So somehow, luckily, I had found these tickets for Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Concert: the Studio Ghibli Films of Joe Hisaishi just as they had opened another showing on Sunday evening so naturally, I bought two tickets. I mean, Hisaishi's music is some of my favorite in movies and I've been to Zelda concerts, video game concerts, etc, before, so of course I would get tickets to hear them do it with a live symphony.
I didn't realize that it was actually Joe Hisaishi conducting the concert until he walked out on stage. Before he came out, the current Consulate General of Japan gave a speech, which I thought was a little strange.
"What is the Consulate General doing down here in San Jose at a concert?" I was confused. Then this gentleman walked on stage to a roaring applause and I was like oh. shit. I had to turn to my sister.
"IS THAT JOE HISAISHI???" I said in my loudest whisper.
"YES," she whispered back.
"HOLY SHIT." I lost my shit a little bit.
Joe Hisaishi is the cutest effing Japanese grandpa conductor. The venue had cameras that captured his facial expressions and gave us an actual view of the frontside of the conductor - not something commonly done at the concerts I've been to, so this was even more amazing because it was Joe mothherfucking Hisaishi. He got super into what he was conducting and would every so often crack into this brilliant and kindly smile that just melted your heart. Definitely one of the more animated conductors I've seen! Like, he was actually a lot of fun to watch to the point where they would show videos from the movies on the big screen but I would be watching him bounce around and cue in different sections.
The most amazing thing though, was how he transitioned back and forth between playing piano (I GOT TO SEE JOE HISAISHI PLAY THE PIANO OMG) and conducting. It was so ridiculously smooth that I can only hope to one day attain a level of being able to switch back and forth between tasks in the kitchen like stir frying something and washing the dishes the same way he, seemingly effortlessly, switched from playing this piano bit (memorized of course) to waving in another cue and then back again to the piano.
There was just something about him playing piano that made the whole thing seem kind of special. It felt like he was adding in flourishes here and there to parts of songs; these were listening experiences that you couldn't hear just from the movie.
There were parts too, with the Totoro song, where sections were playing and I don't know, it's so moving that tears started to run down my face. I don't know what it is about that song - the nostalgia perhaps - but I get really close to losing it when I hear those songs regularly, and hearing them live just pushed it over the edge.
Oh yeah. There was also a part where this marching band came in. Hella random, but damn was I jealous of all those people who got to perform!
But now I want to watch all the Ghibli movies. There were definitely parts of movies I didn't remember at all haha. I wish I had the income and the space to pay for the blue rays with the gorgeous covers. Hell, I wish you could buy those as posters.
...time to scour the internet for posters I guess!
No comments:
Post a Comment