Seeing her elderly parents for the first time in years has been a shock for Yuka Eguchi.
"It was a surprise; they are so much older."
Eguchi was given permission to take a week out of her busy schedule before the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Extravaganza tour to travel to Japan to celebrate her mother’s 77th birthday.
"It’s very special for all of us."
Due to Covid-19 she had not been able to visit her parents in nearly three years.
Eguchi, formerly concertmaster of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, moved to New Zealand seven years ago from Japan for "many reasons", but admits one of the main ones was her 15-year-old son’s concerns at the fallout from Japan’s devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake, which caused the failure of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
"He wanted to escape from that — he didn’t like it at all — so I started looking for jobs outside of Japan."
New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance made it a prime contender and she made the decision she would do whatever work was necessary to make the move as success.
"I tried to get a job fruit picking or barista in a coffee shop."
A co-ordinator supporting them in the move was quick to suggest she should look for work in her previous occupation.
So a former New Zealand student who studied with NZSO concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppanen put her in touch with him and he gave her the opportunity to trial for the orchestra for a few months.
"I was very lucky. I got offered third chair. My son was very happy. That was the beginning of our lives in New Zealand."
Eguchi has quickly moved up the ranks to first violin and assistant concertmaster, and her son is now 22 years old and studying at Massey University.
"I’m able to concentrate on my stuff now."
For the Extravaganza tour, which features works by 17thcentury baroque masters Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Pietro Locatelli and Jean-Baptiste Lully and ground-breaking composer Claude Bablon, she will be performing two short solo pieces, known as caprices, by Romantic-era violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini.
Leppanen will first play two caprices of Locatelli’s music from his Art of the Violin works, which went on to influence composers and violinists such as Paganini. He has described Locatelli’s work as a "musically primitive" version of Paganini.
They are technically challenging to play, but within the limitations of the baroque-era violin.
The instruments of Paganini’s time were smaller, the neck was shorter and the breeches were slower, so they were very flat compared with modern violins, Eguchi says.
"It didn’t really sound much louder compared to our violins now. That’s the big difference between Locatelli and Paganini, yet they are very similar ."
One of the two Paganini pieces is nicknamed "Devil’s Laughter" and the other, the arpeggio, is very similar to Locatelli’s work.
"There were rumours he [Paganini] sold his soul to the devil, so that was the reason he looked like a devil and played like a devil too. This one represents [the] devil’s character a lot, so I hope I can nail it technically. It’s very challenging. It’s going to be thrilling time for me."
But it is nothing she cannot handle given she has been playing the violin since she was 3 years old. When she was 8, she toured the world with the renowned violin teacher Dr Suzuki and a select group of his most talented students.
"I don’t remember being 3, but my parents told me that I picked it up when I was 3."
As Eguchi talks about her start with the violin, she realises she has been playing the violin for half a century.
"Can you imagine, my goodness. That makes me reasonably comfortable to play those violin pieces."
She admits her love of the violin did waver once, during a particularly difficult time in her family life in her 30s.
"I almost gave up playing and had a bit of mental down. I didn’t play for a year or so, but people around me helped me a lot."
Those supporters got her back into playing by giving her the opportunity to play in the pits for a musical.
"Not even opera or the ballet, the musical. So it was easier for me to play there. That is when I started to play again.
"Everyone helped me to come back to my violin life."
She is very grateful to have had those people around her.
"It’s really easy to quit but it’s not as easy to continue; it can be very difficult."
But music is wonderful at healing, she says.
"It doesn’t matter if it’s classical or pop, music is just good medicine for our soul and heart. I believe that. I started to play the violin for myself after this down. I realised this is really good for me, not for someone else."
Her role as assistant concertmaster at the NZSO also keeps her busy, filling in as concertmaster when needed and leading education programmes.
When not playing with the NZSO, she enjoys performing with partner Dr Kemp English, a pianist, organist and fortepiano (an early piano made from the 17th century through to the early 19th century) player. They have recently toured together, with English playing the modern piano in some concerts and the fortepiano in others.
"I wasn’t sure at first because we had two programmes which were not easy to do."
It required travelling with the fortepiano on "the back of the jeep" to each venue in the North Island.
"It’s quite tricky. The sound of the fortepiano doesn’t really create a big sound, so I had to be really careful not to overtake his sound. Sometimes my violin was much louder."
To combat this, where they could they put the fortepiano in the centre of the audience, and Eguchi walked around it playing facing the audience. She also used a baroque bow, which does not bounce like a modern bow, to better match the sound of the fortepiano.
"It was fun. People loved it."
Eguchi played some "virtuoso" pieces alongside the modern piano, which she says were much enjoyed by the audience as well.
She loves the contrast between playing the modern classical and baroque pieces.
"It’s like food, sushi or a hamburger. It’s totally different."
So she is looking forward to the rest of the year, with the NZSO’s 75th anniversary concerts coming up and plans to tour Central Otago with English.
To see:
NZSO: Extravaganza, Glenroy August 24
