Tuesday night Satoshi and I went to the symphony. Ok, so it wasn’t a real full on orchestral performance, but it still rocked. The event in question was the Japan Russia Goodwill Concert series, which as it traveled around Japan was stopping over in Beppu and playing the convention center for one night only. Tickets were free, via the university, and having little better to do, we went.

We arrived 5 minutes early and the concert began promptly at 7pm. For the next 2 hours the 1,000 or so people in attendance were bathed in sonic rapture. For 2 hours there was no war, no hunger, no hate, no pain, and no death. For 2 hours the hearts and minds of the audience, myself included, were hopelessly lost among the clouds of drifting melodies and stirring refrains. When it was all over I clapped until my hands went numb, and then I clapped some more. 1,000 people left that concert feeling born again, with hearts as light as those of children, such was the spell the classical musicians wove…

The musicians in question, for those of you who might know these sorts of things, were the following:

• Vladimir Suveldoroff – Piano
• Francis Duroy – Violin
• Dimitri Checherin – Piano
• Lida Chen-Argerich – Viola
• Kiril Rodein – Chello
• Yuri Kreparoff – Balalaika
• Efgeiny Kreparoff – Balalaika

You must understand that those names were translated from Russian into phonetic Japanese Kana, which I have then attempted to translate into English. In other words, they’re badly butchered (with the exception of Duroy and Chen-Argerich), but maybe for those of you who know contemporary classical performers, you can figure out who they are.

I also have the performance program, although it’s again in Japanese so I’ll do my best to render it into recognizable English. Question marks denote guesses due to ambiguous pronunciations from the Japanese phonetic kana, or simply titles that I was unable to find matching examples of within classical listings:

Performer(s)	Music
Efgeiny Kreparoff – guitar	Kreparoff Arrangement / Imagination
Yuri Kreparoff – balalaika	Monte(?) / Childish(?)
	Kreparoff Arrangement / Spanish Musical Dance
Francis Duroy – violin	Brahms / Piano Trio in C Major
Lida Chen-Argerich – viola
Vladimir Suveldoroff – piano
Dimitri Checherin – piano	Chelni(?) / A Melody of Memories Through Music(?)
	Rachmaninoff / Etude Op 39 No 6, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
	Rachmaninoff / Polka de VR
	Liszt / Paganini Etude #3 (La Campanella)
Francis Duroy – violin	Mozart / Viola and Violin Duet, #2 & 4
Lida Chen-Argerich – viola
Francis Duroy – violin	Beethoven / Violin and Piano Sonata No. 5 in F major
Dimitri Checherin – piano	op.24 “Spring”
Vladimir Suveldoroff – piano	Liszt / Hungarian Rhapsody #2

 

So, in short, it was an incredible experience. I have three more major comments to make. The first is that this was the first time I’ve ever seen a balalaika in person. While I vaguely recognized the instrument as it was being played, I had no idea what it was called and had to look it up afterwards. For those of you out there who are also drawing a blank, this is a balalaika, and it makes lovely music in the proper hands.

 

When Yuri Kreparoff played it in the opening number, certain parts called for him to strum it so quickly that his right hand was a complete blur. Never in my life have I seen such speed and dexterity. I was in awe.

Secondly, upon hearing the opening notes of the final number, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody #2, I nearly burst out laughing in the middle of the concert hall. Here’s a short mp3 clip from probably the most recognizable section of the piece.

Did that trigger any childhood memories for you? It’s a safe bet to say that Franz Liszt never thought that one day a man named Friz Freleng, aka I. Freleng, might come along in 1946 and, with the help of Mel Blanc’s voice, would create an animated short featuring an iconic rabbit that would go on to win an Academy Award.

From the moment the first notes hit my ears, I was 5 years old again watching Saturday morning cartoons. It was delightful. The great irony though, was that I alone in the audience had seen that landmark cartoon while growing up, and so to the rest of the Japanese in attendance, it was just another famous classical piece.

The last thing I want to mention was also the most special. At the end of the performance for the encore, Lida Chen-Alderich, Francis Duroy, and Vladimir Suveldoroff came back out for one last piece. Francis Duroy stepped forwards, and violin to his chin, began softly and slowly playing the opening notes of a beautiful melody. Next Lida Chen-Alderich and her viola joined in, and lastly Vladimir Suveldoroff on the concert hall’s Steinway, all 3 playing slowly and gently, letting the notes drift out across the rows of the audience. It was then that the most remarkable thing happened. Almost as one, perhaps 5 or 600 voices began to softly sing in unison from the audience. Sitting near the front, I turned around in my seat to see virtually everyone over the age of 50 in the theatre softly singing aloud, men and women alike. I asked Satoshi what they were singing and he said he’d never heard it before, and that’s also when I noticed that no one who appeared younger than 50 seemed to know the words.

As the beautiful melody carried on, echoed by hundreds of weary, and yet gently elegant voices, it became obvious to me that I was witnessing something truly special. The musicians had picked a song that was so iconographic of the oldest generation, a song which meant so much to these grandmothers and grandfathers, that they couldn’t help themselves but sing. The musicians on stage never once indicated that they wanted to audience to participate, in fact they played as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening at all, they just simply knew it would happen. But for the seniors there, something about that song was completely irresistible and moved them to lift their voices immediately. For perhaps five minutes I sat in stunned silence, watching and listening to the scene unfolding around me. By the end of it the hall was overflowing with emotion, with many of the seniors wiping tears from their eyes. I was unable to find out the name of the song, but I shall never forget the moment…