By Harris Goldsmith

The Tokyo String Quartet made its official debut 25 years ago at New York’s Town Hall under the auspices of Young Concert Artists. I reviewed that program (which included Berg’s Op. 3 and Beethoven’s Op. 74, “Harp”) for Musical America in glowing terms. In fact, I had already known about this brilliant ensemble for several years: These formidably accomplished youngsters had played a house concert in Stamford, Connecticut, and a friend of mine—a veteran professional musician rarely given to hyperbole—predicted a sensational career in the offing.

The four founding members—Koichiro Harada and Yoshiko Nakura, violinists; Kazuhide Isomura, violist; Sadao Harada, cellist (no relation to the violinist)—were classmates at the renowned Toho School in Tokyo. That institution had a unique training program under the guidance of Hideo Saito, a cellist and conductor who had studied with Feuermann, wherein even the littlest tykes learned ensemble by way of playing in a chamber orchestra. Although there was no other chamber music, such as trios or string quartets, at the Toho, Saito himself had a great love for those genres and instilled his great enthusiasm in the hearts of sundry pupils who were deemed worthy of transcending mere technique and someday probing the spiritual essence of great music. Stimulated by their mentor, these burgeoning musicians formed their ensemble and came to America on Fulbright scholarships to study at Juilliard, particularly with gurus Robert Mann (still the first violinist of that institution’s resident quartet) and Raphael Hillyer (its violist at that time).

Yoshiko Nakura departed from the quartet in 1975, but, as I learned later from conversation with the other members, her replacement by Kikuei Ikeda was very much part of a preordained script: In fact, Nakura had agreed to play in the foursome only until the second violinist-designate Ikeda, who was a few years younger than the others, was ready to join them on the nether side of the Pacific (Nakura knew that she would eventually want to devote most of her time to raising a family).

The second personnel change, six years later, was emphatically not according to schedule, and might well have demolished the by-now world-class ensemble: Koichiro Harada, at pointblank notice, was calling it quits, officially due to homesickness. But there may have been some bad chemistry between Koichiro and at least one of his colleagues as well, for I heard a number of overwrought, shapeless performances from around that period. Remember, this crisis came before changes of first violin had become commonplace in quartet life. The only successful one in a major foursome had been Joseph Roisman’s promotion from second to first violin chair when the Budapest Quartet’s original leader, Emil Hauser, left that organization in 1932 to tour with a harpsichordist. To complicate matters, there was pressure from management who were worried that the Tokyo would be less salable were the replacement to be non-Japanese.

The quartet was already contracted to play with contestants at the Van Cliburn Competition, and Peter Oundjian, a young and upcoming violinist who still had solo aspirations, agreed to join Ikeda, Isomura, and Sadao Harada for that stint. By the end of the engagement it was obvious that, management be damned, they had found their man. They invited Oundjian to join, and he accepted their invitation.

From Texas, the newly reconstituted foursome went straight to its summer teaching duties at Yale Summer School in Norfolk, Connecticut. Resident flutist and quip-master Thomas Nyfenger immediately spread the word: “Have you heard? The Tokyo Quartet had an occident!” And Peter Oundjian loves to relate that, at one of the first concerts the “new” Tokyo played, at Mostly Mozart in New York’s Lincoln Center, an elderly lady seated in the first row loudly whispered to her gentleman companion, “Look! The first violinist isn’t Chinese.”

Oundjian’s influence on his three new colleagues was both fortuitous and fortunate. In many ways, his approach to music had much in common with theirs—but with an important difference: The ensemble ideal, as exemplified by the aforementioned Toho Orchestra, strove for subjugation of the individual for the good of the whole. In its early years, the Tokyo performed with almost uncanny unanimity; performances of the Haydn and Mozart could often be wonderful, but in music of the 19th and 20th centuries, there were times when a veneer got in the way of direct emotional communication—as, for example, the exquisitely refined but somewhat faceless Bartók cycle, recorded in the late 1970s for Deutsche Grammophon.

Oundjian, too, favors classical symmetry over flamboyant gestures, but he introduced a modicum of rhetorical freedom and encouraged the other players to do likewise. Right from the start, the new head seemed to elicit greater profile, shaping, and musical character from the torso. It is telling that since Oundjian’s assumption of the reins, the others have gained the confidence to occasionally attempt solo recitals. Kazuhide Isomura has even made a very successful solo recording (for MusicMasters) and has a second one awaiting release.

In fairness, greater maturity also may have had a part in the Tokyo’s artistic development: It is fascinating to compare the lovely-but-contained performance of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden recorded by the group for Vox/Turnabout shortly after Oundjian’s installation with the larger-scaled later version for RCA. We can look forward to more such comparisons: The quartet has recently rerecorded the six Bartók quartets and both the Debussy and Ravel.

“The Toks,” as they are affectionately called by countless younger colleagues and chamber-music devotees, undoubtedly take great satisfaction as promising young quartets spring up everywhere like proverbial mushrooms. It is fair to say that their caring interest in younger colleagues provided a great deal of inspiration and stimulus for this wonderful harvest. Their long and fruitful academic association with Yale began in 1976 at the behest of violist Hillyer (who had been appointed by the prestigious university to inaugurate a systematic chamber- music program). And, for the last few winters, the quartet has also accepted a more limited residency at the Cincinnati Conservatory. Many fine groups—including the Ying, the St. Lawrence, the Shanghai, and the Fone—have benefitted from the Tokyo’s teaching and collegial advice.

Today, the Tokyo is at the pinnacle of international quartets, with a range of music sympathies that extends from the classics to the conservative avant-garde. These musicians’ Debussy and Ravel exquisitely combine sensuous color with architectural clarity; their Bartók is still unusually soft-grained but has recently acquired more granitic thrust; their Verdi sounds utterly Italianate; they have made Berg’s Op. 3 incomparably lucid, and they have commissioned important new works from Toru Takemitsu. They gave their first complete Beethoven cycle in 1986 at Yale/Norfolk, and, to mark the occasion, the school presented the four avid softball players with uniforms emblazoned with the numbers “18,” “59,” “74,” and “95.”

The quartet will be performing the Beethovens again this winter in New York—dividing the concerts between Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. That cycle will be a benefit to raise money for AIDS research, and dedicated in part to John Dudich, an associate and close friend of the group who took his life several years ago upon learning that he had contracted the disease. The Tokyo players are not only superb musicians; they are exemplary human beings. Musical America is proud to designate the quartet 1995 Ensemble of the Year.

The noted pianist, teacher, and music critic Harris Goldsmith currently writes for The Strad and other publications. He was a longtime contributing editor to High Fidelity, Keynote, and Musical America, among other magazines. His chamber-music and solo recordings have been released on RCA, Crossroads, and Musical Heritage, and are currently available on CD on the Music and Arts, Stradivari Classics, and Musical Heritage labels.