NHK Symphony Orchestra

One of Japan's foremost symphonic ensembles, the NHK Symphony Orchestra maintains close links to the national NHK broadcaster yet also mounts concerts throughout Japan and overseas while generating an extensive body of recordings.

Formed in October 1926 under the title New Symphony Orchestra, the group arose from the earlier Japan Symphony Association, whose ranks encompassed theater musicians alongside Russian performers from the Asian mainland. It briefly operated as the Japan Symphony Orchestra before receiving its present name in 1951, when financial support commenced from the NHK broadcast network.

Hidemaro Konoye served as the first conductor, holding the post from 1926 to 1935, though overseas leaders were engaged not long afterward. Joseph Rosenstock, a German Jew who had fled Berlin, directed the orchestra from 1935 to 1946 in the face of protests lodged by the German embassy in Tokyo; he returned for additional terms in 1956 and 1957, mentoring many younger Japanese conductors and musicians. Later leaders have included Wolfgang Sawallisch (1967-1994), Charles Dutoit (1996-2003), Vladimir Ashkenazy (2004-2007), André Previn (2012-2019), and Paavo Järvi (2016-). Conducting responsibilities typically rotate among a permanent conductor, a principal conductor, and a music director, with honorary and emeritus conductors retaining influential positions as well.

In addition to its broadcasts and concerts at the NHK Hall, the orchestra regularly appears at Suntory Hall and the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, delivering 120 concerts each year, among them 54 subscription events transmitted on NHK radio and television.

The NHK Symphony maintains a substantial recorded catalog. While it has occasionally documented Asian repertoire, such as Bunya Koh's Sketches of the Old Capital (1995) and Shin-Ichiro Ikebe's orchestral music (2012), the bulk of its output centers on Western music. Releases have appeared on Exton and Camerata, and, beginning in 2017, on RCA Red Seal, among other labels.