No Japanese musician has ever been so much at home in Hungarian
concert halls as Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro and the Hungarian music-loving
public has never so celebrated a foreigner as their own. His popularity
in Hungary now almost 30 years behind it.
Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro was born in 1940, he was 10 years old when
he first heard Beethoven’s 9th symphony and thought it sounded
as if “it came from the sky above.” “The melodies
merged and roared, but then all of a sudden it all turned into
freedom and light, which had a profound influence on a boy. I burst
into tears and made a decision. If one can create such miracle
from “nothing”, then it is worth sacrificing an entire
life on conquering the world of composition. And so I wanted to
be a composer.”
He studied under Watabe Akeo and Yamada Kazuo at the University
of Art and Music in Tokyo, but the then fashionable “inorganic
and senseless”
electronic music and “random compositions” turned him
towards conducting. His talent was considered exceptional right
from the start and his sudden entrance in the international music
world came when he won the 1st International Conducting Competition
organized by Hungarian Television in 1974. From this point on,
his career took off: he has conducted the most important orchestras
of Germany, Austria, and Great Britain. Successful as a conductor
in 1987, he came back to Hungary again to become the leading conductor
of what was then the Hungarian State Orchestra (now the National
Philharmonic Orchestra). In 1992 he became the orchestra’s
honorary chairman-conductor for life, and two years later, he received
one of the highest Hungarian state awards in recognition of his
artistic services. Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro currently works in Japan,
heading the Japanese Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kobayashi’s magic has captured the public for decades. His
skills and his charismatic personality are intertwined. He never
conducts from the score during performances. He said that the score
would unnecessarily draw his attention away from something more
important: eye contact with the musicians. He knows by heart all
the pieces he conducts, and he interprets and conducts music in
a way that best suits his taste. Energetic, he even stomps when
he gets carried away. He is liked and respected by the musicians
he works with because he is treats them respectfully, a respect
and affection which is especially reciprocated when he returns
to his old orchestra in Hungary.
Although he is best known as a conductor, he will debut as a composer
at the 25th Budapest Spring Festival. About composition Kobayashi
has said: “If a conductor writes music, this is interesting
in itself, but that is not enough. I have had great pains with
this, but after two years a small idea emerged, and this forms
the basis of today’s Passacaglia.”
This can be heard at the National Concert Hall on March 24, conducted
by the composer himself and performed by the National Philharmonic
Orchestra and Choir.
