La Folle Journée

Literally meaning “the crazy day”, the Japanese organizers have re-named this wonderful series of classical musical concerts “The Days of Enthusiasm”.



“La Folle Journée” originated in the north-western French city of Nantes in 1995. The brainchild of arts advocate René Martin, its aim was to make classical music accessible to the public by way of initiating shorter concerts with cheaper tickets, and an exciting, distinctive theme each year.

The concept was brought to Tokyo in 2005, and for three days in May this year, under the inspiring theme of “Bach is Back”, a total of 300 concerts were performed by 1,500 artists from 9am to 11pm at eight venues within the Tokyo International Forum. Each concert lasted about 45 minutes and tickets ranged from 500 yen (around US$5) to 4,000 yen (around $40).

Writer Emil Cioran once said, “Dieu peut remercier Bach, parce que Bach est la preuve de l’existence de Dieu”. God can thank Bach because he is the proof of God’s existence. Perfectly put. Well, unfortunately I must say that I experienced nothing divine when I heard the Bach Piano Concertos performed by Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky.

His technical mastery was impressive, but Bach might just be a little too cerebral for him. I had the feeling that he wanted to get it over and done with – as quickly as possible. The slow movements were so flat it was as though he was going through his next day’s grocery list.

I managed to go to a dozen or so other concerts and the highlight was exceptional. It was the Violin Concerto in E Major performed by Nemanja Radulovic, a 24 year old Serbian violinist, with a shock of amazing dark hair, whose interpretation was stunningly exquisite – intense, passionate, and musically breathtaking.

Nemanja Radulovic



More information about the event could be found here.


Tokyo

There are so many great things about Tokyo, but I am not here to write a tourist guide, so I’ll just share some of my own “Folle Journée” highlights with you.

I stayed at the Peninsula Tokyo, which is a very convenient five minutes’ walk from the Tokyo International Forum. The spacious room has an excellent layout, probably the best that I’ve seen, with a big bathroom and walk-in closet. The concierge team was particularly helpful, in fact without their assistance I would not have been able to go to any of the concerts. Although “La Folle Journée” has an English website, all its ticketing sites were in Japanese.

This was Golden Week, and all Ginza (where the hotel is located) is pedestrian-traffic-only for the holiday. I strolled right along to the famous French chocolatier La Maison de Chocolat, where I stock up on my favorite dark chocolate, Mendiant (extremely nutty chocolate chunks).

In between concerts, I wandered around the elegant avenues, window-shopped a little, and had a quick bite at Ginza Bairin, where just the thought of their mouth-watering tonkatsu (Japanese version of Wiener schnitzel) makes me feel like going back already.

In Roppongi, I discovered a nice surprise, which is Ryugin, a fusion-like restaurant. There was no fuss or pretension, but the set menu looked great and tasted delicious, the recipes creative but not bizarre, and the dinner was paired with an outstanding sake brewed in limited edition only for the restaurant.

The exploring of Tokyo Midtown, with its interesting architecture, was a pleasant break from the music marathon.

The 21-21 Design Sight is a small gem. Designed and built by Tadao Ando, it specializes in fascinating avant-garde exhibitions. Suntory Museum of Art, whose mission is “Art revisited, beauty revealed”, is also exceptional, if only for its human size. You can take in the whole museum in three hours without getting lost or rushed!

Ah, the basement Food Court. That’s where I can spend the whole day. My pick was, bien sûr, a French chocolatier again, Jean-paul Hévin, where I had different chocolate cakes as starter, main, dessert, and “encores”!

Photo credits: wikimedia.org