Fazil Say concert at Sumida Triphony Hall

As I mentioned in my previous post, Fazil Say, the famous Turkish composer and pianist was in Tokyo, giving a concert. I really enjoyed the music and how he uses the piano in pretty creative ways (check out the video in the previous post about his "plucking" piano strings, making it sound almost like a guitar...).  He is clearly one of the most gifted people I have ever seen in my life, harnessing creativity with a natural talent for piano. I have listened to his music, both with him playing his own compositions and him playing classics, and have always enjoyed the experience but listening to it live and seeing him "perform" is a completely different beast.

The Triphony Hall is about 5-10 minutes walk from the 錦糸町駅 (Kinshicho Station). It is not the biggest concert hall I have seen but it definitely has a nice aura about it. The hall has nice acoustics and if the pamphlets they gave on the way in are any measure it is very active with lots of Japanese and international talent performing for the audience. I have always been very much impressed with the big pipe organs in concert halls but alas, perhaps quite unsurprisingly, it was not used for this event either.

For this concert I was lucky enough to get a front line seat (second time in my life for any live performance, after a Cirque du Soleil show in Seattle) so I caught a close ups of one of the notes on the stage. You can check out the hall and get more information through their official website.

Fazil Say was in Tokyo

Fazil Say, who is a very famous pianist and composer from Turkey, was in Tokyo giving a series of concerts. I was lucky enough to attend one which I will write about tonight or tomorrow but I came across this video clip, introducing him to the Japanese audience on TV and it also has him re-interpreting one of my favorite piano pieces - 君を乗せて from "Castle in the Sky" in the end of the clip. It is worth watching even if you don't know a word of Japanese :)

Piano ー Fazil Say
by wonders465

This is another interpretation of the song from "Castle in the Sky" with scenes from the movie... If you have not watched it, I strongly recommend it. It is clearly one of Miyazaki's masterpieces.