Into Classical Music Recently

I hardly listened to classical music before. Although I love listening to instrumental music like Celtic and other folk music, for some reasons, classical music just didn’t enter my radar. But not until last year.

It started when I first heard of Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji’s Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto on Youtube. For some reason, I really liked it (and I still do) that I listened over and over again. Soon I was browsing for more videos of her on Youtube that I got to know more violin concertos and repertoires.

Then I learned about the Australian Youtuber violinist duo “TwoSet Violin”. Viola jokes aside, I started to appreciate classical music even more and even get to learn bits of music jargon every time I watch their videos. I actually used to play a Filipino rondalla instrument so I can relate to some stuff sometimes.

Then came the symphonies and piano repertoires. The more I looked, the more I discovered the fine musicians out there. And the great composers of the past as well. As for me, I do have certain preferences in compositions and interpretations. For compositions, I generally like the works of Bach, Brahms, Debussy, and Prokofiev. For musicians, I like Sayaka Shoji, Tifanny Poon (pianist), and Klaus Mäkelä  (conductor).

I also started attending concerts recently. Last summer, I went to Tokyo just to see Sayaka Shoji’s performance together with Polish conductor Krzysztof Penderecki. I also went to Hyogo to see again Sayaka Shoji’s performance but this time with Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. I was also into Klaus Mäkelä’s Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 lately (in Youtube) that when I learned that he will conduct this in Tokyo, I bought the ticket right away even though it’ll be on a weekday. Sadly with the pandemic going on, the concert was cancelled.

So for now, I’ll dwell into classical music to help me this difficult and uncertain times. Sigh. That reminds me, the musicians are also having a tough time..

Gion Kouta Matsuri (祇園小唄祭)

This festival is held in honor for the famous Gion Kouta or Ballad of Gion song from the film “Gion Kouta Ehigasa” and was created by Mikihiko Nagata in the Yoshiuta ochaya of Gion Kobu. This year’s maiko representatives were from Kamishichiken, the first-year Ichitaka and the more senior Umechie. The Ookini Zaidan president, kabukai presidents from the five hanamachi and the Yoshiuta ochaya okaa-san were also present to pay tribute.

Ichitaka and Umechie recited some of the lyrics of the Gion Kouta and then the participants offered flowers to the memorial stone where the lyrics of the song were etched. Finally, they gave away Gion Kouta lyric pamphlets as souvenirs.

Goose house Live

My heart just melted.

It was my first time for me to see them perform this way and it’s a very great improvement I should say  (I don’t know if they had their done their ustream like this in the past). So I watched their most recent ustream just this night and I fell in love in every song they covered. My favorite was “DA. YO. NE.” by East End x Yuri. I am not actually familiar with the original artist but anyway wow. They have such great skills and showmanship.

By the way, some may not be familiar with Goose house so I’d like to give a brief introduction about this awesome Japanese pop group. So they are composed of seven members: Shuhei Kudo, Shuhei Watanabe, Johnny Saito, manami, Sayaka, Migiwa Takezawa and Kei Takebuchi. The current lineup was not particularly composed of the original members, some of them have already graduated while others remained. Of course new ones were also recruited. My favorite among all the members is Johnny Saito-san. He’s a good singer and adept in many stringed instruments (which I am also familiar of). Speaking of which, I have posted below their last song performance during that night’s ustream titled “Sedan Girl”. It’s one of their original songs which can be found in one of their latest album, “Bitter”. And the main singer for this song is none other than Johnny Saito-san.

What a lively song! Actually I still don’t know the English translation of the lyrics but the melody is catchy and uplifting. I think they recently gained more popularity after making the “Oto no naru hou e” ending song of Gin no Saji and “Hikaru nara” opening song of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. Anyway for more information about Goose house, please visit their official site here.

DEPAPEPE (デパペペ)

I absolutely love this Japanese acoustic duo of Miura Takuya and Tokuoka Yoshinari! While I love instrumental celtic-style music, their acoustic genre is also quite beautiful to my ears. They usually switch roles of melody and chord, and they do this very smoothly. Of course they are quite expert in many guitar techniques and I’m always in awe every time I watch them in Youtube videos. They also compose very cheerful and interesting melodies which make a good background music while studying.

My most favorite songs are Itsukamita Michi, Kaze, Mozart’s Turkish March, Ravel’s Bolero, Sailing and Rosy. But it’s hard not to like them all. Here is a video of them teaching how to play their song “Koimizu”.

This video is uploaded by Aldindha.

Anyway, this is their official site if anyone’s interested. Their latest album was just released last October I think and is titled “Acoustic & Dining”.