On 19 June Pekka Kuusisto gives the Japanese debut of Anders Hillborg’s Bach Materia, directing the strings of the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra from the violin at Suntory Hall.
The work, which can last 16-20 minutes, was created as a companion to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.3. This freewheeling piece is highly improvisatory in character, with extensive cadenzas that can draw in the other members of the ensemble as the soloist sees fit, especially the double bass, alongside more rhythmically taut, muscular tutti passages that recall the dynamism of Bach’s original. “Anders wants a very athletic col legno”, Kuusisto has said of the piece, “so we use bamboo sticks to get a slightly more gnarly sound”. Watch Kuusisto perform the work with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård here.
Kuusisto has given over thirty performances of the piece to date, which he premiered with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra in 2017, with groups including the Concertgebouw, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sinfonieorchester Basel.
He also presented the piece at the all-Hillborg 70th birthday programme with the Göteborgs Symfoniker in November 2024, which also saw him conduct King Tide, Eleven Gates, and The Strand Settings with soprano Ida Falk Winland. In 2016 Kuusisto gave the Finnish premiere of Hillborg’s Violin Concerto No.1 with the Finnish Radio Symphony and Hannu Lintu and in December 2025 conducted Eleven Fates with the Helsinki Philharmonic.
On 3 September 2026 he is joined by Hillborg’s saxophonist son Theo to open the Göteborgs Symfoniker’s new season with the world premiere of the composer’s saxophone concerto.