Brahms’ Intermezzi

When I was a student, there was a year when I wore only black. The following year, I wore only blue, more specifically turquoise blue or emerald green only. I think it was when I was 19 or 20.

Likewise, there was a year, when I played only Brahms. That was when I was in my third year of high school. I was allowed to play the Brahms sextet with my senior colleagues. I felt thrilled when I heard Brahms’ first symphony in the library. I was also moved by his second piano concerto and sextet (I could not believe the beauty of the beginning). I was also impressed by his first piano trio, which equalled the beginning of the B-dur piano sonata from Schubert's later period.

All of these experiences were based on the intermezzi played by Glen Gould, which my father listened to quite often.
My father was an amateur violinist. In the midst of his busy life as an office worker, he entrusted his daughters with his dream, which was not that we become famous or win competitions, but a more realistic vision , that we, as women, become capable of earning a livings through our music. In those days, my cousin, a violinist, became the first woman to join the NHK philharmonic（symphony） orchestra. She lived in the same house as our family when I was born. Thanks to her, Sibelius’ concerto came into my mind before I saw its score, along with the photo on the record jacket.

My parents sympathized with “the Toho Gakuen music school for children by”, and special education for gifted children started with solfeggio, piano, and rhythmics, when my sister and I reached the age of four. The classroom in Mejiro at the time was hot in summer and cold in winter. Our fist piano teacher, Mariko Haneda, lived in Gokokuji, and we commuted by bus from Shimoochiai where we lived then. As I grew taller, I was pleased when I became capable of holding on to a strap on the bus.

Rhythmics probably started in the second year after we moved to Toho Sengawa school.
Seigou Ezaki taught us various things as sort of experiments. To feel the rhythm of two-three time, three-four time with the body, using our hands and feet. Thanks to these lessons, I became capable of coping with any kind of rhythms, including unconventional rhythms and afterbeats. We moved according to an impromptu piano. We used to play the piano and sang without thinking too much. Composition. I composed a piece called “A Lake”. I expressed ripples by arpeggio. I remember I had difficulty in producing a melody for the middle part. Friday nights, I was trying to compose when I was in third or fourth grade of elementary school, and my parents were listening to me in the adjacent tatami room.

This is a scene which has been lost today.

My father liked Heifetz, the Capet Quartet, Bartok by the Julliard Quartet, Berg’s Lyricsch Suite, and the tone of the violin by Thibaud and Neveu above all. In retrospect, he might have liked new things as well. Among his favorites, there was Messian’s La Turangalila Symphony.

When Glen Gould was becoming popular, I memorized entire repertories like Goldberg Variations and Mozart’s Sonata C-dur, before seeing the scores, without any efforts on my part as I heard them everyday. That was because I was at that age, and also I did not try too hard.

Then Brahms’ intermezzi.

Without knowing anything, I was attracted by his sextet at the first encounter (this matured abyss) at the age of 18. Opus 117, 118・・・

I took a piano course as a second subject, and played intermezzi for a whole year. I practiced the second rhapsody. My teachers then were Katsuko Miura, our neighbor, and Asano. I was told, “Oh, such lovely Brahms” , and I felt offended.

I learned how to make these feelings into real sounds from Professor Toshiya Eto.

Then I played Brahms' first violin sonata at the Elizabeth competition in 1980. Even now, 30 years later, people I encounter on the street kindly tell me that they have never forgetten the impact of hearing my performance then.

What did I do!?

With many coincidences, as my father who passed away before I won the competition wished, I make a living through music, and get great benefits from music.
Now I am in a position to pass these benefits to the next generation.

Now I re-read Brahms’ intermezzi. The score makes me nostalgic, as there are notes about fingering and other things on the pages I practiced. The pieces I did not practice are difficult to play.

There is no other music than these intermezzi to fit the European atmosphere with dim lights on winter nights. Now I am approaching the age when Brahms wrote these pieces, and I feel that to get older is really something.