(14 March 2016) Italy and Japan welcome the 150th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations with a very special guest: Riccardo Muti. The Maestro is the new face of the post stamps that will be issued on March 16 at the opening concert of the “Spring Festival” in Tokyo, the first stop of the new appointment with “The Ways of Friendship”. Maestro Muti was recently a guest of the Italian Embassy and Ambassador Domenico Giorgi, for whom the Maestro performed with the Orchestra for the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan, an orchestra made of young Italian and Japanese musicians. Muti will perform on 16-17 March at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and the Metropolitan Theatre, directing the young talents of the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra (which the Maestro founded 10 years ago) and of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. The same concert will be performed later in the year at the Ravenna Festival on July 3. “For the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan, I am very happy and honored to return to Japan, conducting a team of musicians that unites the young talents of the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and young Japanese musicians of the Japan Philharmonic,” stressed Muti in a message. “From the union of these two orchestras and two countries clearly emerges a deep meaning of friendship and history,” he added. Finally, the Maestro speaks warmly of the Japanese public, “one of the most remarkable audiences in the world.” During his extraordinary career, Riccardo Muti conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bayerischen Rundfunk, the New York Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Philharmonia of London and of course, the Vienna Philharmonic. (red)
