as Kazushi Ono takes up a new role as Music Director of Brussels Philharmonic, he shares some of his guiding principles
a cathedral of sound
"My ideal orchestral sound is one that grows upwards, like a great cathedral. To create this sort of dimensional sound, you need a steady foundation, beautifully constructed walls and many sonorities in between. When I work with an orchestra, I try to achieve this profound architecture."
searching for the source
"When I’m at the piano at home, I search for the source of the composers’ ideas and how they should be delivered, and my rehearsals are based on these conversations between me and the composers."
music of our time
"It’s very important to me to programme the music of our time. I like to structure concerts with a new piece at the beginning or as a second half, mixing that with better known pieces from the 18th and 19th centuries. When you include repertoire from different periods, it becomes easier for the audience to recognise the differences between them, so they can understand each one more profoundly."
the art of relativity
"Mixing repertoire opens the ears of the audience. This is what I call the ‘art of relativity’. Audiences may be used to listening to the music of Mozart but if they hear his music alongside Brahms and Messiaen, for example, they can appreciate it even more deeply; if they hear Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring after a creation of our time, it might seem very Classical."