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.

Nobuyuki Tsujii was presented by MW School of Music, in memory of the late Vincent Chong.