Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra Principal Conductor Sebastian Weigle Stresses Importance of Sharing Musical Experiences

By Ryoichi Matsumoto / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

14:55 JST, March 18, 2026

Sebastian Weigle, the principal conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra (YNSO), has led the orchestra to a new horizon time and again with ambitious concert programs and willingness to take on operas. As he enters his eighth season with the orchestra, he has told The Yomiuri Shimbun what to look forward to in the new season and what he thinks about the mission of musicians today in an email interview.

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The Yomiuri Shimbun: The new season will be your eighth since you became the YNSO’s principal conductor.

Weigle: This orchestra never loses its curiosity or its thirst for discovering more, whether in styles, techniques or expanding musical experiences. I am very happy to be able to continue our incredible journey over the next few years and to grow further in every direction.

When we begin the first rehearsal, I often have the impression that they already know the piece. This may be expected with standard repertoire, but it is just as true for works that have never been played before. For me as a conductor, this is a real gift. It allows me to begin shaping and developing my musical ideas immediately. The musicians respond quickly and sensitively, and they are never passive; they remain alert to any changes during the rehearsal process and even during the concert itself.

Yomiuri: During the 2025-26 season, you took up Berg’s opera “Wozzeck” (in a concert-style performance), which was highly acclaimed.

Weigle: It is always an incredible journey to perform this opera together with singers. Understanding Berg’s musical language, especially the passages of “Sprechgesang” [spoken singing] is deeply enriching and enhances the musical expression of each musician.

Stephan’s turn to shine

Yomiuri: Symphonischer Satz fur Orchester by Rudi Stephan (1887-1915), which you will conduct in a subscription concert in July, draws strong attention among the programs for the new season.

Weigle: Rudi Stephan was a highly gifted German composer of the early 20th century whose promising career was tragically cut short when he was killed in action during World War I. His Symphonischer Satz is considered his most important work, combining lush orchestral color with a bold harmonic language.

The work is often seen as a bridge between Romantic expressiveness and emerging Expressionist tendencies, marking Stephan as a significant, yet frequently overlooked, figure in the transition toward musical modernity.

Yomiuri: Furthermore, the season program also includes “Furien-Furioso” by German composer Siegfried Matthus (1934-2021).

Weigle: Siegfried Matthus, one of my favorite composers from the time I grew up in East Berlin, enjoyed great success and wrote numerous operas as well as highly interesting orchestral works, including concertos for various instruments. “Furien-Furioso” is a short concert opener in which the composer plays with an ironic and critical image of the mythological goddesses of vengeance from antiquity.

Yomiuri: Also in July, there’s a concert with a program featuring Hans Werner Henze, Oskar Bohme and Richard Strauss.

Weigle: I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to meet Hans Werner Henze several times. “Sebastian im Traum” [The dream of Sebastian] comes from Henze’s later compositional period. It is richly orchestrated and characterized by a free use of tonality, unfolding like a sequence of dreamlike fragments, constantly shifting between delicate melodies, meditation, and dense, dark outbursts that strike like lightning.

“An Alpine symphony” [by Richard Strauss] is less a literal depiction of nature than a symbolic human journey through sublimity, danger and self-overcoming. Listeners may focus on how light, space and movement gradually emerge from darkness, as well as on the orchestral colors and leitmotifs that make natural phenomena, exertion, danger and awe not only audible, but emotionally tangible.

Yomiuri: We look forward to your take on Beethoven’s Ninth (Symphony No. 9 “Choral”) toward the year-end.

Weigle: “Daiku” [Ninth] is one of the greatest joys to perform in Japan with Yomikyo [YNSO], and I hope that this second time will not be the last. It is always a highlight for both the musicians and the audience. The importance of performing “Daiku” today lies less in its monumentality than in its ethical message. The symphony affirms, especially in a world marked by crises, wars, division and uncertainty, the possibility of fraternity, dignity and hope.

Yomiuri: Fear and concern over wars are spreading in the world today.

Weigle: Musicians should not respond to the fear of war with repression, but with conscious awareness and inner clarity. Fear is a deeply human impulse that must be taken seriously; yet in music it can be transformed, into sound that orders, comforts, stirs or even contradicts. Music gives form to diffuse threats, and precisely through this process, it becomes bearable and comprehensible for people.

Yomiuri: Is there anything you have gained from your experience of traveling between Europe and Japan several times a year?

Weigle: Beyond the many experiences around the world, sharing music with an international audience and with musicians from different backgrounds and traditions is a true joy and a gift. It is especially meaningful to be able to perform operas in concertante versions, allowing a deeper focus on the music itself. May we all remain healthy and continue to share these experiences together, live and in person. These are moments of unforgettable personal experience that remain within each and every one of us.