One of the 20th Century's most famous composers, everyone knows Herbert von Karajan. I don't remember when Akio met him first. It was half a century ago, sometime in the 1950s or 60s, but the friendship that developed between them lasted until he passed away and our friendship continued even after that.

These days, every New Year's, the financial pages of the newspapers become full of stories about the World Economic Forum in Davos. Originally proposed by the Swiss economist and businessman, Klaus Schwab, the Forum was first held in 1971. Schwab was influenced by Henry Kissinger during his Harvard days and modelled the Economic Forum on the secretive Bilderberg Group.

In around 1980, Akio took part in the Forum as a guest speaker, at the invitation of Mr. Schwab, becoming a Core Chairman the following year. Meeting these leading figures from around the world had a huge impact on Akio, but I won't go into detail here, but return to the point of the story.

When hearing that Akio was coming to Switzerland for the Forum, Mr. Karajan called him and offered to pick him up in his helicopter and take him to his home in St. Moritz. The helicopter came as arranged but reaching it became something of an ordeal, as we had to wade through a meter of snow to get to it. Even with snowshoes it would be hard going in the waist-high snow, but we finally reached the helicopter and set off for St. Moritz.

At the heliport we changed to a Japanese built 4-wheel drive and set off for his villa at high speed. Mr. Karajan drove with a mischievous grin and we saw a side to the conductor one wouldn't see on the conductor's podium.

Upon arrival, he said, "Let's swim", and he and Akio headed off to the indoor pool to have fun.

A delicious lunch was prepared with meat, and a rich vegetable soup, "pot-au-feu", after which we rested and then were invited to take a walk. Mr. Karajan produced a Sony FM transistor radio-the most advanced at the time, and quite valuable today-and said. "Let's listen to it outside".

I wanted to take a picture, and Akio took one of Mr. Karajan and I, just as a horse-drawn carriage went by. Those photos bring back very fond memories today.

Both Akio and Mr. Karajan have passed away and I wonder what they're talking about now in Heaven? Jet planes, new records, recording technology, high vision, and the digital age, I imagine. They would never run out of things to talk about.

Yoshiko Morita, 6 May 2007