Saturday, September 22, 11 a.m.
Trakošćan Castle, Knight’s Hall

 

 

Hidemi Suzuki & Members of Orchestra Libera Classica

Natsumi Wakamatsu, Kaori Toda, Nao Takahashi, Rieko Ikeda, violins
Hiroshi Narita, viola
Hidemi Suzuki, cello
Hiroshi Kaneko, lute
Naoki Ueo, harpsichord

 

 CONCERT ACCOMPANIED BY BAROQUE COFFEE

 Programme:

Arcangelo Corelli
Concerto grosso op.6 no.1 in D major
Largo
Allegro
Largo – Allegro
Allegro
Largo
Allegro
Allegro 

Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for cello in A minor, RV 418
Allegro
Largo
Allegro

Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for strings in A major, RV 158
Allegro molto
Andante molto
Allegro

Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for two violins, cello, strings and harpsichord in D minor, RV 565
Allegro
Larghetto e spiritoso
Allegro

Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for strings in G minor, RV 157
Allegro
Largo
Allegro

 

About the performer:

Japanese Orchestra Libera Classica is specialized in music from the 18th century, performed on authentic instruments or their replicas. Prominent Japanese cellist and conductor, Hidemi Suzuki, founded it in 2001; in May 2002, they started working. Now it has more than 30 members, who work not only in Japan but also in many European ensembles like Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century or Les Arts Florissants and others. The orchestra regularly performs in Tokio in Hamarikyu Asahi Hall – TDK Arte dell’arco usually records and publishes those concerts. Orchestra Libera Classic’s specialties are the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn, and their performances, according to numerous critics, are characterized by great expressiveness and a new interpretative approach.

 

Hidemi Suzuki took his music degrees at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, with a focus on cello and conducting. After a successful career as a modern cellist, he went to the Netherlands in 1984 to study Baroque cello with the Dutch period-instrument pioneer Anner Bylsma. Suzuki won first prize at the First International Baroque Cello Competition in Paris in 1986. He was a member of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century under Frans Brüggen from 1985-1993, then principal cellist of La Petite Bande with Sigiswald Kuijken between 1992 and 2001. He was professor of Baroque Cello at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels from 1994 to 2000. His students have included Antje Geusen, Christoph Theinert Tormod Dalen, and Mime Yamahiro.

In 2001, Suzuki returned to Japan, where he serves on the faculty of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. In 2001, he founded and became conductor of Orchestra Libera Classica, a period-instrument group focused on Haydn and the classical era. He is a member of the Bach Collegium Japan, the Boccherini Quartet Tokyo, and the quartet, Mito dell’Arco. He worked with the Mexican bowmaker Luis Emilio Rodriguez on the reconstruction of historically accurate bow construction methods.

Suzuki was the first Japanese cellist who recorded the Six Cello Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach on a period instrument, in 1995; it was awarded an Artistic Creation Prize by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs that year. He won a Diapason d’Or in France for his recording of early works of Ludwig von Beethoven; his recording of the cello concertos of Haydn’s concerti with La Petite Bande won the Record Academy award in Japan. He has also recorded the cello sonatas by Francesco Geminiani, the cello concertos of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach with the Bach Collegium Japan, and chamber music of George Friedrich Händel.