Our Own Kobayashi

"I am a fish in those waters which we call music. But a big fish or a little one? That is for posterity to decide." So said János Ferencsik, the legendary conductor of the State Concert Orchestra (today the National Philharmonic). He lived not with music but in music. A few years after his death, an artist inherited his "baton" about whom we sense the same. We do not understand his mother tongue but we read his movements: he is our Kobayashi, who believes his soul derives not just from Japan but also Hungary.

In 1974 half the country was watching the premiere classical musical talent contest of the era, the International Conducting Competition of Hungarian Television. People tended to understand conducting as deeply as they understood football – how beautiful it was! The triumphant young conductor, Kenichiro Kobayashi, enchanted the viewers. I was only 9 years old at the time but well remember the enthusiasm that surrounded him, his humble bow, his hair, his smile, his every essence, all of which suggested that this flood of Hungarian love had struck him quite unexpectedly.
 

Kobayashi Ken-Ichiro and Liszt Academy Symphony Orchestra (photo: Kata Schiller)

Next year it will be 40 years since the Kobayashi cult was born in Hungary. "Here at the Liszt Academy, tears come to the eyes of some of our teachers when they hear his name," said the rector, András Batta last year, when they bestowed the 72-year-old conductor the title of honorary teacher. Kenichiro Kobayashi – nicknamed Kobaken – even now sleeps for two hours before every concert and maintains his condition playing golf, but his intellectual vitality is retained through his love of shogi, or Japanese chess, which he can play in his head without the board

We now associate the province of Fukushima with the recent sad environmental catastrophe – but this is where Kobaken was born. His parents wanted to bring him up as an athlete, but then he was given a record of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. The music made a huge impression on him. As he said, "the overwhelming love of Beethoven" propelled him to the Tokyo University of the Arts. His international career as a conductor was launched in Budapest but we did not let him go far away. Ferencsik took him on as his assistant. In 1987 Kobayashi became the chief conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra, and from 1992 he was its chief music director, a post he retained until 1997. Although he then departed, his appointment as eternal conductor cemented the relationship for a lifetime.

During his ten fruitful years of collaboration with the State Symphony Orchestra, he gave over five hundred fantastic concerts, primarily unforgettable performances of Romantic and early 20^th century works. "The decisive role was played by Kobayashi's talent as a conductor, his astonishingly faultless concentration for an hour and half, his masterly gift for creating a bond with musicians and music, his infinite flexibility, sensitivity to colour and spiritual beauty which flooded towards us from the interpretation," wrote the famous music critic György Kroó after a Mahler concert. And the audience still celebrates him with infinite homage even today, however many times he visits Hungary to conduct. And we hope he will come many times in the future.

This is our Kobayashi. Like a fish in water, he lives in music. A small fish or a large one? That is for posterity to decide. But one thing is for sure, he is a golden fish!