Dear Goro

I am preparing the violin sonata no.2 of Schumann. It's a new challenge for me.
Created late in his life, this piece is like "children playing and chasing each other or a detective novel" according to Argerich. Schumann wrote this just after no.1 and the composer himself said "it's far better than the previous one" and named it "Zweite Grosse Sonata".

Just as other musical pieces by Schumann, it does not have much of high-pitched sound. The violin is not good at producing the middle-pitched sound beautifully and clearly. Moreover, each one of entangling melodies is all important and hard to ignore. As a result, "if everything is played, nothing sounds clear!"

"Composition" and "Lyricism", however, are outstanding as Schumann himself boasted.
The beauty of the 3rd movement, the variation based on the choral "Aus tiefer Not schrei' ich zu dire" is comparable to the 3rd movement of Piano Quartet of Schumann….

I had a friend who passed away after he complimented this particular movement which is euphoric and unearthly. In one of his last blog articles, he described it as "beautiful like the heaven".

His name is Mr. Goro Kobayashi. He was a director at NHK, a Japanese public broadcasting organization. He produced wonderful documentary programs of Mr. Takemitsu and Mr. Ozawa. His deep knowledge of music was outstanding, I have never met a person who could immediately recite any melody or reference number of any composer.
Most importantly, he was full of love and respect for music. That's why we could stand freely and play in front of his cameras.

We have known each other for a long time, and these recent years I had many chances to meet him. After a concert in Toyama, we talked endlessly in the train, we were so excited to talk about the Opera in Wien directed by Mr. Ozawa. We also talked about our lives.

When we had coffee in a Starbucks in Sengawa, Tokyo, we had a wonderful discussion about "expression".

Every time I met him, I was so inspired. I was full of imagination, motivation and new ideas of all kinds.

I wanted to realize them into the sound wholeheartedly.

Goro was the planner of my project "Bach-Brahms".
He said "why don't you start from the String Sextet of Brahms and make following pieces gradually smaller? You can finish the concert with Chaconne of Bach".
Such an idea was never born without him.
It required courage to realize it, but the audience was very happy and this concert was received as a milestone for exploring new ways of constructing a concert. He came to listen to my violin at that time.

I met him for the last time when I recorded for NHK Television at Ishibashi Memorial Hall. It was in early August of 2012. I played the 2nd Solo Partita of Bach with the Chaconne and the Violin Sonata 3rd of Brahms. I recall the recording and wonder why he insisted so stubbornly on filming those two masterpieces of d-moll in spring or latest summer of 2012. For a concert in August, the schedule was very tight to reserve a concert hall and a pianist from Belgium. It could have been much easier to schedule it later in autumn season.

But he wanted to record it at that time, at that place. No other option was possible.

He listened to us during the whole rehearsal in the front row. I will never able to forget how he sat there watching me play the violin.

After I played the Chaconne, he said "Oh, I really feel that's the life itself".

The next day, he said to me "I restart the anti-cancer treatment from tomorrow, so why don't we have a nice lunch together!?"

And that was the last time I met him….

After that I had a trouble with my violin and he was hospitalized not by cancer but by pneumonia.
"Well, if it is a pneumonia, he will be cured soon", that was what I thought.

But when I talked with him on the telephone, he said "I can not speak so clearly because I ware an oxygen mask".

A few days later, I received a message to my mobile phone. I was about to leave for the series concert of NHK Symphony Orchestra.
"Good luck on the concerto of Mendelssohn. And if it's allowed, please play Bach and give energy to everyone".

I never thought it would be the last signal of his life. I planned to see him in the hospital the next day believing his pneumonia would be over.

Just after the concert was over, I was informed of his death.

Oh, my!
It's not fair, Goro, you shouldn't leave so quickly!!

He found the engineer who records Brahms Concertos in 2013 with Czech Philharmonic in Prague . And Goro invited me to his house to explain how the recording techniques had been improved and it expanded our possibilities. Therefore it is absolutely necessary to have a top engineer.

His love for sound and music was limitless.

I regret that we can not have someone like him anymore. Or may be he or she might be somewhere in the world?

I visited his home the next day he died. I had meant to visit him alive in the hospital!
Goro looked a little bit smaller surrounded by his family. He seemed to be sleeping.

It's hard to explain, but it felt like he or his spirit appeared in this world just for a short time and disappeared in a blink of an eye!
I felt like that.
So, even now I don't really feel like he's really gone.

On the way back home, I walked a long distance along the river bank of Tama-gawa. It was a bright sunny day. In the light of autumn, I could not stop the 3rd movement of the Piano Quartet of Schumann ringing and ringing in my head.

For that reason, I will play "the 3rd movement of the Piano Quartet of Schumann" in memory of Goro for the last piece in today's concert "The Evening of Schumann". Mr. Sasaki the viola player will come all the way only for playing this piece today.

Goro, please listen to our Schumann played on the earth. And then, up there, you can enjoy discussing with Herr Schumann about our concert.

You might say, "Oh, what are they doing down there? Do they understand Schumann at all?? But I like it! It sounds beautiful".

Rest in peace, Goro.