No. 2052 Subscription (Program B)

Born in Osaka, Japan, Dai Fujikura (1977–) started piano at age 5, and soon began to compose, being “sick of faithfully interpreting the notes written by others.” He has since cultivated this daring and free spirit, which makes him nowadays one of the world’s most original and sought-after composers.
At age 15, he moved alone to the UK, his base today, where he studied under George Benjamin (1960–). One of his breakthroughs emerged at the Lucerne Festival when he was 26: his talent was spotted by French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez (1925–2016) who soon became his mentor and champion. In August 2025, Fujikura’s Ritual for chamber orchestra and electronics was premiered alongside Boulez’s Répons at the Lucerne Festival’s concert honoring the 100th anniversary of Boulez’s birth.
The NHK Symphony Orchestra has long had a close relationship with Fujikura and, most recently, performed his Shakuhachi Concerto in 2023. Back in 2010, the orchestra’s six cellists gave the Japanese premiere of Fujikura’s Mirrors penned for the 85th birthday of Boulez, whose memory the present work Ocean Breaker for Orchestra is dedicated to.
Written as a concerto for an entire orchestra, it is marked by a gravity-free fluid nature, one of Fujikura’s musical fingerprints.

[Kumiko Nishi]

César Franck (1822–1890) led the French musical scene alongside his thirteen-year junior Saint-Saëns during the mid-to-late 19th century. His disciples (mostly his students at the Paris Conservatoire) reverently called him “Père Franck (Father Franck)”, admiring his sublime artistry and sincere personality. In Paris, these loyal “Franckist” composers including Vincent d’Indy (1851–1931) and Ernest Chausson (1855–1899) will be as influential as their opponent Claude Debussy (1862–1918), a pioneer of the 20th-century bold explorations in music.
Having said that, Franck was not originally from France but Belgium. He was born in Liège to a German/Walloon couple to be active in Paris later. Franck’s style full of lyricism is indeed readily differentiated from the typical French composers’. On the model of Bach, Beethoven, Liszt and Wagner, Franck acquired a mastery of counterpoint as well as a sort of Austro-Germanic rigor and formal logic to gain his individual style. Moreover, his expertise as a church organist—namely as an improviser—is definitely connected with his wide range of tonal textures and ingenious harmonic change.
Most of Franck’s piano works were written during his earliest years (when he was a child piano prodigy promoted by his ambitious father) and his concluding years. A trigger which revived his passion for piano composition was the symphonic poem Les Djinns (1884) for piano and orchestra that he wrote for a commission. Deeply impressed and inspired by the piano virtuoso Louis Diémer who premiered it in March 1885, Franck soon wrote for the pianist, Variations symphoniques (Symphonic Variations) for piano and orchestra. The work was first heard in Paris with Diémer as soloist and Franck conducting in May 1886.
Symphonic Variations is performed seamlessly without pause. It first introduces the three main themes: the strings resolutely give the dotted first theme at the outset, immediately before the piano calmly states the descending second theme, and then sings the more melodious third element. Their following variations move from a lyrically dark atmosphere to a radiantly joyous one before the march-inflected finale triumphantly closes the work in F-sharp major.

[Kumiko Nishi]

Born in Paris, Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) was a genuine musical prodigy. He made his official pianist debut at age 10 composing his own cadenza for a Mozart concerto he programmed for the concert. Then the precocious thirteen-year-old entered the Paris Conservatoire to study organ and composition. Later he was made organist of the Madeleine, one of Paris’s important Catholic churches, to remain in the post for twenty years. Franz Liszt (1811–1886) who recognized Saint-Saëns’s talent as a pianist and composer hailed him “the greatest organist in the world” as well. Furthermore, Saint-Saëns, a reputable conductor as well, was an enthusiastic supporter of other contemporary composers, conducting Liszt’s symphonic poems and defending music of Richard Wagner (1813–1883) in France.
Through his own experiences as an interpreter, Saint-Saëns strongly sensed the necessity of an effort to boost his country’s instrumental music repertoire. In fact, operas, ballets and Austro-German music dominated the French classical music life until then. That was a reason why he founded the Société nationale de musique in Paris in 1871 together with musicians such as Franck and Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924). Amid the rising nationalism after Prussia defeated France at the war of 1870–1871, this patriotic association aimed to encourage French composers to write more orchestral and chamber music. It gave the first performances of, besides Franck’s above-mentioned Symphonic Variations, important works by Debussy, Paul Dukas (1865–1935), Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) and the “Franckists,” among others. Saint-Saëns himself penned various instrumental pieces as well.
The Symphony No. 3 Organ Symphony is tied to these efforts, but it came from a different background. Considered then one of the best living French composers in England, Saint-Saëns was commissioned to write a work for London’s Philharmonic Society. Possibly inspired by Liszt’s Hunnenschlacht (The Battle of the Huns)(1857) for orchestra including an organ, Saint-Saëns composed the Organ Symphony in 1886. Two months after the premiere in London in May 1886 with Saint-Saëns himself conducting, Liszt passed away. The work was dedicated to the memory of the Hungarian giant.
The entire Organ Symphony is unified by the Lisztian transformation of a theme. The wiggling theme is given by the violins after the short slow introduction. The first notes of this theme correspond to the beginning of the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) melody from the Catholic Mass for the Dead. This is highly likely linked with this symphony’s bright, optimistic ending in C major.
Overall, the work has a clear but unique structure, having four sections (after the conventional symphony format) being encased two by two in two movements. Symmetrically, the organ opens the second sections of each movement respectively evoking the instrument’s introspective and magnificent characters. The symphony also includes virtuosic piano passages for two and four hands, reminding us of the composer’s considerable reputation as a pianist.

[Kumiko Nishi]