Subscription Concerts 2023-2024Program B
No. 2012 Subscription (Program B)

Fabio Luisi hails from Genoa. He is the Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He first conducted the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 2001, and in September 2022 he became Chief Conductor of the orchestra. He conducted Verdi’s Requiem in the concert to celebrate his appointment, and Mahler’s Symphonie der Tausend to commemorate the orchestra’s 2000th subscription concert in December 2023. These two monumental performances have brought him great success. He has presented works of German and Austrian composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and R. Strauss as well as those of Franck and Saint-Saëns, Francophone composers, and with his conducting style full of passion and poetic sentiment, has captured the hearts of many of audience members. In August 2023, his tenure as Chief Conductor was extended by three years until August 2028.
He was General Music Director of the Opernhaus Zürich, Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Principal Conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker, as well as General Music Director of the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Sächsische Staatsoper, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Music Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Chief Conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchester. He is Music Director of the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca (Apulia) and has appeared as guest conductor with numerous renowned ensembles, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Münchener Philharmoniker, the Filarmonica della Scala, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, while also conducting operas at world’s major opera houses. Important recordings include Verdi, Bellini, Schumann, Berlioz, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Frank Martin, and Franz Schmidt, the largely forgotten Austrian composer. In addition, he has recorded various symphonic poems by Richard Strauss, and a lauded reading of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 with the Staatskapelle Dresden. His recordings of Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämmerung with the Metropolitan Opera won Grammy awards.

Rudolf Buchbinder, who was born in the Bohemian region of the former Czechoslovakia in 1946, is a pianist who greatly enjoys freedom while also inheriting the Viennese musical heritage. He described his career as an “infinite crescendo” twelve years ago, however, as he gained conviction in following an authentic path to honor traditions, he seems to have been mentally liberated from being overly aggressive, thus his performances began to display a free flow of emotional expressions and improvisational freshness. After his diligent academic quest and strict training, the self-assured music he produces in the excitement and exaltation of live performance exhibits his innate optimistic passion, and still retains youthful performances even though he has matured over the years.
His repertoire focuses on Bach, the works of the Viennese Classical School, and those of German Romantic composers, however, he also gives his attention to contemporary works. For more than 60 times, he has played the complete 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven in many parts of the world, has recorded them three times until now, and in March this year, he presented the complete performances at the Spring Festival in Tokyo. He returns to the NHK Symphony Orchestra for the first time in 10 years, under the baton of Fabio Luisi, as was the last time, and he will play Brahms Piano Concerto No.1. As he has two celebrated recordings of this work under Zubin Mehta and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and, that the concerto is considered to be his specialty, we can naturally expect to hear his performance with all his might and passion.

[Takaakira Aosawa, music critic]