WINTERREISE  

This is the Winterreise of the Part-Time Singer.

Gute Nacht

July 17, 1999 was a very hot day. On this hot day, Gabriel, the part time singer, sang at The Concert Hall, Denki Bunka Kaikan, Nagoya. When I started with Gute Nacht, the first piece of Winterreise, I recognized a few faces who came all the way from Tokyo. Because the concert was held too far away from home, there was not really a big audience in the hall. However, as I called it the last big event of the century, the music worked out thoroughly seemed to give them some satisfaction.

I learned many things doing this concert. I became aware how many people around me supported me. It was a tough work for my family as well. There were people who did everything for me from reserving the hall to selling tickets. I half forced friends to buy tickets. I was even said "Don't screw up, or give me a refund." I was supported by everyone and all I could give in return to their favor was good music, not the refund. Thank you, those who came to the concert, who helped me doing everything at the concert hall and who could not come to Nagoya but cared about me all through this period.

Winterreise consists of 24 songs of despair and  resignation. However, singing those pieces made me aware of people's warmth and I came to thank everyone who supported me.

I have studied many things about Winterreise. These are criteria information and I could not say everything. However, there is one thing that I want to point out. In my generation, one big standard of German Lieder was Dietrich Fischer Dieskau. I was brought up with listening to DFD's Schubert Lieder. I have been listening to his concerts and recordings for three decades. He is so great. I could not imagine anyone else had ever sung Schubert beyond the level of DFD. Then, gradually though, an idea came to me that there might be some different approach in Schubert's Lieder. There might be more natural singing in Schubert's music instead of speaking like Dietrich Fischer Dieskau . I have listened to many recordings from Gerhard Huesch, Olaf Baer to Thomas Quasthoff other than DFD.  Hans Hotter or Hermann Prey are of course the other great Schubert singers but I wanted to listen to someone in younger generation. Doing so, I came to believe that I want to sing more naturally than speaking each word like DFD did. Each word has it own meaning and contains a lot of feelings in it. However, I thought musical phrases are more important and natural appearance of each piece is as well. I wanted to sing in the way no one else did. I listened to the recording of the concert and am satisfied a bit because it is really something different from anyone else's Winterreise.

EPILOGUE

The concert was digitally recorded. Some of the friends who wished to come to Nagoya but couldn't made CD from the recording. They did everything from mastering to package design by themselves. They all went out right away and I had to make additional 200 to distribute to all who wanted it.

CD made it possible for those who were not able to be at the concert for some reason to listen to me sing. Moreover, a number of people who I do not know in person or famous voice teachers who otherwise would never have heard me sing were able to listen to the Winterreise and sent me applause, advice or such points that I should work on from now on. It was such a joy for someone who does musical activities.

Those who are interested in my music, visit the CD page.