Sometimes I make things for fun.
Sometimes I make things because I want to leave my own trace in the void of the eternity.
This time these reasons are combined.
I am immortal. And here is the reason why:
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See the notes at the end of the story.
We are reporting from the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. The “jewel box of sound”, as Herbert von Karajan once referred to it, saw the first performance of the Saki Enomoto’s twenty-third string quartet suite, called ‘Revelations’. She earlier announced that it will be the last music piece she will give us. Our reporter Naomi Inoue was at the performance and this is her impressions of it.
To be honest, I wasn’t always a big fan of instrumental music. Before I started working here, I rarely attended any concerts at all, not even popular ones. But this changed when I was tasked to cover one of the previous Enomoto premiers in this newspaper. Her music can’t be described with simple words. It’s an experience, in which you can’t believe what you hear. It feels like something completely different, something out of this world. You open the door into the void, and you dive into the thoughts of the most powerful neoclassical composer in Japan who breaks any stereotypes you had about classical music.
After I attended that premier three years ago, I interviewed her, and she told me what I can listen at to try to understand her music fully. I took a vacation, loaded my music player with her recommendations and started listening. From Vivaldi to Kreutzer, through Rimsky-Korsakov and into the modern madness of Stravinsky and Schnittke — you can hear all of that in her music, and much more. She doesn’t restrain herself with the means of expression, be it odd rhythms, polyrhythmic melodies or anything else that can make the ordinary listener feel odd. But once you adapt to this sound, learn how to dive into it, you start appreciating all the power behind it. This is not easy-listening music from a woman who has not an easy life.
She put her violin on the bench just five years ago, and she took all her time to write everything she wanted to present to the world before the inevitable fate that awaits her. Earlier this year she announced that the next, the twenty-third string quartet, which was performed yesterday, will be her last creation ever. When she announced the premiere date, all tickets to it were sold out in the first five minutes. We don’t know her plans yet, but, unfortunately, her health is constantly deteriorating, and everyone who was in Suntory Hall this day could see it. In the dim lights of the stage, left of the four young performers, she sat in her wheelchair and listened to the premiere with all of us. Sometimes she looked thoughtful, sometimes she smiled, and she looked like the fifth performer on the stage, expressing her feelings without an instrument.
The stage was lit with candles, which were stationed on the performers’ sheet stands, and nothing more. As subtle as the lighting, the first movement of the suite was quiet, thoughtful and lovely. In the progression of the suite, though, the music became much more aggressive and fiercer. Soon it became a battle, a fight between you, protecting something you value, and the outside world that wants to tear it apart. You could feel how Enomoto pulled all her personal struggles into this piece of music. This wasn’t just an ordinary string quartet suite — this is a story of her life and her farewell message to all of us.
Usually, the last movement of string quartet suites is the resolve part of the whole story, which brings the peaceful or at least satisfying end for the listener. This time it wasn’t the case. Enomoto is experimenting here: she decided to match the listening perception with the visual one, and asked performers to put down the candles in the end, one by one. It looked like slow leaving of the life in the room: each musician consequentially stopped playing and put down his candles, music became quieter and quieter until the last remaining candle and one violin playing left. This was the cue for Saki to play her role in the performance. She rolled towards the sheet stand of the last musician and waited. With the last note she raised her hand and put down the last candle, effectively stopping the music and the light at once. At the moment’s notice the hall became silent and completely dark. It looked like audience even stopped breathing for a moment, until the hall erupted in ovation.
When the lights were turned on, everyone stood in the hall, cheering and clapping in excitement. Some of the listeners cried, others rushed to the stage with flowers. Most of the flowers, of course, were for composer lady: the floor near her wheelchair was covered with enormous number of bouquets. She lowered her head towards the musicians, thanking them for the stellar performance. Her husband, the prominent scientist Hisao Nakai, climbed to the scene to help her. His face was somber, and I saw a few tears in his eyes.
The performance was televised, so if you haven’t attended the performance (or want to experience it again), you can watch it on TV next week. This is something you shouldn’t miss, and this concert definitely recorded itself into the book of world’s most successful neoclassical premieres in the world. It also left us with some unresolved questions. Why is the suite called ‘Revelations’? What Enomoto tried to tell us for the last time? What she wanted to reveal to us today? Guess music critics now will argue between each other trying to find the answers to these questions, because Saki left us with none. After the show I tried to approach her for interview, but she refused, because she was really tired, which is understandable given her current condition. She leaves us with the huge legacy which would require no small amount of time to grasp. I’m glad I met her all these years ago and I’m really sad I won’t listen to any new music from her anymore.
The proceedings from the premiere and the airing on the TV will be fully given to the Nakai-Enomoto family to help them cover their medical expenses. The required payout for the four playing musicians was covered by the Yamaku Foundation chief, Shizune Hakamichi.
— Naomi Inoue, reporting for Japan Times. You can watch the 23rd String Quartet by Saki Enomoto this Sunday at 23:30 on TV.
During the writing of that one-shot I listened to the 8th String Quartet Op. 110 by Dmitrii Shostakovich. You can listen to it here.
Thanks Sharp-O for proofreading! <3
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I love this. Doing it from the perspective of a newspaper article really adds some serious gravitas to how awesome Saki is. Makes me wish I had thought of it as something of a prequel to Learning to Run!
I also like that you tell us not only about Saki's post-Yamaku life, but also Shizune's, Hisao's, and Naomi's, and you do it with very few words.
My FanFics
Learning to Run (Complete) - Emi x Hisao in their 30s
Yamaku: the Next Generation (Complete) - Emi and Hisao's daughter goes to Yamaku.
Oil & Vinegar - Mutou and Nurse buddy one-shot
This is a brilliant story, Vlad!
