©Photo: Takaki Kumada

Akiko Suwanai

Violin

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“Akiko Suwanai, a tall, imposing violinist of striking stage presence, raised her bow for a sombre, intense descent of notes at the start: this was big-boned, noble playing, with its rhythmic life taut and rigorous.”
(The Times)

Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai’s “noble playing, with its rhythmic life, taut and rigorous” (The Times) makes her one of the most sought-after artists of her generation. She won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990 and since then has enjoyed a flourishing international career, engaging at the highest level with renowned conductors and orchestras.

In 2020/21, Akiko will join the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/Järvi and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra/Shani on tours to Japan and make returns to Hong Kong Philharmonic/van Zweden, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo and Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra. Other highlights also include a three-part residency with the Hamburger Symphoniker where she will play the Lampson Violin Concerto at the Elbphilharmonie conducted by Cambreling as well as joining the Solistes Européens Luxembourg and Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla for performances across Europe. Akiko will also perform Ligeti’s Violin Concerto with Asturias Symphony Orchestra.

Last season, Akiko returned to National Symphony Orchestra Washington for a series of concerts with its Music Director Gianandrea Noseda at the Kennedy Center, as well as giving performances with Camerata Salzburg at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Brussels Philharmonic and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

An extremely keen chamber musician, Akiko enjoys fruitful and longstanding collaborations with several artistic partners. In 2019/20 she toured an all-Beethoven programme with Nicholas Angelich to commemorate the composer’s 250^th anniversary. For the Stresa Festival in Italy she has presented solo recitals juxtaposing music by J.S. Bach and 20^th century composers, and most recently she has performed at Martha Argerich’s Festival in Hamburg and Leif Ove Andsnes’ Festival in Norway.

Akiko Suwanai: Korngold- Violin Concerto (excerpt) © Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin

In recent years, significant highlights have included performances with Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Jurowski, Oslo Philharmonic/Petrenko, Staatskapelle Dresden/Eötvös, Detroit Symphony Orchestra/Slatkin, Orchestre de Paris/Järvi, The Mariinsky Orchestra/Gergiev, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Xavier Roth, Helsinki Philharmonic/Mälkki and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra/Noseda.

Universally acclaimed for her performances of key violin repertoire, Akiko is also widely recognised for her master interpretations of lesser-performed works and passion for new music. In 2007, she premiered Peter Eötvös’ violin concerto Seven at the Lucerne Festival under Pierre Boulez, and in the following year performed the work at the BBC Proms conducted by Susanna Mälkki and the Philharmonia Orchestra. She has also given Asian premieres of important new works such as violin concertos by James MacMillan, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Krzysztof Penderecki.

In 2012, she launched and became Artistic Director of the Tokyo based ‘International Music Festival NIPPON’ which, as well as a presenting a variety of orchestral and chamber concerts, regularly commissions new works and organizes world premieres by Japanese and international composers. With the festival Akiko has premiered new works including Karol Beffa’s Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/Järvi and Dai Fujikura’s Pitter-Patter with Boris Berezovsky.

As a regular recording artist, Akiko’s extensive discography including several albums for Decca, has garnered much global critical acclaim. Recent releases have comprised Violin Sonatas by Beethoven for Universal Music, and a recording for Sony with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo/Järvi of Toru Takemitsu’s Music for Violin and Orchestra.

Akiko studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music with Toshiya Eto, Columbia University, and the Juilliard School of Music with Dorothy DeLay and Cho-Liang Lin, and at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin with Uwe-Martin Haiberg. She performs on the ‘Charles Reade’ Guarneri del Gesu violin c1732, which has been kindly loaned to her by Japanese-American scientist and philanthropist Dr. Ryuji Ueno.

Akiko Suwanai - Walton: Violin Concerto (excerpt) © Universal Classics

Akiko Suwanai - Sibelius: Violin Concerto (excerpt) © Universal Classics

“Suwanai, with full-throated flourish, took a couple of approaches to the parley. At first, she used a notably flexible sense of tempo to command the dialogue, calling extra attention to notes and phrases; in the finale, her big, focused, almost piercing tone took over, carving sonic space, a racecar driver weaving in and out of (and even cutting off) traffic.”

(Washington Post, February 2020)

“Akiko Suwanai… took the stage for a blockbuster performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto… She drew forth a searing tone from the 1714 Delfino Stradivarius, an instrument matched beautifully to her bold melodic flair.”

(Washington Classical review, February 2020)

“Her reading of the Third Violin Concerto in G major (K216) was as perfect a conception as one hoped possible… Every passage and phrase sounded freshly minted and pristine in clarity…. The slow movement was an epitome of grace, and one wished it not to end.”

(Bachtrack, December 2019)

“The first notes played by Akiko Suwanai impress with magnitude of sound, the depth of dense and dark timbre throughout the registers. The phrasing captivates with exemplary ductility and seduction”

(ClassicToulouse, December 2018)

“Although the work [Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1] suffers from having been played endlessly, it was a wonderful performance. Suwanai has a round, beautiful sound and perfect technique, devoid of unnecessary mannerisms. She did not try to move us “by force” but simply devoted herself completely to the music and let the notes do their work. [….] Truly lovely playing”

(OPUS Magazine, May 2018)

“This superb composition in four parts, which constantly solicits the violin, is played by Akiko Suwanai, who, through her wide sound, ensures its virtuosity and true warmth, in music written with great harmonic knowledge and constant melody.”

(Concerto.net, October 2017)

“Akiko Suwanai may be small in stature, but in no way did this impact on her ability to create a big sound or tackle complex, virtuosic passages. The way she approached the [Korngold’s Violin Concerto] opening with warmth, depth, and beauty, giving it such spine-tingling clarity, made one immediately realise that this was a very impressive soloist.”

(Cut Common Magazine, April 2017)

“Hearing Akiko Suwanai play Mendelssohn’s E minor Violin Concerto made one realize that this wonderful work’s virtues are often taken for granted – the skilfully contrived transitions and the precise balance between lyricism and dynamism. Suwani’s lithe playing, refulgent tone and impeccable taste ensured that those qualities received their due.”

(Norman Stinchcombe, Birmingham Post, October 2016)

“Unfailingly assured and polished”

(Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, April 2016)

“…It was her sheer warmth and communicative skills that made the difference. In the Larghetto Suwanai again let the music breath unhurriedly: there was an improvisational quality in her playing, a gentle poetry that was most moving. In the finale she brought a joyous quality to the triple rhythm: in her hands the music had a dance-like nature.”

(Alan Sanders, Seen and Heard International, February 2016)

“Akiko Suwanai is, moreover, a superb soloist in the Violin Concerto. She plays with a swirling virtuosity which, in a perfectly natural way, works alongside the objective harshness of the work, and you can hear the free-spirited thinking described by Carl Nielsen as the glorious boundaries of our freewill. “It demands you to listen, look, think, be silent, weigh and choose.”

(Magnus Haglund, Göteborgs-Posten, June 2015)

“The poco adagio was sublime… Her Nielsen was pure virtuosity (oh, the cadenzas!)… Suwanai has reached the top level of artistry and here in Asturias we have been lucky enough to witness her ascent during these past six years.”

(Diana Diaz, La Nueva Espana, April 2015

“The orchestra seemed to wrap itself around soloist Akiko Suwanai, a wonderful player who seemed rather more wonderful with the Philadelphians framing her.”

(David Patrick Stearns, Philly.com, May 2014)