Mayako Muroi, who is the oldest active pianist in Japan, held a concert in Tokyo to commemorate her 100th birthday, and Mr. Muroi delivered Beethoven's piano songs to the audience with a mature performance.
Mayako Muroi (99), who was born in the 10th year of the Taisho era, started her professional career in 1945 during the war, and has been active internationally in her 30s and 50s, playing in 13 countries based in Germany. , I am still active as the oldest active pianist in Japan.
Before turning 100 on the 18th of this month, a commemorative concert was held in Tokyo on the 7th, and Mr. Muroi played Beethoven's piano song with a light talk that did not make you feel age.
In the talk, he talked about his feelings toward turning 100, "I understand what it takes to be a good artist. As a human being, I have to deepen my content. Only then can my art be completed. After saying, "I think that art is endless. When I think that Beethoven's music is" amazing, "I come across different music. Even if I live for 200 years. I feel like it's not enough, "he said.
In addition, "For Elise" and "Moonlight" were performed in the performance, and the audience gave a big applause to the lyrical and mature performance.
Mr. Muroi's student and pianist woman said, "I was impressed with the performance that I couldn't think I was 100 years old because I was still talking in the old lessons. I want you to take good care of yourself and continue playing again and again. That's it. "
After the performance, Mr. Muroi said, "I think it's really wonderful to be able to discover new things even now. I think that feeling will not change in the future."
Mayako Muroi 100-year-old history
Mayako Muroi, born in the 10th year of the Taisho era, began learning the piano at the age of six, and after graduating from Tokyo Music School = present-day Tokyo University of the Arts at the top, she began playing.
The stage of his professional debut was a concert held at the Hibiya Public Hall in January 1945, and according to Mr. Muroi, there was an air raid nearby after the performance, and the area around the venue became a morgue. ..
Regarding the concert as the war intensified, Mr. Muroi recalled, "The audience was full for three days in a row. Did everyone enjoy the music or wanted it?"
After that, Mr. Muroi studied abroad in Germany in 1956, and based in Berlin, he repeated performance activities in 13 countries and raised his international reputation.
Even after returning to Japan at the age of 60, he continued to work energetically, such as co-starring an orchestra and a piano concerto after the age of 80, while holding talk concerts to convey the charm of music for many years.
Even now, when he is 100 years old, he faces the famous songs of the past while touching the piano at home every day, and when he concentrates, he sometimes keeps playing until 2 o'clock in the middle of the night.
Mr. Muroi said, "The technique of communicating is not that the fingers move fast, but in the end I feel that it is difficult to reach the depth of music unless the human nature really deepens," he said. It does not mean only decline, but some expressions can only be reached by experience.
He also strongly said about his future goals, "I want to attack the real awesomeness of music, deeply." "For me, music is a poem, a novel, and a drama written by sound. Music is It's very expensive, wide, and deep like a literary work. How to express it to reach the listener is a big mystery, or endless. It's interesting and I can't stop. When I turn 100, I always want to find something that is 100 years old, so I can't die yet. "