The contrabassist Isao Fukazawa will perform a bass recital to celebrate 20 years as principal bassist of Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, at Kioi Hall, Tokyo, on Jan. 25. The program, quipped the "ultimate" contrabass concert program, presents masterpieces spanning many musical eras.
For this special event, Fukazawa invites other leading string players for exciting collaborations, including his own teacher.
Fukazawa's name may be familiar to seasoned European concert goers. He performed a well-received solo bass recital at the 1998 Edinburgh Music Festival and since then has given extensive solo and chamber performances across the world, recording two albums along the way, "Favorites on Bass" and "Pilgrim."
In this concert, Fukazawa collaborates with friends and colleagues, including Yasushi Tomoshima, concert master of Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, who will play both violin and viola. With varying combinations of instruments, they will perform classic works by a multinational cast of composers. These include "Contrabass Concerto No.2 in B minor" by the 19th- century Romantic Italian composer Giovanni Bottesini.
The most interesting collaboration of the concert, however, will be between two great Japanese bassists, who are also teacher and pupil. Fukazawa teams up with Hiroaki Naka, under whom he studied throughout his earlier years, to perform Bottesini's "Passione Amorosa for two contrabasses."
The recital takes place on Jan. 25 (7 p.m. start) at Kioi Hall, 6-5 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. The venue is a near Yotsuya Station on the JR, Marunouchi and Nanboku lines. Tickets are 4,000 yen (2,000 yen for students).
For more information, call (0466) 620033.
