The following is a rough draft.
I will send readers around the world photos of Korakuen today and pictures of Korakuen in midsummer, along with Chopin's "Barcarolle" performed by the world's most outstanding pianist.
This morning, I heard "Barcarolle" for the first time in a while on YouTube.
The performer was Krystian Zimerman, a pianist of superlative talent who needs no introduction.
The weather forecast for Okayama today also included fine weather.
I wanted to upload it with his piano performance after I got home.
When I opened YouTube to check the performance time, I found "Barcarolle" by Pollini.
I listened to it immediately.
He is the best in the world.
After listening to a superlative performance by a great musician, it is not an exaggeration to say that the feeling of hearing the sound of Pollini and instantly sensing that he is the best in the world is extraordinary.
For me, Pollini is the Otani of pianists.
I know this because the best know the best, and geniuses know geniuses.
Specifically, as I mentioned earlier, I spent my third year of high school listening to classical music on NHK FM from morning to night.
The mornings started with Baroque music.
At the time, NHK FM broadcast performances by world-class pianists, violinists, conductors, and orchestras daily.
So, I listened to the sounds of most of the world's top performers in each field.
As I have already mentioned, I had no intention of using music in a pedantic way, like M, who makes a living as a writer, or H, who actually just imitates him in everything he does.
So, I never thought about systematically listening to music or studying it.
'Music is sound.'
I just listened to the sounds of the great musicians.
It was a problem that I, as a high school student, couldn't do anything about and couldn't solve.
How much it helped me when I was spending my days with the path I should take suddenly closing and disappearing one day, at one time!
It is no exaggeration to say that I only realized this now as I write this.
That is why my sense of hearing for music is not ordinary.
It is no exaggeration to say that after listening to the super-talented Zimerman, the sensation of hearing the sound of Pollini and instantly feeling that he was the best in the world is not ordinary.
Simply put, just by listening to the first note, the first class knew the first class, and the genius knew the genius.
The reason is that I spent at least one year listening to classical music every day (or recording it when I couldn't listen live) as compensation for losing my life to the fact that I was a Tokyo University graduate and a Kyoto University graduate.
After listening to classical music for a while, I started listening to The Beatles and Bob Dylan.
From then on, I started listening to rock music, including their music.
Until now, I had never considered my life a struggle, but now I realize that my classmates think it is something they could never have imagined.
I struggled to make a living on my own and worked hard... it was indeed a struggle.
I lived as if it were custom to "hide one's talents."
John Lennon and Bob Dylan were the ones who saved me in this era.
I was into classical music for one year in my third year of high school.
Perhaps I was the person in the world who lived the most with the two people mentioned above.
Because I lived with their sounds, I didn't consider my life a struggle.
It was natural, because they were true and universal.
In other words, I was living the truth and the universal with them.
I said I was a genius because I no longer needed to hide it.
I suddenly wondered why I was writing this tonight.
Ah, that's right, I've been listening to Pollini's Chopin on YouTube for a while now.
Tonight, I'm listening to his sound just as I did when I first heard it.
It's not an exaggeration to say that my omniscience and omnipotence are responding to his sound.
But that's all for tonight.
I go to bed at 10 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m.
I will end this article here and move on to the work at the beginning.
As I mentioned earlier, on the night of December 31st, 2020, I decided there was no point in watching any more of the Kohaku Uta Gassen.
When I started watching YouTube, I discovered the super-duper genius that is Natsuho Murata.
This article will continue at a later date.
December 8th, 2024 in Kyoto
