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By Kevin Shihoten
19 Jun 2007

Italian cellist Mario Brunello played Bach at the summit of Japan's Mt. Fuji this past weekend.

The high-altitude performance took place on Sunday, June 17, according to a report at Earthtimes.org.

Red Fuji by Hokusai

Accompanied by a group of fans and with his instrument in tow, Brunello began his ascent of the inactive volcano around the 8,200-feet mark; by sunrise, he reached the 9,842-feet mark. There he played Sollima's Alone before resuming his snow-capped climb, a spokeswoman for the Arion-Edo Foundation, a Japanese musical organization, told Earthtimes.org yesterday.

Having reached the crater's rim, at 12,776 feet above sea level, Brunello performed selections from Bach's six Suites for unaccompanied cello. "At the summit of the mountain, man is closest to God and the absolute," he was quoted as saying, and then added, "Bach's music comes closest to the absolute and to perfection."

The founder and conductor of the Orchestra d'Archi Italiana, Brunello won the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow and has appeared with conductors Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Valery Gergiev and the late Carlo Maria Giulini, among others. He is an active performer in Japan and was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Kioi Sinfonietta in Tokyo.

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