Ryuichi Sakamoto

With minimalist lighting and quietly deliberate sound, Sakamoto opened with his performance with a uniquely subdued flare. Playing the piano from within, manipulating the strings of the soundboard by hand. The full experience of his music was a journey, traveling from the understated quiet and sound, to the splendor and depth of a classical pianist presentation. To attempt to describe the style, one would need to reflect on a collective consisting of: the ambient subtlety of Brian Eno; with David Byrne's creativity & use of sound; add a slice of the avant-garde Laurie Anderson performance artistry; include the mastery & emotion of pianist Liz Story; and add the execution, depth & passion of a Claude Debussy composition. A quiet and personal exhibition. I believe most were unprepared for the genre bending performance style. I also believe that the audience enjoyed this turn of events nonetheless. It was equally as a presentation of art as it was music. Sakamoto's performance was aural geometry: obtuse, angular, circular, polygonal, and for a moment - even tubular. The audience's passage would take them from the likes of "Behind the Mask" to "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and into uncharted territory both beautiful and restrained. Highly recommended.

Sakamoto was wonderful. I knew he would be. Hall was way to warm. could have used some a/c.

Came all the way from England to see Ryuichi Sakamoto in San Farancisco. Fantastic Venue just made the experience all the better. Sakamoto does not exchange much in the way of banter with the crowd but his performance spoke volumes. A class act as always.

Sakamoto Ryuichi creates an amazing atmosphere from the start. A show you will never regret seeing & hearing.

Hls music always touching my heart!!! Visual graphics amazing to sync with his playing as well !

to be honest, i was getting a little impatient because of the long wait before the performance began. The warm, stuffy room added to the frustration. However, after ryuichi began the performance i quickly forgot about all that. His performance was truly amazing.

Like the opening part. Love the performance. However, i couldn't find my seat, seating arrangement was very confusing!

May be, I was not a person be there. I like YMO and his talk about music in TV. But his music is not for me. I am very sorry to say but his performace has little entertainment aspect. He is called "Kyoju" or professor in Japan. I understand why he called so. Good for BGM at cooktail lounge. I like classical musinc and I always hear KDFC in my car, but I will not come to his concert again. By the way, I really enjoyed X-Japan concert last manth at FOX Oakland.

Real great performance (acoustic piano) in which you enjoy his old and new pieces.

Ruichi Sakamoto is Amazing!!! I hope he will have another concert pretty soon.

Music was lovely and provided a nice ambiance. as long as you weren't expecting something more rubust. Unfortunately the venue was hot, stuffy, uncomfortable and lacked ventilation.

Sakamoto Ryuichi's performance itself was very intimate, elegant and subtle. I particularly enjoyed hearing performed live the older, better known pieces such as Tibetan Dance and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. I did find some of the background computer-generated graphics which accompanied most of his songs a bit confusing and slightly disruptive. I also wish the artist had spoken some about the pieces he was playing since there was no music program to consult. Overall, an unforgetable experience and I am very glad I went.

Very much enjoyed the performance because I love his music.

He is a great artist and played non stop for 2 hours!

The Great Maestro was in "perfect form" on Wednesday night! ... Tender and Powerful, Delicate and Bold, Light and Complex, Introspective and Global - all at the same time! He is a truly magnificent solo Performer!

Started off with ambient music and ethereal pieces from Out of Noise, with Sakamoto reaching into and strumming the guts of the piano. Almost like a creation story, but I think the piece was called Glacier and included recordings of real glaciers. The crowd was a bit quiet at first, and didn't know when to clap. By the end of the first set, he warmed up into the louder, jazzier pieces, and played quite a few of them in the last set, including his most famous film pieces, Bibo no Azora (at the end of the film Babel), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and (I think) the sheltering sky. The extra piano controlled by the disclavier, with his own keystrokes recorded, made it possible for him to play duets with himself, which was really interesting and allowed complexities of rhythm and melody that would not have been possible on solo piano. A longtime fan (since the early 80s) of Sakamoto, I found it extremely rewarding to see and hear him live, and felt as if my theory that he is one of the top innovators, defying all genres but improving on all, was borne out in this concert.

Ryuichi used some kind of two-piano technique, where he'd play something, and the Yamaha Disklavier computer would capture it, and then he'd layer another passage over it, and he was completely flowing beautifully throughout. His first set was more tranquil. He left the stage, ostensibly for the end of the show, and then came back for an encore of a few more pieces, which were more lively. Ryuichi played with rich harmonies, pieces from earlier to later works, off of Beauty, BGM, Sheltering Sky, etc. There was also a strange yet artistic and interesting slow-motion visual in the background while he played.

Outstanding! Sakamoto is brilliant! The crowd didn't move or fidget -- dead silence so Sakamoto could be appreciated. It was totally amazing!

Well, while I am very happy to have seen Ryuichi Sakamoto at The Vic last night, I don t think Sakamoto fans missed much if you did not go (you can see many pieces on Sakamoto s YouTube Channel and elsewhere on YouTube). He started late, played about one hour, which ended with Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, and then he did three songs as encore, all from the olden days : Tibetan Dance from Ongakuzukan, Happy End from BGM, and Thousand Knives. I had read some reviews, and the set list was exactly the same as everywhere else. There s no denying the genius of his musicality and virtuosity, both of which are classically trained and delicately poetic. The volume was too low for my liking, especially when his piano had to compete with the occasional Excel XLERATOR hand dryer in the bathrooms in the back of the theater and down one level. At first I thought some idiot was running a vacuum or something in the bar areas and then realized after the show when I went to the bathroom the sound was coming from the hand dryers. Totally annoying. Three-to-four people went to the bathroom during the show and used the hand dryers. It s not their fault. I fault The Vic. They need to rip those suckers outta there and put in paper and deal with the cost and clean up. For these quieter, artsy performances the hand dryers are a total buzz kill. And then there were the few people coming and/or going from the theater and letting the doors bounce closed. Argh! I was so annoyed. There weren t many people there, and there were only general admission seats, i.e. folding chairs on the main floor. The balcony was closed. The cool thing about his performance was the set up of two Yamaha grand pianos. Most of the pieces were just him playing the grand with periodic, deeply low-pitched, rumbling, pink noise-ish, wave-like sound effects, barely audible, that served as atmospheric connective tissue among all of the pieces. He was also accompanied by minimalist, abstract video run from an iMac. There were two pieces, IIRC, that he played as a duet with the other grand controlled by a digital Disklavier, which played Sakamoto s pre-recorded performance including all of his nuanced pedaling and key pressure, i.e. the other grand was a very sophisticated player piano. In a very real sense he played duets with himself. All three encore pieces were duets using this method.

It was great concert. He did old one to new pieseas.

Sakamoto is definitely a great pianist. He's professional, humble, and of course talented! I admire the way he explores new technologies. He's always up to date!

Professor Sakamoto was incredible. I loved the automatic duet! Brilliant!!!

I really enjoyed the settings and his performance with the style in so wide variety, ambient, classical, jazz, pop and combinations of those and others.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's performance at Berklee in Boston was one of the best concerts I have ever attended. It was a multi media event and it was riveting. Absolutely soulful and beautiful, not to be missed. Have listened to his music for years and was so thrilled to see him live. An unforgettable lifetime experience. He is an amazing pianist, composer and performer.

If you don't know this artist, and have not attend his concert, you should definitely check out.

Haunting. Meditative. Ryuichi Sakamoto rarely performs in the United States - it was a privilege to attend his solo concert.

Such a great concert, such an unbelievable talent. I'd say don't miss a chance to see him!