozart/ Debussy concerts), not personality or elaborate reminiscences, yet it’s a good occasion to cast a retrospective look at the VSO conductor laureate and his enormous contribution to the musical wellbeing of our city.
Born in Tokyo in 1941, Akiyama studied at the celebrated Tohu Gakuen School of Music, where his mentor was the famous Hideo Saito, one of the most important conducting teachers of the last century. Akiyama’s rise to the upper echelons of his chosen profession was swift: he was assistant conductor in Toronto while still in his 20s; he came to Vancouver in 1972. Other gigs followed, most notably a 30- year stint as music director of the Tokyo Symphony. Canada has ample reason to celebrate not just his VSO connection but his many years working with Canada’s pre- eminent training ensemble, the National Youth Orchestra.
Orchestra watchers tend to consider all eras dangerous times for their preferred ensembles. Akiyama came to the VSO following the interim leadership of Simon Streatfeild, who in turn had the unenviable task of following Meredith Davies. The Davies regime embodied both the good and some of the bad of the 1960s. He was an adventurous programmer — some said too adventurous — who pushed the orchestra and its audience.
Akiyama came as a young conductor to an orchestra in its institutional adolescence. He was exactly what was needed: someone with a fresh take on the classics plus a real commitment to exploring the breadth and depth of the orchestral repertoire. That he was part of the emerging wave of artists from Asia added to the excitement.
Walter Quan, a program officer for the British Columbia Arts Council based in Victoria, came of musical age during the Akiyama years. “I grew up as a musician and aficionado under Akiyama’s VSO, not onstage but in the audience. Mom and I subscribed to VSO concerts on Sunday afternoons since about 1975. Akiyama was new to the job at that time, and there was an exoticness to him, even in Vancouver at that time, which added to his cachet,” Quan said.
The orchestra moved from strength to strength during the 1970s and early ’ 80s. Akiyama led two tours to Japan, and it was on his watch the orchestra moved from the acoustically- deficient Queen Elizabeth Theatre to a refurbished Orpheum. In 1985, the orchestra changed conductors, bringing in Soviet émigré Rudolf Barshai as music director; graciously, Akiyama stayed as conductor laureate, a position he retains today.
His fire and an enthusiasm of for interpretations, vastly improved orchestral technique, and a discerning curiosity about repertoire made the Akiyama years so distinct. For many, there was and is, an ineffable familiarity about how the orchestra sounds under Akiyama.
“My perception of what an orchestra should sound like is exactly what I heard on all those Sundays,” Quan said.
“So when he returns to the podium once a year for our current series [ Symphony Sundays], it’s a familiar sound and feel to the orchestra. As a conductor, he plays the instrument that is the symphony.”
His way with Copland’s Third Symphony is treasured, as is his take on Beethoven’s Ninth, and his technicolour Respighi The Pines of Rome.
Going by the old etiquette books, a 40th anniversary is to be celebrated with rubies. For this weekend’s trio of concerts, there’s orchestral jewels, beginning with Mozart, both the sparkling overture from The Abduction from the Seraglio, and then the Piano Concerto # 24 with Yevgeny Sudbin at the keyboard. Debussy rounds out the program with his exalted evocation of a fete galante, L’isle joyeuse and then La Mer, one of the great, sumptuous orchestral workouts.