Nobuyuki Tsujii held a recital in Singapore on June 14, 2023.
The following review was published by the Straits Times of Singapore, June 15, 2023.
https://www.straitstimes.com/life/arts/concert-review-nobuyuki-tsuji-plays-barnstorming-second-gig-in-singapore.
Concert review: Nobuyuki Tsujii plays barnstorming second gig in Singapore
Photo caption: Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii last played in Singapore
in 2013. [Editorial: This photo appeared in an interview of Tsujii published by the Strait Times in 2013.]
Nobuyuki Tsujii Returns To Singapore
Nobuyuki Tsujii Piano Recital
Esplanade Concert Hall
Wednesday, 7:30 pm
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 in which both his eyes never full developed for sight. Nobu, as he is affectionately known, learnt the piano purely by ear, listening and painstakingly piecing together the mechanics and fingering of every work he played.
He garnered worldwide fame after being awarded joint first prize at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Compeition in Forth 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 aetists.
His second recital at the Esplanade Concert Hall presented completely new repertoire from his 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 he let rip in its Presto Agitato finale, a no-holds-barred tempest with no prisoners taken.
In his Liszt selection, the stakes were upped several 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 Annes De Pelerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) was further fodder for fluid sonorities under his command.
This was in contrast with his more cut-and-dried approach to Debussy from a decade ago. [Editorial: read the 2013 review here].
In many respects. Tsujii had over the years also developed as an artist.
Perhaps the biggest test 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, rivaling 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's party piece, Liszt's La Campanella.
Despite the evening's earlier exertions, he did so without dropping a note.
Miracles do happen.
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RELATED ARTICLES
- NOBU-LITY / NOBUYUKI TSUJII Piano Recital / Believe your ears, the Strait Times (Singapore), Chang Tou Liang, June 27, 2013 -- preserved here
- Nobuyuki Tsujii in Singapore, June 14 2023, as it happens