The story was written along with the echoes. It was a wonderful experience.

2024/3/12

I attended the charity concert at Hamarikyu Asahi Hall on March 10, which was the first time I had done so in a long time.

When I was young, I attended only concerts of pianists who appeared on the world stage.

While working part-time as a laborer in Tokyo, I spent little money.

I went to the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Ueno to hear Hiroko Nakamura perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1.

I also visited the same venue when Andre Watts came to Japan as a rising star of superb technique.

The same has been true since I started living in Osaka, which I have designated as the stage of my life.

As I wrote long ago, I was convinced that the only advantage of living in a big city like Tokyo or Osaka was always a concert to attend when world-class classical musicians came to Japan.

Having been born and raised in Yuriage, an excellent port town, and having studied in the academic city of Sendai and the “City of Trees,” I never considered the other advantages of living in Tokyo or Osaka.

After I started running my own real estate business in Osaka, I realized that the most significant advantage of living in Tokyo and Osaka was that real estate could be bought and sold only in those areas without any monetary restrictions.

Therefore, I would only consider investing in real estate, which is a considerable investment, in these two regions.

That was my management stance.

In the past, pianists of rising repute and mid-career talent often held their concerts at the Kosei Nenkin Kaikan.

They were Michel Beloff, who played Maurice Ravel; Nelson Freire; Alfred Brendel; and others who were very good and talented.

Those known as “big names” are at the Festival Hall.

Maurizio Pollini, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Martha Argerich, etc.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was at Kyoto Bunka Kaikan.

I went to bed at 23:20 and woke up at 4:00 when I was supposed to wake up at 6:00.

I arrived in Tokyo 30 minutes earlier than planned and could take pictures of Hamarikyu Garden with enough time to spare.

This garden is enormous.

We spent less than two hours without drinking any water.

The only thing that looked like water was the udon noodle soup from Marugame Seimen we took for lunch.

We arrived at the venue with plenty of time to spare, well before the doors opened at 13:30.

We were the first ones to arrive.

We didn’t take a drop of water before the show started.

I felt nervous because I hadn’t attended a concert in a long time.

I left my glasses in my backpack in the cloakroom, so it wasn’t easy to read the program.

I only checked the order of Natsuho Murata and went to the concert.

Our seats were in the middle of the second row from the front, the best seats in the house.

The first act was a solo performance by three pianists.

I don’t remember ever listening to a concert with Steinway & Sons

in front of me.

The acoustics were intense.

The piano is beating on a metal wire, so it’s great to hear it right before you.

But it might be too intense for my physical condition on that day.

It was when she started playing the interlude.

Her performance turned my whole body into music.

The sensation was the same as when I heard Polini and Ashkenazy at the Festival Hall at their peak.

And so, I instantly became in shape to listen to music.

Last night, I checked the program and found that the pianist’s name was Yukine Kuroki, a young pianist with a beautiful career.

Due to the above circumstances, I did not recall her name or appearance.

Tchaikovsky-Pletnyov: from the concert suite “The Nutcracker,” 1st: March / 2nd: Dance of the Confetti / 4th: Interlude

Last night, I wanted to listen to this interlude before bedtime (even though I should have stopped).

That’s how I learned her name and what she looks like.

I heard an excellent performance by Nobuyuki Tsujii on YouTube but could not listen in person on the concert day.

But her performance in front of me on the concert day was outstanding.

I wish I could hear her interlude again from that distance.

I write this column daily while listening to classical music through the aforementioned large speakers, the ALTEC A7s, made by Pioneer in the company’s heyday, employing a well-known JBL manufacturer.

So, I have listened many times to the pieces played by the two pianists that follow.

At last, Natsuho Murata appeared on stage as the top solo violinist.

A supernumerary sound and talent.

I could not have had a more blissful time.

Since the company’s founding, I have had a friendly rivalry with the Osaka branch of a major real estate company.

At that time, the company paid its employees large bonuses in proportion to their performance, which was unthinkable in a Japanese company.

Due to their dealings with our company, one Osaka branch employee and two Tokyo headquarters were awarded the best in Japan in their respective years.

Their respective bonuses were tens of millions of yen.

I started listening to violin and piano because I had a close friendship with the abovementioned person, who worked as a deputy manager at the Osaka branch.

Every Christmas, the company rented out the Symphony Hall and held a concert for its customers, inviting famous musicians.

One year, he told me, “You loved music, didn’t you, Mr. President? We invite Mariko Senju, a violinist, to give a concert this year. If you like, I will invite you and your executive director.”

I had read an article about Mariko Senju using a Stradivarius, so I gladly accepted the invitation.

Hearing her play the Stradivarius at the Symphony Hall would be a pleasure.

When her violin sounded, I felt it immediately.

The piano is lovely, but the violin sounds like a human voice.

The sound contains the folds of the heart, the thoughts of the human mind, and the movements of the human brain.

That day, I listened to the violin while writing a story that, if I were a writer, would indeed become a bestseller.

The story was written along with the echoes.

It was a wonderful experience.

As a bonus, she played “Musetta’s Waltz” as an encore, I think it was.

Many years later, on New Year’s Eve 2020, I discovered the astonishing talents of Natsuho Murata and Himari Yoshimura.

This article continues.