Takashi Asahina Conducts Franck / Symphony in D Minor (1998)

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Takashi Asahina Conducts Franck / Symphony in D Minor (1998)

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Takashi Asahina was born in Tokyo on July 9, 1908. In June 1927 he listened to a concert of the New Symphony Orchestra (the present NHK Symphony Orchestra) with Emanuel Metter, a Russian conductor who took refuge in Japan. Kalinnikov's First Symphony, conducted by Metter, was full of the atmosphere of nineteenth-century romanticism and impressed him deeply.

In 1928 Asahina entered the legal department of Kyoto University since Emanuel Metter directed the orchestra of this university. The membership of the Kyoto University Orchestra was composed not only of students but also of professional players. In December 1937 Asahina was nominated as principal conductor.

The debut of Asahina in Tokyo was in January 1940 on the occasion of a special concert of the New Symphony Orchestra. During World War II he passed one season as principal conductor of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra whose main members were Jewish and Russian refugees. From May 1944 he conducted the Harbin Symphony Orchestra and the Shinkyou Symphony Orchestra in Manchuria where he was at the war's end. After the war he organized the Kansai Symphony Orchestra (the present Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra) in 1947 and he works still now as GMD of this orchestra. He also established the Kansai Opera Group (the present Kansai Kagekidan) in order to develop his activity in operatic works.

As for performances abroad, Asahina's first concert in Europe was the performance with the Helsinki Philharmonic in 1953. Then he was invited by many orchestras in Europe such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and others. In total, he conducted more than 70 orchestras all over the world. Asahina's first performance with the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg was in 1960 and he has been invited to conduct them many times during the past 30 years.

The Russian pieces occupied an important role in his work when he was young but later his repertoire was represented by pieces of German and Austrian romanticism; Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner. Asahina was the first to conduct the entire Wagner's Ring in Japan, and in 1984 he conducted the premier performance of the Second Symphony of Furtwangler, for whom Asahina always expresses great respect. He particularly loves Beethoven and Bruckner and may be the conductor who has performed the most Bruckner pieces anywhere in the world. During the Berliner Festwochen in 1989 he conducted Beethoven's Eroica Symphony with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (the present Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin). At the Linz International Bruckner Festival in 1984, he performed Bruckner's Sixth Symphony with the Tonkiinstler Orchestra. At the entreaty of Mr. Henry Fogel, the president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who has admired Asahina since 1991 when he first listened to his performance, Asahina's performances with this orchestra have been arranged. In 1996 Asahina was invited twice and conducted Bruckner's Fifth Symphony, Wagner's Meistersinger Prelude to Act I and the Ninth Symphony of Bruckner in the subscription concerts. He was 87 or 88 years old at the time. He is the oldest conductor ever invited by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. There is an episode in which Asahina declined a chair for the rehearsal, saying "Standing is my profession".

In 1977 he received the Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1989 the Austrian Officer's Cfoss for Sciences and the Arts, and the Order of Culture was bestowed by the Emperor of Japan in 1994.
Died Kobe, Japan 29 December 2001