27/12/2025
本日、広島で今年を締めくくる素敵なコンサート🎹が開催されます。
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Sara Davis Buechner
Shuhei Nomura
Midori Kimishima
AN DIE FREUDE
Ode to Joy / 喜びの歌 in Hiroshima, Japan
2025年12月27日
In a time when artistic and personal freedom has come under siege far and wide, the inspirational words of German poet Friedrich Schiller (1759 - 1805), set to the unforgettable music of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony two centuries ago, have never been more crucial. For Schiller, the word "joy" was synonymous with "freedom." Appropriately, Beethoven's choral Ode to Joy is a worldwide call for liberation from all petty tyranny.
Today it will be my personal joy to thunder through this music in the stunning two-piano arrangement of Franz Liszt. My wondrous colleague and former pupil Shuhei Nomura will join me on the stage of Hatsukai-Ichi Bunka Hall in Hatsukai City, Hiroshima, this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. As a warm-up we'll begin with Mozart's delightful Sonata in D major for two pianos KV 448.
Beethoven's Ninth is so beloved throughout Japan -- the work is referred to affectionately as the "Daiku" (第九) or "Big Nine" -- that it has become a staple of orchestral concerts at New Years' time. Music to celebrate peace, freedom, acceptance of all humans as one family, and the excitement and possibility of a better time coming. I'm all for that.