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I went to a concert of string ensemble at Fukui Prefectural Concert Hall.
It was planned by four string players from Fukui, and they invited
Japan String Quartet (JSQ), which was representative string quartet in Japan,
for joint performance.

The members of JSQ includes Yoko Kubo, who is an internationally acclaimed
violinist and Junji Suganuma, who was a first desk of violist in NHK orchestra.
All the members remain in classic music history after the war in Japan.
And it seems that the four players from Fukui reaped big reward that they couldn’t learn
by private lessons.

In the concert, the string quartet by the four players from Fukui played and then the string octet played harmoniously by all the members. The members of JSQ are elderly
but they showed us that however old you become, you can continue music activity
and you even become skillful.

A violinist of JSQ dropped the score and they restarted.
In an encore, they played the piece again, saying “The score was dropped
and we will play again the piece.”
That was classy, calm, elegant and so nice.

I had not been familiar with string but I felt coming of spring by the tones of
string. And it was like gentle breeze blowing across the field and luxurious time with
the beautiful clear tones.

In fact, Fukui Prefecture promotes artistic education and they found string clubs
in designated elementary school. The player who planned this concert teach the students.
It is such wonderful environment, isn’t it? A teacher of one of the schools came to the concert, and she said “It is pretty good that we can hear sound of string after school.”
That’s for sure, and it’s elegant, isn’t it? (H.S)

From The Fukui Shimbun（newspaper)

From Facebook page of the Fukui Prefectural Concert Hall