Last night we were at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre to hear Jean-Philippe Merckaert play a program of Buxtehude, Bach and Bert Matter on an organ which looked like this.

He chose the repertoire carefully, in which the mean-tone tuning of the organ made it sound sweet and convincing:

Dieterich Buxtehude, Toccata in D minov, BuxWV 155
J. S. Bach, Vater unser im Himmelreich (from Clavierübung), BwV 682
Bert Matter (1937), Fantaisie sue “Une jeune fillette”
J. S. Bach, Praeludium und Fugue C-dur, BWV 547 (9/8)

I really enjoyed the Clavierübung selection, Vater unser, and I remember that after struggling to learn it, one of Bach’s most difficult compositions, it was enormously satisfying to play.

A few minutes Merckaert wallked off stage, and “Holy Heavy Metal, Batman!” The three sections of the organ started rotating until we saw this!

The program finished with Maurice Duruflé’s Suite, op. 5. Merckaert’s playing was impeccable, and this organ sounded fantastic! Colorful, cohesive and grand and now in equal temperament. I really enjoyed this program. The theatre apparently has a capacity of 2000 people, and I would say that it was about 2/3rds full. Not bad for a Thursday night concert!

Jean-Philippe Merckaert was born in Belgium but now lives in Tokyo. Born in 1980, he began his musical studies in Mons, Belgium. He studied with Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and graduated from the school with a Premier Prix in 2005. In Belgium, he studied the organ with Jean Ferrard at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and earned his master’s degree in 2008 after he obtained a master’s degree in classical composition from the Royal Conservatory of Mons in 2007.

Here’s what I found out about this organ from Wikipedia:

The organ of the great hall, built by the French organ builder Marc Garnier and inaugurated in 1991, is composed of three independent instruments of contrasting aesthetics (Dutch Renaissance, German Baroque and modern French) for a total of 126 sets and more than 9000 pipes. This organ also has the unique feature of having two facades and being able to turn.

I found a YouTube video which demonstrates how the organ rotates:

Incredible, isn’t it?!

Earlier in the day Bill Potter and I joined with fantastic pianist (and my former organ student!), Sachi Hirakouji, who now lives in Japan after living fifteen years in Honolulu.

On the recommendation of our friend, Yoko Kokuni Kessner, we met at the Nezu Art Museum, which is described on their website as:

The Nezu Museum was founded to conserve and exhibit the collection of pre-modern Japanese and East Asian art that Nezu Kaichirō (1860-1940) had passionately built. Kaichirō, a businessman whose career included being president of the Tōbu Railway Co., Ltd., was born in Yamanashi and became interested in art early in life. Upon moving to Tokyo in 1898, he displayed his abilities as a businessman and politician and expanded his field of activities to include education as well. Becoming an enthusiastic practitioner of the “way of tea” further spurred his enthusiasm for collecting, and his daring, bold approach became almost legendary. Moreover, Kaichirō did not view his collection as a private treasure trove but wish to share its enjoyment with the general public.

We weren’t allowed to take photos inside in the galleries, but I did enjoy their collection of clay pots, bronze jars in Chinese style, and their ornamental clocks. What we came to see, though, was the large Japanese garden, and it did not disappoint.

Also on the recommendation of Yoko Kokuni Kessner, we visited the Min-On Music Museum, which houses a large collection of historic keyboard instruments. We were ushered into a large studio where a young woman demonstrated the pianos, harpsichords and fortepianos with abbreviated examples from the classic literature. I especially enjoyed hearing the Conrad Graf fortepiano which featured five pedals — the fifth of which is a “Turkish Pedal,” for playing bells and a drum built into the piano case!

What made this so enjoyable was that a real person demonstrated these instruments; we didn’t just hear a recording. I told Sachi this would be a perfect job for her!

Of course, there were organs in the collection as well.

We took some time to seek out several Sanrio stores in search of a certain Cinnamoroll plushie for my grandson. We didn’t find it, but I am coming home with a lot of Sanrio merchandise, and we each had a Sanrio ice cream! Check out the Hello Kitty piano we saw.

It’s been quite a day, starting with the art museum and its Japanese garden, typical Japanese lunch, visit to the music museum, looking for Sanrio stores, and ending with an organ concert with a rotating organ. We had such a fun day with Sachi!

P.S. In TWO days, I’ve racked up 35,000 steps! Woo-hoo!