Boston’s having a tough tour in Japan
NewsWe hear that venues have struggled to sell out on the current Boston Symphony tour.
Some concerts were little over one-third full of paying customers – you can see the gaps in the picture below.
That could be post-Covid nerves. It could also be the $300 ticket prices.
Or it might be that the old Seiji magic is wearing off.
Whatever the cause, it’s tough out there.
UPDATE: Suntory Hall has issued a clarification, telling us that whatever happened out of town, Tokyo was a total sell-out for the BSO. They write: ‘The concert in Osaka and two concerts in Tokyo were sold out, with the final Tokyo program on November 15 a near sell-out. The performances in Yokohama and Kyoto, where we were told that the pandemic is having a larger impact on concert attendance, were approximately 60% sold.
‘Also, the BSO had not performed in Yokohama for 36 years, and in Kyoto for 33 years, so our audiences in these cities were largely new to the BSO. All audiences throughout the tour were graciously enthusiastic, calling Andris Nelsons back out to the stage 5, sometimes 6 times, to stand with the orchestra. Audiences at all the tour performances wouldn’t stop applauding until Andris Nelsons came out for a final solo bow.’
$300! Ouch.
Japan’s GDP shrunk in the 3rd Quarter and probably will again in the 4th which will mean a true recession is underway. People are saving their yen.
Bad timing for Boston.
I know Japan has always been absurdly expensive, but $300/ticket is a bit steep. Though is that for the most expensive seat or the least?
But it’s the promoters taking the hit, I assume, not the BSO. Still, a shame.
I assume the Berlin Phil would still sell out, though.
Tickets at the Met In NYC are as high as $ 480 !
Wearing a mask and paying $300 should be classified as being nuts.
We have heard the Belgian National and Brno Philharmonic Orchestras at St David’s Hall, and Iceland Symphony still to come. Seats are £9.50 to £39.50, prices are reduced from last year. No-one wears a mask.
Wearing a mask or not has nothing to do with the ticket price or concert or music or whatever.
What difference does a mask make? We don’t wear them over our ears!
Obscene pricing gets you an appropriate response. I have no sympathy for the group at these kinds of prices.
Plus, Andris Nelsons is tough love, I find.
$300 aside: Why would people pay to hear an orchestra which sounds exactly the same as one of the best Japanese orchestras?
Touring had a mission when orchestras actually sounded different. Nowadays, it should be reserved for a very few orchestras – Wien, Berlin and a few early music ensembles spring to mind.
There is a program on WQXR called Carnegie Hall Live. It has the advantage of recording both leading European and American orchestras in the same hall by the same team. The orchestras recorded all sound VERY different. Vienna and Berlin don’t sound distinctively different or even particularly good against the rest. You can hear some of the recent broadcasts still on-demand on its website.
I beg to differ. The Berlin PO, in its recent Mahler seventh, sounded in a completely different class to any other orchestra I’ve heard in the past decade. The phrasing of principal horn Stefan Dohr was godlike — and the other brass and wind principals were equally astonishing.
Well, then you must not have heard much. LAPO in their most recent Mahler’s Seventh broadcast for example, curiously inaudible cowbells aside, will show you what is missing in Berlin’s performance. And I never liked Stefan Dohr, sorry. Very impressive playing if he is the only one on stage, but he is not. One of the least musical principal hornist of any major orchestras.
Orchestre de Paris tour with Mäkelä also was not a sell-out at very high prices. Major orchestras have been making a big comeback in Japan and the prices are just too damn high in a brittle economic environment.
Maybe it’s rather the “Nelsons-magic” that is totally absent…
Indeed, you’d have to give me 300 whatevers to watch that black-belt gesticulating.
Well actually the ticket price starts at around 100USD ( 14,000 ¥ ) and goes up to 244USD ( 34,000 ¥)
What’s obscene is that the box seat is now 400USD for Berliner/Petrenko set. The cheapest I could find was 279USD. :0
Maybe you get a complimentary mask with your ticket?
Judging from the photo, I thought the attendance was very good…even the choir loft was almost full. Usually choir loft tickets won’t even be made available until the rest of the house is sold.
Those were “cheap” (~$150) seats. I was at the concert and more expensive sections were shockingly vacant for such a world-class orchestra/conductor.
I guess people preferred the prestigious Suntory Hall which boasts excellent acoustics to spend that kind of money to enjoy the same Mahler 6 only 4 days after Yokohama.
However, those who came to this Yokohama concert were incredibly appreciative and most of them didn’t leave the hall for a long time, even after the orchestra had to leave the stage. Finally, after a while, Nelsons came back to the stage to bow by himself. It was a lovely gesture and the audience was ecstatic.
How have other top touring orchestras been selling in Japan?
Well, being in public I must say that here in Suntory it was “verkauft” and BSO was just fantastic! I heard not one of the best but the only possible performance of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony! It was THAT touching, even conductor “had something in his eye”. Japanese people are lucky to have this band! Since Ozawa time it’s a kind of Renaissance for the Boston Symphony. Of course, huge thanks to the conductor – Maestro Nelsons! It seems he loves Japan so much that he can stay here forever.
Bravo Boston!
I was at the concert in Osaka where Mitsuko Uchida was the soloist. The hall was full and the audience were very appreciative.
Around £200 in the stalls is normal for a major foreign orchestra visiting Japan. Prices for the recent tours by LSO/Rattle and Paris/Makela were almost identical.
Prices for Thielemann next month are slightly higher.
These prices are also in line with the summer festivals in Lucerne and Salzburg.
It’s important to remember that most American orchestras on tour are sponsored by a large corporation. For example, the CSO often tours under the sponsorship of Bank of America. That pretty much guarantees that the orchestra is actually MAKING money while on tour since there is no risk in terms of ticket sales.
Also, many posters have correctly identified that the Japanese economy is struggling and not like the Go Go years of the 1980’s when Japan was roaring and their GDP was expanding. The reverse is happening now.
Ticket prices seem reasonable to what is paid here in Chicago for touring orchestras. Berlin is coming to Orchestra Hall and the minimum price is $200 for a balcony seat. I can’t afford it and I don’t like Mahler 7 as a symphony so no reason for me to go.
If we don’t start learning how to live with Covid, the whole world will shut down masks or no masks. We have to move on and get back to a normal that is either new or old. But we have to resume our lives or we’re missing out in large part on what it is to be alive.
I think your comment is the most real and informative here. These prices are obscene. Opera and concert going is important to me but I can’t afford even the lower end of the quoted prices. Last night I went to an amateur production of ‘God of Carnage’ and that was as interesting and engaging as any professional production. I was stimilated in every sense. So that’s where I put my money-£8-10!
Well, if you are a suscriber you can get the ticket price reduced in Chiago. I was there for Berliner and for a Center Main floor seat I paid 89$USD. But for one off ticket the cheapest seat was 275$. ( I checked because a friend of mine wanted to go but she did not pay that much. I certainly can’t blame her ) Ticket price has gone up this season. The days of 9 bucks for a bleacher seat for a piano recital (Vladimir Feltsman) is no more.
I went to Tokyo in 2019 and the prices to see Dudamel/LAPO in Mahler 9 were just silly. Instead I went to the New Japan PO doing Magnard 4 – never thought I’d be lucky enough to hear that live!
Well, I just purchased some NYP tickets and the cheapest were all at or above $100, mostly in the $150 range. That is last row upper most balcony at the side, mind you. Insanity.
No one has commented on the fact that Philharmonic ticket prices are vastly increased compared to what they used to be before the ‘new’ David Geffen. That is how they are making up for the loss of 500 seats. So much for a ‘welcoming’ hall.
I’ve only been to the new hall once, but my impression was that Lincoln Center got what it paid for, in terms of a project time shorter and cheaper than what was originally anticipated. Thank God for Carnegie Hall!