God, how did I miss Simon Rattle's last tour in Asia?
When I noticed an article on their concert in Hong Kong and learned they would play Brahms's fourth symphony at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo later this month, obviously it was too late. All tickets were sold out.
At the same time I was a bit surprised by the inflation of the tickets compared with a decade ago; an S seat is JPY 45,000 (USD 450) whereas it was like JPY 25,000 (USD 250) back then. Well, it's not an opera. Even though it is a historical concert, I thought it a bit too expensive for an orchestra.
I'm just assuming that quite a few inbound visitors to Japan from other countries in Asia might be willing to pay even such a price. This time Berlin Phil is going to Hong Kong, China (Hangzhou; Wuhan; and Shanghai but not Beijing), Seoul, Tokyo and Kawasaki. In line with the documentary of Berlin Phil, once again they chose Japan as the final destination of their Asia tour because they feel that the Japanese audience is the most sophisticated and fastidious about classical music in Asia, and they wanted to do the best performance after getting used to the local conditions and jet lag.
The growing affluence among the middle to upper class in Asia such as China, Singapore, Thailand, etc. is amazing. These consumers love Japan in part because of the overall good cost performance; a course meal of Japanese cuisine could cost USD 500 in Singapore or similar even in Bangkok, for example, whereas in Japan one can enjoy authentic one at like USD 100 to 200.
At any rate, now I look forward to seeing their concert on their website.
