Special Interview: Violinist Ryu Goto
――What does the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto mean to you?
Goto: The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto is a tremendously romantic work. For me I would say it brings to mind the vastness, the steppes of Russia. It is very easy to listen to and an approachable work, so its message ought to come through as long as one hears it on its own terms, doesn’t get tense, and stays relaxed.
――As a violinist what is your relationship with the orchestra and audience?
Goto: A concert means performing before an audience, so how the audience reacts changes everything. That includes the sound quality and mood. It is an interactive experience. There is feedback from the audience in the form of applause, posture, a sense of support, and so on. Just like in sports, the feedback from the audience completely changes the results. Though I play the same thing in several different places, the reaction is completely different and I make all kinds of new discoveries as a result.
――When following a dream what is important to you?
There are two things. Now, these two are opposite in principle, but that doesn’t mean one is better than the other… Anyway, the first one is "more haste, less speed." For instance, when I want to perform a piece well and all I do is practice that piece and focus my attention solely on it, I usually don’t make any progress at all and I use my time poorly. So I do the opposite and allow for a bit of time. Even if I have, say, a concert coming up in a few months, I set aside some time for other things. I think doing something else is how we can break through that barrier. The other principle is you have to apply effort rather than wait for someone to help you. A favorite saying of mine is a Latin proverb—and I am sure Whitman used it in a poem, too—“if wind will not serve, take to the oars." It’s a neat saying… Sometimes you just have to bear down and work hard, right? Another way one might think about it is that there are all kinds of ways to get to your goal: sometimes the wind blows, sometimes you need to “take to the oars."
――As someone who has fulfilled his dream, please give some advice to students.
Goto: If you have a dream I hope you will work hard. If you don’t have a dream, I hope you will at least experience different things and take one risk every day. For instance, if you don’t go out because you are scared or you don’t go to a foreign country because you are scared, take the risk and take a week off and go to a foreign country. If you don’t know what to major in at school, pick one thing—it doesn’t matter what—and take the risk and study it, and even if it doesn’t work out you will have learned something. And then I hope you will try studying something else. Japan is a really rich country, so I hope you will use that advantage as a safety net.
――Thank you very much.
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