NOBUYUKI TSUJII RETURNS TO SINGAPORE / Review

NOBUYUKI TSUJII 

RETURNS TO SINGAPORE

Nobuyuki Tsujii Piano Recital

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (14 June 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 June 2023 with the title "Blind pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii's spectacular second gig in Singapore".

 

To attend a concert by Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii comes close to witnessing a miracle taking place. Make that many miracles as the 34-year-old was blind from birth due to microphthalmia, a congenital condition where both his eyes never got fully developed for sight. Nobu, as he is affectionately known, learnt the piano purely by ear, listening and painstakingly piecing together the mechanics and fingerings of every work he played.

 

Tsujii garnered worldwide fame after being awarded joint first prize at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. There he stunned audiences with amazingly accurate yet highly moving interpretations of works like Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, Chopin’s Etudes (Op.10) and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. All of these would have severely taxed even the best of sighted artists.

 

His second recital at Esplanade Concert Hall presented completely new repertoire from his 2013 Singapore debut. Opening with Beethoven’s Sonata in C sharp minor (Op.27 No.2), better-known as the Moonlight Sonata, Tsujii conjured a dreamy soundscape for its familiar first movement. That was the easiest task of the evening, before letting rip in its Presto Agitato finale, a no-holds-barred tempest with no prisoners taken.

 

In his Liszt selection, stakes were upped further notches. While the lyrical Consolation No.2 provided moments for quiet reflection, the Venezia e Napoli (Venice and Naples) supplement from the Italian book of Annees de Pelerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) was further fodder for barnstorming. The final Tarantella, taken at terminal velocity, did little to faze Tsujii, with its florid cadenzas and crunching chords dispatched with seeming ease.

 

Seated a far distance from the stage, one could easily be forgiven for forgetting about Tsujii’s disability. Just by listening alone, his musicianship would still be judged as close to beyond reproach. In Ravel’s music, distinctions were made between his neoclassical and impressionist pieces.

 

In Minuet on the Name of Haydn and the well-known Pavane for a Dead Infanta,  grace and formality were retained with sparing and judicious use of pedalling, whereas Jeux d’eau (Fountains) benefited from a full flush of fluid sonorities under his command. This was in contrast with his more cut and dried approach to Debussy from a decade ago. In many respects, Tsujii had over the years also developed as an artist.

 

Perhaps the biggest tests of his artistry were the Eight Etudes Op.40 by late Ukraine-born pianist-composer Nikolai Kapustin. Despite sounding genuinely like jazz pieces, these are strictly scored numbers with no scope for improvisation, rivalling even the most difficult studies of Chopin and Liszt. Tsujii simply took these in his stride by exercising the free-wheeling swagger and mien of jazzmen, and whipping out the most convincing of readings.

 

The overwhelming applause from a full-house was rewarded with three delightful encores, Dame Myra Hess’ transcription of Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, Grieg’s March of the Trolls and a favourite Tsujii party piece, Liszt’s La Campanella. Despite the evening’s earlier exertions, he did so without dropping a note. Miracles do happen.

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS: NOBUYUKI TSUJII RETURNS TO SINGAPORE

Here is a piano recital not to be missed:

NOBUYUKI TSUJII 

RETURNS TO SINGAPORE

Wednesday 14 June 2023

Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30 pm

Blind from birth, Japanese pianist NOBUYUKI TSUJII first received worldwide acclaim at the 2005 Chopin International Piano Competition where he stunned audiences by his sensitive performances of Chopin's piano music. In 2009, Nobu, as he is known affectionately, was awarded joint First Prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, cementing his reputation as a global piano superstar.

His Singapore debut, NOBU-LITY, in 2013 performed to a sold-out Esplanade Concert Hall created a total sensation, and his highly anticipated return will be no less of an occasion. He will be performing:

BEETHOVEN Moonlight Sonata

LISZT Consolation No.2

LISZT Venezia e Napoli 

             from Annees de Pelerinage

RAVEL Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn

RAVEL Pavane pour une infante defunte

RAVEL Jeux d'eau

KAPUSTIN 8 Etudes Op.40

Tickets are available at SISTIC:

Nobuyuki Tsujii Returns to Singapore [G] | SISTIC

NOBU-LITY / NOBUYUKI TSUJII Piano Recital / Review

NOBU-LITY

NOBUYUKI TSUJII Piano Recital

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (25 June 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 June 2013 with the title "Believe your ears". 

When the young blind Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii was awarded joint First Prize at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, public opinion was divided and polarised. Legions of new fans were touched by his courage and musicality, but there were nay-sayers who felt he was a student-level player who got lucky with the sympathy vote.

Whatever one’s view, only a live recital - as opposed to Internet webcast - would be a true arbiter of his abilities. In that respect, Tsujii did not disappoint. There were however factors that militated against his success. He needed help to get to the piano stool. There was fidgeting before he began, and then that constant bobbing and nodding of his head as he performed, uncoordinated with the rhythm of the music.

By choosing a piano voicing that favoured a dry timbre and brightness over mellowness, there were to be little room for error, especially when he used the sustaining pedal minimally. This was unusual for the music for Debussy which thrives on generous but judicious pedalling and much subtlety. Thus the Two Arabesques sounded cut and dried, but the crispness had a better effect for the dances in the Suite Bergamasque.

Only in the familiar Clair de lune did he apply a sheen of resonance that just about worked. As the pieces got more complicated, as in the three pieces of Estampes (Imprints), the playing got better. There was nary a smudged texture in the Orient-influenced Pagodas, while the Spanish rhythms of Evenings in Granada were superbly judged, with its guitar-like interludes a pleasant diversion.

In the fluid brilliance of Gardens in the Rain and L’Isle Joyeuse (The Joyous Isle), he brought out a startling clarity that seemed at odds with the impressionist intent usually practised. The inexorably build-up to the latter’s climax was one of the evening’s highlights.

The audience’s familiarity of Chopin proved no hindrance, as he made each piece sound freshly turned, beginning with the scintillating Grand Waltz in B flat major (Op.18).  The Second Scherzo in B flat minor (Op.31), with accident-prone leaps on both hands that terrify even the sighted, was accomplished with a conjuror’s sleight of hand. The large screen behind the piano with projections of his hands does not lie.

He closed the recital proper with two Polonaises in A flat major, the elusive Polonaise-Fantasy (Op.61) coming through with much nobility, and seldom as the “Heroic” Polonaise (Op.53) been launched with such fearsome disregard for safety. The repeated left hand octave passage in the latter was stunning in its steadiness and as one might have guessed, did not put a finger wrong.

The sold-out house was rewarded with five encores, including a short greeting of thanks in English and a heartfelt performance of his own elegy in memory to the victims of the 2011 Fukushima earthquake-tsunami tragedy. As a goodwill ambassador for music or any other cause, Tsujii has few equals.   

Nobu meets with the Japanese ambassador to Singapore Mr Yoichi Suzuki and Mrs Suzuki.

Young fans of Nobu have no better role model to emulate.  

Members of the Johore Bahru Nobu Fan Club (Malaysia) came in full force to attend the concert, everyone wearing a Nobuyuki Tsujii Asian Tour tee-shirt.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, June 2013)

NOBUYUKI TSUJII

LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL

EuroArts DVD 2059088 / *****

The young Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, blind from birth, was already a celebrity in Japan before he shared First Prize at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. After that, he became a universal icon. This video recording of his Carnegie Hall début on 10 November 2011 showed that his victory was no fluke, a genuine and prodigious talent totally beyond doubt. He learnt his music by ear, with each work painstakingly pieced together with the help of teachers and an instinctual grasp of diverse musical idioms. There is no performance in his recital that does not sound convincing.

One suspends belief on witnessing the opening piece, Improvisation & Fugue by the American John Musto, specially commissioned for the competition. His mastery of its seemingly atonal themes and jazzy riffs is a feat that demands repeated viewing. The Beethoven Tempest Sonata (Op.31 No.2) that follows possesses the requisite drama and fire, while he tosses off the technicalities of Liszt’s Un Sospiro and Rigoletto Paraphrase with the greatest of ease. That his view of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is more characterised and trenchant than many sighted pianists is also significant. There are three encores which reveal a more mellow and sentimental side to his artistry. If this DVD does not inspire you or warm your heart, nothing will.

Nobu's piano recital at Esplanade Concert Hall on Tuesday (25 June) has been sold out.

GERSHWIN / SAINT-SAENS / RAVEL

BENJAMIN GROSVENOR, Piano

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic / James Judd

Decca 478 352 7 / *****

The 2012 Gramophone Award-winning young British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor’s début concerto recording confirms the plaudits he has been receiving of late. This is a collection of easy-on-the-ear piano concertos that demands elegance, finesse and intelligence to pull off, not just a surfeit of bravura. Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Concerto was once described as a journey “from Bach to Offenbach”. It can sound vulgar and frivolous, but in his hands, comes across as witty, even thoughtful. Ravel’s jazz-inflected Piano Concerto in G major benefits from his rapier-keen reflexes in the fast outer movements, and a graceful dreaminess for the Mozartian slow movement.

That leaves Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, in its original 1924 version for jazz band, which he owns with a swing and swagger than would make jazzmen jealous. As a gratifying touch, he offers solo encores after each concerto. The choices of Godowsky’s transcription of Saint-Saens’s The Swan, Ravel’s minute-long Prelude (crafted as a conservatory sight-reading piece) and Percy Grainger’s take on Gershwin’s Love Walked In have an exquisite touch and reflect his catholic tastes. Grosvenor’s next album, whatever it may be, will be keenly awaited.

BOOK IT:

BENJAMIN GROSVENOR Piano Recital

@ 20^th Singapore International Piano Festival

Saturday 22 June 2013

School of the Arts / 8 pm

Tickets available at SISTIC (Selling out fast)

 

DVD Review (The Straits Times, July 2011)

A SURPRISE IN TEXAS
13th Van Cliburn 

International Piano Competition
EuroArts 2058168 / ****

The “surprise” in the title of this documentary on America’s most prestigious piano competition should not have been about a blind Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii winning 1st prize, but how the 2009 edition was dominated by Asian pianists. Four of the six finalists were from Japan, China and Korea, with the top three spots also won by Haochen Zhang (Joint 1st) and Yeol-Eum Son (2nd prize). 

Peter Rosen’s absorbing film starts from the preliminaries, identifying personalities out of a field of 30 talents, but the narrative thread left little doubt as to who was going to triumph. Blind from birth, Tsujii’s overcoming of adversity and ultimate artistry was nothing short of miraculous.

That the big prize was shared by the soft-spoken and unassuming Zhang was a surprise, that is until one witnessed his performance of Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka (included among the bonuses of this disc). Simply jaw-dropping stuff. 

Elsewhere, the drama, tension and comedy of competition – of big egos, frayed nerves and shattered dreams - is hinted at but not further developed. Van Cliburn makes a cameo of a few seconds, but the stars are the young pianists themselves, whom veteran juror Menahem Pressler rightly refers to as the “priests of music”, whose gods of Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninov they humbly serve.

BOOK IT:
HAOCHEN’S YELLOW RIVER
with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra 

conducted by Tsung Yeh
22 & 23 July, 

SCO Singapore Conference Hall, 7.30pm
Tickets available at SISTIC

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2010)

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.1
Twelve Études Op.10 / Berceuse
NOBUYUKI TSUJII, Piano
Fort Worth Symphony / JAMES CONLON
Harmonia Mundi 907547

*****

History was made when 20-year-old Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, who had been blind since birth, shared 1st prize at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. These “live” recordings from the preliminary and final rounds captured something special - the triumph of the human spirit over handicap and adversity. Tsujii, who learnt his Chopin by ear with the help of a teacher, communicates with much urgency and immediacy. There is nothing that is mechanical or over-studied in his playing, even if his steadiness is at times unnerving.

In the concerto, he is attentively partnered by the Texan orchestra, and together they draw tumultuous applause from the audience. He whips off the Études, cruel finger-twisters even for the sighted, with a natural ease and stunning accuracy. Those who seek “perfection” will favour studio recordings of these works, but the spontaneity displayed here – in spite of some rough spots - is close to miraculous. One will already have favourites in Argerich, Pollini, Zimerman or Perahia, but this is worth keeping if only to remind us of the joy of being alive.

WEDDING CAKE
PASCAL & AMI ROGÉ, Piano Duo
Onyx Classics 4047
****1/2

This lovely album (subtitled Fours Hand & Two Hearts) celebrates the musical union of French pianist Pascal Rogé and his Indonesian-Japanese wife Ami Hakuno, who were married in 2009. Wedding photo shots have been reproduced in the booklet, but that should not distract from the quality music making. French fare, a Rogé specialty, is presented as light and intimate (Fauré’s Dolly Suite and Debussy’s Petite Suite), sometimes frothy and giddy (Saint-Saëns’ Wedding Cake Waltz and Poulenc’s La Embarquement Pour Cythere), but not without drama and well engineered chaos (Dukas’ Sorceror’s Apprentice and Ravel’s La Valse).

New to the catalogue is the World Premiere recording of the five movement Ami Suite by Japanese-American Paul Chihara (born 1939). Much in the spirit of the French, its dance and popular music-derived numbers, quoting innumerable sources such as Debussy, Poulenc and Wagner, are high on the fun quotient. The Rogés are having a right ball, and listeners have been invited to the party.

SHOSTAKOVICH Preludes & Fugues
KEITH JARRETT, Piano
ECM New Series 1469/70 (2CDs)
*****

Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues Op.87 were composed for his young compatriot Tatiana Nikolayeva after she won the Bach International Piano Competition in Leipzig in 1950. A tribute to Bach’s genius, he follows the schema of The Well-Tempered Clavier, opening in simple C major and closing in sombre D minor. So what has legendary jazz pianist Keith Jarrett have to say about this music?

Initial scepticism turned into revelation in these thorny little gems. Many of the Preludes sound improvisatory in character, suiting Jarrett to a tee. Shostakovich used to dabble in jazz and popular styles as a pianist in silent movie theatres himself. The rigorous counterpoint in the fugues are masterly overcome, some (No.12 and 15 in particular) with stunning velocity and panache. Most importantly, he retains the irony and droll wit that is sine qua non Shostakovich. Alongside celebrated readings by Nikolayeva, Ashkenazy and Scherbakov, all Russians, Jarrett’s 1991 recording is no slouch.