English Translation

BEETHOVEN IN JAPAN Count Hidemaro Konoye, Japan's famous composer and conductor, who also made a name for himself in Germany as a subtle performer of German music, writes: "It is surprising to hear that there are not a few philosophers in Japan who live exclusively in the Kantian world. You could still understand it when I told you that I found a stone in the study of a Japanese philosopher, which he secretly put in his pocket on a pilgrimage to Königsberg on the courtyard of the old university. This veneration did not seem strange to you, and you could also imagine that the greatness of Kant's thoughts also lives on in the Far Eastern island kingdom. But I can't understand why you were so surprised that there are parallels in music — that the German classics, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn as well as Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, form these parallels. They can speak with legitimate pride of the music of these great masters as "our German music" — we foreigners envy you all for that. Of course, the music of these German classics is as constant as the music by Tchaikovsky in Russia or Smetana in Bohemia. But nevertheless, dear friend, you must not forget that these German classics, with their greatness and depth of cultural wealth, have become far beyond the German borders of the whole world, to such an extent as is not the case with the other national composers. The Hungarian, Spanish or Nordic composers always remain somehow a "local affair". Have a look at the concert programs of the big cities, no matter which world city, whether Paris, London, New York, Moscow or Tokyo - 50 to 80 percent you will find German classics on the program. Dear friend, it would be sad if you and with you all your countrymen did not want to acknowledge that the greatness of your geniuses can encompass the whole world. You also need not have any fears that in Japan your great German masters will be played "Japanese". Although perhaps an Italian may be inclined to see Schubert from the perspective of Rossini, or if a Russian plays Brahms like Tchaikovsky, this danger is not there for us, because the music of my homeland is completely different from the European one. So we can't help but feel and play German music as German as possible. On the contrary, the cultic relationship between music and music in Japan seems to me to open the way to the ethos of the great German masterpieces and especially to their heroic content. Japan is always very fond of music and dance. Our people have always had a deep sense of art.