Literary giant Haruki Murakami can sell more than just books. Fans, who snapped up 1 million copies of his new novel in the first week alone, have also created a surge in demand for a classical music piece featured in the book.
Murakami's "Shikisai wo Motanai Tazaki Tsukuru to, Kare no Junrei no Toshi" (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage), his first novel in three years, hit bookstores on April 12.
The novel refers to the "Years of Pilgrimage" piano pieces by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, and describes in particularly vivid detail their performance by Russian pianist Lazar Berman. After the novel went on sale, fans snapped up imported CDs of Berman performing the piece, and outlets throughout Japan sold out.
Downloads of the piece on subscription sites also increased sharply. On some music distribution sites, the piece was temporarily ranked No. 1.
The domestic CD version had been out of print, but Universal Music LLC quickly decided to get in on the action and plans to put the CD back on store racks from May 15.
"Those who read the novel will definitely want to listen to the piece," a company official said.
Murakami's previous novel, the "1Q84" trilogy, created a similar spike in classical music sales when it went on sale in 2009, driving CD sales of the orchestra piece "Sinfonietta" by Czech composer Leos Janacek.
"There was no precedent of a novel serving as a catalyst for pushing up sales of classical music to such an extent," an official with Sony Music Network Inc., which sold that CD, said.
On April 24, another CD will go on sale that includes music brought up in a book that contains a conversation between Murakami and famed conductor Seiji Ozawa.
"We have great expectations for the special demand caused by Murakami," a Universal Music official said.