He has been ridiculed for tackling Bach with Japanese musicians. But it looks as if conductor Masaaki Suzuki is going to have the last laugh.

By Erica Jeal [Guardian, 12 May 2006]

It's Easter Saturday in an orderly suburb in a capital city's commuter belt, and a group of musicians is performing Bach's St Matthew Passion. Nothing unusual about that - except this is Tokorozawa, outside Tokyo; the ensemble is Japanese; and they're playing, in impeccable baroque style, on period instruments.