2015.01.29

New Japan Philharmonic / Subscription Concert #534

Thu 29 Jan 2015 at 7:15PM
Suntory Hall (Main Hall), Tokyo

Toru Takemitsu : Dorian Horizon
Takashi Yoshimatsu : Trombone Concerto "Orion Machine" op.55
Ligeti : Lontano
Xenakis : Nomos gamma

【Message】

After recovering from cancer (though only God knows my life-span, I guess), my first comeback performance in Tokyo, my home city, was the New Year Concert with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. But yesterday’s contemporary music program with the New Japan Philharmonic who I used to direct was also my comeback concert in another way. It cheered me up a lot in various ways.

Trombonist Koichiro Yamamoto is really talented! I think I’ll play the same piece with him again with a number of different orchestras. My old friend Takashi Yoshimatsu, author of the music, came to the concert without any previous notice. He wrote that concerto twenty years ago… what a good sense he had! I nearly ignored him, but someone informed me quickly, saying “Mr. Yoshimatsu is there!” I was then able to inform everyone of his presence.

The best thing was, yesterday, the New Japan Philharmonic expressed the fact that the orchestra performance is originally “a joyful gathering of people = festiveness”. Also, the reaction from the public was passionate and honest. The Suntory Hall is a place designed for a day like yesterday.

I bandied words with Takemitsu, Ligeti and Xenakis in the old days. Today, all three are no longer around. Nor will Mr. Yoshimatsu or myself live forever. But yesterday…

Everyone existed at the same moment.

I safely managed to run through this January, thanks to you all!

By the way, as for the audition for the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa’s flute section, the result finally came out for the first time in three years. An excellent young flute player joined the orchestra. My patience is rewarded.