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.