I have always felt that a 50-year milestone has some special significance.
Neither 45, nor 55, but 50.
A new chapter that is both an end and a beginning.
That is why I thought of my 50th anniversary in 2025 as a culmination, and felt it would be a crucial year for me.
Therefore, I planned so many concerts, so that many people could listen to the various pieces that I am emotionally attached to, in different recitals and events. That year is now approaching towards the end…
The very first concert that started off the 50th anniversary was Yasaÿe’s complete seven unaccompanied pieces (including the unfinished work). Looking back, telling the truth, is that it was truly a very demanding concert! As well as technique and memorizing the music, it required stamina, mental toughness and endurance, in my later age. I planned the unaccompanied concert just because I purely wanted to share my beloved Ysaÿe music with everyone.
Meanwhile, the concerto recital featured Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky. These two concertos have been pivotal points and indispensable throughout my fifty-year career as a performer, and I even re-recorded them for my 50th anniversary album, released in 2025.
The opera arias concert with my brother Akira was also very special indeed. It was a delightful challenge to play the famous opera arias as if singing them, all of which were luxuriously arranged by Akira’s orchestrations.
One of the particularly rare concerts was the big concert with my 2 brothers and myself, which turned out to be so memorable. This was the first concert by the three siblings in 25 years, and looking back, I feel that 25 years ago, none of us were able to fully utilize our expertise yet. But even then, it was extremely difficult to forge our individual expressions into a unified whole, and our staff were clearly struggling to manage our divergent opinions. This time, the creative process of the siblings working together involved even greater “birth pangs”than we had imagined. There were many times when it seemed the concert might not happen at all, and more than anything, I can imagine the staff assigned to each of the three siblings must have suffered a lot, gathering in staff-only meetings from time to time to wonder and consult with each other. But thanks to them, the “Senju Family’s Trajectory” concert became a truly unique performance that can never be repeated. I now find myself missing it already.
Also, the all-Kreisler recital commemorating the composer’s 150th birth was special. Half of the pieces in the program were the ones I regularly perform, but the other half were the ones I had not really presented in a concert before. I felt that it became a program that vividly brought out the delicacy and subtlety and the profound depth of Kreisler’s inner face.
Other recitals incorporated various other pieces across the different areas, along with occasional lectures for those wishing to hear me talk.
And finally, comes Bach’s complete six works for unaccompanied violin concert series. In November, I have already performed the 6 pieces in Kyoto and three in Kitakyushu, and Tokyo will be the last stop for this series.
I feel that performance in Tokyo will resonate with all the profound emotion, soaked in the struggles and joys and sorrows of my past fifty years.
By the time Bach comes to an end, the city will be full of Christmas illuminations.
December will continue with concerts incorporating the festive atmosphere across the various places, and I hope to fill them with gratitude, right until the very end.
I am deeply grateful to my manager and management team, who have worked so hard for this 50th anniversary, and to all the local concert organisers who planned and ran the concerts, to orchestras who created unique music with me on stage, the conductors, pianists and other fellow performers, and of course the fans who have supported me with warm applause, cheering me on throughout those 50 years. Also, my two elder brothers who have always watched over me behind the scenes…
Thinking back, I realise that it is only because of the support of so many people that I have finally reached here, being able to stand on stage as a violinist… I would like to shout out my heartfelt thanks!
I must also not forget about those dear people who are no longer with me. My mentors, close friends and acquaintances, grandparents and parents. Those people give me energy on stage as I feel their presence there.
So, at last, it is December, a final dash to complete the anniversary concerts. I hope that everyone across the country will come along and listen! I look forward to seeing you all at the venues.