One of the most rewarding feelings you get, as a performer is I believe that you sense that you delivered something memorable for the audience to take home with. It’s even more so when you have a performing partner to deliver it together as a team. For the audience, perhaps it can be liken to the feeling of fulfilment when you had such a delicious dinner at a beautiful restaurant; an art form to enjoy with your eye, sense it with your taste bud, and absorb with your body and share the experience with others.

Due to my very limited numbers of concerts I participate in a year, there aren’t many that I get to experience this feeling. It’s not easy to spare enough time for learning new repertoires when you jaggling with teaching and composing and other works that occur from day to day basis. But sometimes, less time increases your focus level, and something unexpected comes out of it. One of such instances was the lunchtime chamber concert with the dynamic violinist, Mifune Tsuji, on 14th November 2013. Due to the lack of time, certainly I didn’t feel ready to perform this particular violin sonata: Sonate pour piano et violon en Sol Majeur (1892) by Guillaume Lekeu. The only thing that helps me through it was the fact that I felt in love with this piece of music at the first hearing. The fact that Mifune-san felt the same way about this piece and performed many times also helped me greatly. Her beautiful playing simply guided me to understand this piece of music and performing it together was such a joyful experience for me. When we were performing, I poured my whole self into it, in hope that we give something to the audience to take home to. Although there were still a few technical challenges that need to be sorted out over time on my part, I felt more controlled and calm than usual. I wish that happens more often!

My first and the most reliable critique is my husband. Although he’s not a musician, he’s got a certain instinct about the overall musical understanding. What I appreciate most is that he’s very honest in telling me how he felt from the performance. For me, it’s very refreshing to receive opinions from non-musician listeners, which more often than not quite spot on and I value them greatly. When Mifune-san and I finished performing, I was very anxious to find out how he felt for the whole concert. He gave me a big thumb up! I felt convinced that it looks generally positive! I’m glad that I managed to record the whole performance from this concert, so that I can sit back and listen to what our audience experienced from this concert. The positioning of the video recorder wasn’t ideal but I’d often like to capture how the audience is taking the music in and also I think it’s a refreshing idea to invite the audience to experience the performance from the performers’ point of view. I hope you understand what I mean by watching this video and that we share our love for this piece of music with you too!

The live recording of the whole concert is available to download free from my bandcamp page, if you’d rather just have a listen! Please click the link here.