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)

Praised by The Times for her “noble playing, with its rhythmic life, taut and rigorous,” Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai was the youngest ever winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990. Since then she has enjoyed a flourishing international career and appears regularly with celebrated maestros and foremost orchestras across the globe.

This season Akiko Suwanai debuts at Opéra National de Paris, performing the choreographed version of Salonen’s violin concerto. On this occasion Opéra Bastille sees a series of 13 ballet performances staged by Saburo Teshigawara and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Other 2017/18 highlights include season opening with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla and John Axelrod, as well as returns to Orchestre de Paris for Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with Paavo Järvi, and Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai for Salonen’s Violin Concerto with Jonathan Webb. Suwanai debuts with Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra and returns to NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hamburger Symphoniker, National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan, and Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse for a Japan tour with Tugan Sokhiev.

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

An extremely keen chamber musician, Akiko Suwanai enjoys fruitful and longstanding collaborations with several artistic partners. In 2017/18, she embarks on a 3-year Beethoven residency at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul with Yoko Kaneko. With Boris Berezovsky, she presents their brand-new recital programme in Moscow and St Petersburg. Following their critically acclaimed Decca Classics release featuring works by Frank, Strauss and Takemitsu, Akiko Suwanai also performs with Enrico Pace in Spain.

In recent years, Akiko Suwanai has established collaborations with Bamberger Symphoniker and Detroit Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin. She performed in Russia with Valery Gergiev and The Mariinsky Orchestra, in Hong Kong with Hong Kong Philharmonic and Lawrence Foster, in Germany with Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and François-Xavier Roth, and in the US with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Pablo Heras-Casado.

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

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

“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)