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TWO days before Midori returned to England, Kon invited her and Maestro Noboru to the Genda estate where she was throwing them a going away party. Kon frantically fought to prevent her mother from interfering with the party. According to her, it’d become a party of unimaginable proportion if she hadn’t stopped her involvement.
She’d even begun saying things like, “If Noboru Misaka is coming over, we should hire a full orchestra and have them put on a concerto together!”
But since the occasion presented itself, Kon and I planned to put on a two piano performance as a farewell gift.
With his hemp blazer on and properly shaved beard, Maestro Noboru was a 100 times more attractive than usual. Seeing as Kon and I had accidentally blurted some rude things last time that’d hurt him, I restricted my comment to, “You look great today,” and swallowed my real comment of, “you’d look even better if you did something about that mop of wild hair on your head.”
Rachmaninoff – Suite No. 2 for two pianos, Op. 17, II. Waltz
After four years of inactivity caused by the emotional damage he had received from negative reception towards his first symphony, Rachmaninoff rediscovered his confidence and composed this piece, confirming the comeback of his creativity. An elegant waltz took up the piano’s tenor voice amid a flurry of activity. The unique rhythm of the mingling triple and duple meter created a kind of Russian pathos. The dynamic chords and arpeggios played colorfully, painting the romantic primary melody. Even when an expansive melodic line unfolded in one of the pianos, the other maintained a driving pulse.
Kon and I had practiced the piece after discussing how the song created this image of young couples dancing through a ballroom under the dazzling light of a crystal chandelier.
Spending all my time practicing the songs for the competition created this incessant need to play any other song. Performing at the party gave me the break I desperately needed and the enjoyment I didn’t realize I was missing.
It’d been three years since I’d last sat across from Kon on a different piano.
I matched my breathing with hers and conversed through the music. The conversation was filled with the sweet memories of the distant past where we once giggled and told each other all our secrets, nearly bringing me to tears. I even saw an illusion of Kon leading me by the hand, running into the bright sky during the middle of the song where the crescendo took off as a fortissimo.
Maestro Noboru and Midori stood in applause after the performance.
“Magnifique!” Midori exclaimed in French, her cheeks flushing as she ran over to her flute case. “I can’t sit still and do nothing after hearing a performance like that! Noboru, accompany me!”
“Sure. What song?” Maestro Noboru stood with a resigned smile and headed for the piano. Midori was about the only person in the whole world who could designate Noboru Misaka as her accompanist for a sudden ensemble. Aside from Miss Ayumi, of course.
“It’s gotta be Bizet’s ‘L'Arlésienne’. Let’s go with the Minuet,” Midori said in a singsong voice while she assembled her solid gold flute.
Holy smokes! The golden light is dazzling! It looks like it costs about 5 million yen. Mm, 5 million. The mortgage left on our house could be mostly paid off if we had 5 million yen to spare.
“Mashiro, your mouth is hanging open.” Kon elbowed me. I hastily snapped my mouth shut.
Midori laughed at me then slowly raised her flute. She played the relaxed, beautiful melody with very little breathiness. Her performance took center stage. Maestro Noboru played a mellow and diffident accompaniment, so as not to outshine her.
She’s good. Her performance is outstanding.
Midori played a million times better than any of the flutists I heard during Seio’s Christmas concert. Her flute tone not only had a centeredness to the sound, but also rang like a bell and possessed the purity and flexibility of a beautiful, pure soprano voice. It was like she was playing the melody of the heavens.
Kon and I applauded until our hands hurt.
After we wrapped up our musical performances, we snacked, picked different CDs out, and kept putting in requests for Maestro Noboru to play different songs. It made for an extremely fun and fulfilling time.
“I’m sorry I can’t see you off at the airport.”
“That’s okay. It’s not a big deal.”
When I left the Genda estate, I said my farewells two days early to Midori and Maestro Noboru.
“I’ll be back in October to see you in the finals, Mashiro!” Midori winked at me.
I still had to get through the quarterfinals and semifinals first. Midori’s words of encouragement got me laughing.
“You can look forward to my rendition of Ravel’s music.” I winked back, earning a smile out of Maestro Noboru too.