Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

As founding member, songwriter and drummer for Japanese glam metal band X Japan, Yoshiki has had an incredible life and career. The details of his and the band’s story go beyond your average Behind the Music episode. Their story has warranted its own award-winning documentary, We Are X, which charts their highs and lows over the past thirty years. Yoshiki himself is the central figure, the bulwark in the storm, and he bears the scars of his experiences.

One means of coping has been indulging his passion for classical music. He has released a couple of albums as a classical artist, but has also composed classical music for TV, film, special events and the occasional emperor’s anniversary. He has toured this work as well as classical arrangements of X Japan songs, under the name Yoshiki Classical Special with the help of the acclaimed Tokyo Philharmonic, recently stopping at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Yoshiki’s classical works and arrangements are sweeping, romantic and occasionally verge on the melodramatic. The grandeur of the music dwarfs the man — immaculate and slim in a long white coat, with hair styled in a perfect wave of honey. The songs have big swells, play with the soft-loud-soft dynamic and are almost stubbornly in major keys. This is because Yoshiki sees his music as a reason for hope. Even in doubt and loss, the music is his salvation.

The evening had its share of surprises. Yoshiki strayed from the printed program to play a solo version of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and discussed the importance of the American Dream, not just to Americans, but people around the world. He discreetly alluded to the controversy of the latest election by saying, “I hope America will continue to allow us to pursue this dream regardless if you are Asian, Hispanic, black, or white. I play this song to thank America for allowing us to play here.”

Two traditional classical works were on the program: Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” and Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.” “Moonlight Sonata” was the sole truly sorrowful moment of the evening, and Yoshiki performed it worshipfully and as if it were his own.

“What’s pain? What’s the meaning of life? Why do we have to deal with pain, physically and emotionally?” These queries were posed by way of video screens also showing footage from the funeral of his childhood friend and bandmate, Taiji. But rather than answer the unanswerable, Yoshiki provides another solution. “The music takes away those thoughts. The music is always next to me, surrounds me, supports me.”

Setlist

I’ll Be Your Love (Theme for the World Expo Japan) (Philharmonic Only)
The Last Song
Forever Love (Theme for the animation film X)
Golden Globes Theme (Theme for the 2012 Golden Globes)
Hero (Theme for the animation film Saint Seiya)
La Venus (Theme for the film We Are X)
Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven)
Anniversary (Theme for the Emperor of Japan 10 Year Anniversary)

Intermission

Tears (Theme for the TV drama Nikushimi ni Hohoende) (Philharmonic Only)
Miracle
Star-Spangled Banner (John Stafford Smith) (Yoshiki piano solo)
River of the Light
Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky)
Without You
Endless Rain (Theme for the film Zipang)

Artists

Yoshiki: Composer, Pianist
Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
Shelly Berg: Arranger for “Moonlight Sonata” and “Swan Lake”
Yuga Cohler: Conductor
Katie Fitzgerald: Vocalist
Ashley Knight: Soprano