Hiroyuki Iwaki: "A Letter from Europe" (Excerpts)
From the second day, when I did it for two hours, there was a change of players, and the famous Carl Schuricht did the Viennese waltz for two hours, and then I did it again, and then the old maestro.
When I saw the 83-year-old conductor walking by, barely moving his baton, and letting the orchestra play calmly and happily, after I had made a big fuss about Liszt, and I was getting more and more frustrated, I thought that I could not match such a person. I didn't get burned or hurt because I didn't want to go too far, and it was a good feeling to be really impressed.
Mr. Schuricht always listened to me in the mixer room during my performances (his ears are already very far away), and when I came in to take turns, he would say jokes like, "You've been in 2/4 time, but now I'm going to play 3/4 time without any slackness," or "You're really a Hungarian. Oh yes, Japan and Hungaria are relatives." He knows quite funny things like "A long time ago, I had an acquaintance of a Japanese lady - she wasn't my girlfriend, but she told me that the Japanese letter was convenient and that three letters of "woman" turn to a word "noisy."
When I asked him if he would like to come to Japan once, he said, "At this age, it's not easy" and he said, "But when I go, I would go alone," and he pointed to a very young wife who was beside him. I said, "Of course, if she would like to go together," but he said, "No, because Japanese lady is lovely and my wife will be gealous." He thus made everyone around him laugh out loudly. I had really fun and wonderful time with this 83-year-old prominent conductor for three days, joking around a lot. When Mr. Schuricht's Wiener Waltz and my Liszt were released as records, these two albums will be wonderful memories for me.
"Philharmony", 35(6), p.22 (1963).
Digital Archives of the National Diet Library (Japanese)
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