NHK Symphony Orchestra
The NHK Symphony Orchestra is one of Japan's leading symphonic ensembles. Although associated with the national NHK broadcaster, the group performs concerts in Japan and abroad as well as recording extensively.
The NHK Symphony Orchestra was founded as the New Symphony Orchestra in October of 1926, growing out of an earlier Japan Symphony Association whose membership included theater musicians as well as Russian players from the Asian mainland. The group was later called the Japan Symphony Orchestra for a short time and assumed its present name when the NHK broadcast network began to contribute financial support in 1951. The orchestra's first conductor was Hidemaro Konoye, who held the baton from 1926 to 1935, but foreign conductors were recruited relatively early. Joseph Rosenstock, a German Jew who had fled Berlin, conducted the orchestra from 1935 to 1946 despite protests from the German embassy in Tokyo; he returned for a second stint in 1956 and 1957, influencing many younger Japanese conductors and musicians. Later conductors included Wolfgang Sawallisch (1967-1994), Charles Dutoit (1996-2003), Vladimir Ashkenazy (2004-2007), André Previn (2012-2019), and Paavo Järvi (2016-). Conducting duties often rotate among a permanent conductor, a principal conductor, and a music director, with strong roles for honorary and emeritus conductors as well. In addition to broadcasts and performances in its own NHK Hall, the orchestra often performs at Suntory Hall and the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall. The group gives 120 concerts annually, including 54 subscription concerts broadcast on NHK radio and television.
The NHK Symphony has a substantial recording catalog. Sometimes the group has recorded Asian music, such as Bunya Koh's Sketches of the Old Capital (1995) and Shin-Ichiro Ikebe's orchestral music (2012), but most of the orchestra's output has been devoted to Western music. The group's recordings have appeared on Exton, Camerata, and as of 2017, RCA Red Seal, among other labels.
© James Manheim /TiVo
-
Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra - Metamorphosen
Paavo Järvi, NHK Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Sony Music Labels Inc. on 31 Jan 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
THE 13 LORDS OF THE SHOGUN - Main Theme
Evan Call, Tatsuya Shimono, NHK Symphony Orchestra
Film Soundtracks - Released by Sony Music Labels Inc. on 10 Jan 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Enescu: Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 - Hindemith: Philharmonisches Konzert
NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Yuzo Toyama
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 16 Oct 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 Choral (Live)
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 30 Aug 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Irino: Sinfonietta - Takemitsu: Requiem
Yoshiro Irino, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Töru Takemitsu, Makoto Moroi, Tadashi Mori, Minao Shibata
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 27 Jul 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven Blockbusters
Classical - Released by Allegretto on 1 Jan 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Miyoshi: Mutation symphonique - Akutagawa: Ellora Symphony
NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hiroyuki Iwaki
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 27 Jul 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Emperor Concerto - Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonata in E Major (Live)
NHK Radio Announcer, Walter Gieseking, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Kurt Woss
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 16 Oct 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Op. 74 Pathétique (Live)
NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshi Wakasugi
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 30 Aug 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: The Nightingale & The Firebird Suite (Recorded Live 1959)
Audience, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 1 Sep 2014
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
NHK Symphony Orchestra, Wilhelm Schüchter
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 16 Oct 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mayuzumi: Tone Pleromas 55, Birth of Music & Bugaku (Live)
NHK Symphony Orchestra, Wilhelm Loibner, Hiroyuki Iwaki
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 27 Jul 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Sketches of the Old Capital
Classical - Released by Sunrise Records on 19 Jun 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Yashiro: Symphony - Bekku: 2 Prayers
NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hiroyuki Iwaki
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 27 Jul 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart & Brahms: Violin Concerti (Live)
Audience, Isaac Stern, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Kurt Woss
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 1 Sep 2014
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
NHK Symphony Overseas Performance in Poland (Recorded Live 1960)
Audience, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Hiroyuki Iwaki
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 1 Sep 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 1
NHK Symphony Orchestra, Wilhelm Schüchter
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 24 Apr 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Michio Mamiya: Piano Concerto No. 1 - Akira Ifukube: Tryptique aborigène - Hikaru Hayashi: Variations (Live)
Hiroshi Tamura, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Niklaus Aeschbacher
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 16 Oct 2012
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 - Respighi: Fontane di Roma (Live)
Announcer, Kiyoko Tanaka, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hiroyuki Iwaki
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 1 Sep 2014
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36 (Live)
Audience, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tadaaki Otaka
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 1 Sep 2014
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 Pathétique (Recorded Live 1954)
Audience, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan
Classical - Released by Naxos Japan on 1 Sep 2014
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo