Due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, all concerts in March were postponed or canceled. Speaking of March, in my case, a concert of Ysaÿe’s Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas was scheduled in Kyoto and Aobadai, Yokohama City. I was shocked as I had been fully preparing for a few months for these Ysaÿe concerts, but above all, I wanted to avoid the audience feeling uneasy about coming to the events. As they were postponed after all, I am revising my practice plan. It was also a pity that some concertos concerts were canceled. I had practiced a long time for the Tchaikovsky’s concerto with Maestro “Kobaken” (Ken-ichiro Kobayashi) and the Brahms, which was to be performed after a long time. So, when thinking about such things, I feel how hard it must be for the Olympic athletes under this situation.
It is said that their few years plans for preparing their bodies to reach the best conditions for the Games have now collapsed due to the postponement to next year. Even the Olympic trials could be affected, depending on the sport, and it is most likely that one cannot avoid feeling exhausted both mentally and physically. It is hard because they are dealing with an invisible virus. Moreover, it is a new type of virus and even the experts seem to be uncertain about many aspects.
With no prospect of when it will converge, the number of infected people in Tokyo has increased rapidly, prompting calls to refrain from going out.
Well, what about me.
I look at myself slowly. I confront music carefully.
I play the violin, not for anyone else but myself.
Instead of practicing to prepare for a concert, I take a close look at the music I am aiming for.
I’ve never had such a time before. It is obvious because since my professional violinist debut at the age of 12, though I had my ups and downs in life and sometimes felt like drowning in difficult times, I always played the violin with full responsibility. So now I have a strange feeling. Given such precious time to look purely at music and find a way to art, I have no words. On the other hand, what does God want to convey to us, shutting down all human communication of interacting and talking with each other?