The following review, titled "Opperste concentratie en vertelkunst in het pianospel van Nobuyuki Tsujii", is accessed on December 19 at this link: https://www.meesterpianisten.nl/opperste-concentratie-en-vertelkunst-in-het-pianospel-van-nobuyuki-tsujii/
The original text is in Dutch, and is titled "Opperste concentratie en vertelkunst"
The review is about a Nobuyuki Tsujii recital at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on December 15 2019
An English translation follows.
Editorial comments by me are enclosed in square brackets [ like this]
![]()
![]()
by Christo Lelie, December 17, 2019,
On the Internet you can find various sites with overviews of contemporary blind pianists. It is striking that almost all of these are from jazz or pop music. Of the contemporary classical master pianists, only one is mentioned in those lists: the born-blind Nobuyuki Tsujii. This 31-year-old Japanese has been creating international fame for a decade since he won the prestigious Van Cliburn Competition ex aequo [jointly] in 2009. In the Netherlands, however, he was not known at all. That changed when he made his Amsterdam recital debut in the Large Hall of the Concertgebouw on Sunday 15 December 2019 as a substitute for the injured Nelson Freire. As has often happened in the Master Pianists series, getting to know this replacement was a big surprise and called for a follow-up performance: Tsujii left an overwhelming impression with his glowing renditions of the four Ballades and the four Scherzi by Chopin.
There are several reasons why there are so few completely-blind classical pianists on the international stages. On the piano, the lowest and highest keys are about 120 cm [4 feet] apart and the virtuoso piano literature is full of big jumps. A pair of functioning eyes are therefore almost indispensable. Concerto performance under a conductor is also difficult without visual contact. In addition, a blind person cannot sight read and therefore the scores must become auditory and / or through the very complex Braille notation. Then the ear is more obvious for the visually impaired pianist to specialize in improvised music. That is why blind classical pianists, at least at the top, are so scarce. In the last century, Tsujii only had one internationally renowned predecessor: Hungarian Imre Ungár, who became blind at a very young age, who won an international piano competition in 1932, just like Tsujii, namely the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. In a distant past it was Mozart's contemporary Maria Theresia von Paradis who, as a blind concert pianist, had Europe at her feet.
In our time, Nobuyuki Tsujii is unique, a phenomenon. He gives recitals all over the world and performs piano concerts with the most important orchestras led by top conductors. He is also famous as a composer, including film music. The visual world, which he has never known, is therefore an unknown quantity to him. His musical world is all the more intense that he brings out with the touch of his fingers on the piano keys.
Before Tsujii begins to play, his blindness is imbued by the rather awkward way in which he walks across the stage with his supervisor's arm, which bends too deeply for the audience and by the obsessively repetitive movements of his upper torso when he stands, sits on the piano stool and looks for its landmark on the keyboard. As soon as he starts to play, however, Tsujii comes to ease completely and becomes the music itself. His piano playing looks and sounds very accurate and is devoid of unnecessary movements. It seems also an advantage athat Tsujii never had the chance to see and imitate, in his youth, exaggerated theatrical gesturing pianists; he has therefore not acquired any wrong habits.
As soon as Tsujii sounded the first notes of Chopin's Ballade no.1 in g, opus 23, my thoughts about his visual handicap and the inherent admiration for his technique disappeared. As a listener you were immediately completely taken away by his fascinating storytelling. His intense concentration spreads to the breathlessly listening audience in the sold-out Great Hall of the Concertgebouw.
With his four Ballades, Chopin created a new genre in piano music. Although the composer may have been inspired by the literary ballads of his fellow countryman Adam Mickiewicz, he did not reveal anything about the underlying stories in the titles or elsewhere: the music itself is the story. Nobuyuki Tsujii turned out to be the ideal musical story teller for this. He gave each of these four masterpieces his own color.
It is known that Chopin did not like to play in large halls, had a soft and refined touch and sought intimacy for everything. Much of his music must be played from that intention, such as the Nocturne C sharp minor [no. 20 ], opus posth., which Tsujii plays for the first encore. Chopin's Ballades and four Scherzi are by no means intimate works. They have a great allure and Tsujii gave that in his impressive interpretations in a sublime way. His tone was great, with a considerable emphasis on the melodies in the right hand, but never became out of control or rude. He realized the wild passages in very high tempi that were just attainable and in which he managed to make all notes audible.
In the first two Scherzi, Tsujii, in my opinion, went a little too far in emphasizing the virtuoso, monumental side. Originally a scherzo - the name says it all - is a light-hearted interlude in a more profound sonata or symphony. Tsujii's interpretations could have been a bit lighter in that regard, but the fact is that Chopin has given a dramatic twist to the scherzo genre. The mouth-watering third Scherzo in C sharp minor, opus 39, with the sacred, recurring choral theme followed by those delightful sound of waterfalls; and the ripe Scherzo no. 4 in E, opus 54, came close to the ballades in terms of narrative power. It was precisely in this that Tsujii was the most convincing.
In his two encores, Tsujii concluded this unforgettable debut recital, after Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp-mnor, with Liszt's Paganini etude 'La campanella'. With all those mean, quick jumps in the right hand, this doesn't seem like a repertoire for someone blind. Although Tsujii's little fingers did indeed miss some keys, his imaginative interpretation of this work was phenomenal. It showed that Nobuyuki Tsujii is not only great in Chopin. This makes it look like a follow-up performance of this special artist in our country.
------
The reviewer is Christo Lelie, "PIANIST - ORGANIST - MUZIEKJOURNALIST"
http://www.christolelie.nl/
English biography
RELATED ARTICLES
Nobuyuki Tsujii debuts at the Concertgebouw Dec 15 2019
Collection of Nobuyuki Tsujii critics' reviews
The original text is in Dutch, and is titled "Opperste concentratie en vertelkunst"
The review is about a Nobuyuki Tsujii recital at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam on December 15 2019
An English translation follows.
Editorial comments by me are enclosed in square brackets [ like this]
Supreme concentration and narrative art in the piano playing of Nobuyuki Tsujii
by Christo Lelie, December 17, 2019,
On the Internet you can find various sites with overviews of contemporary blind pianists. It is striking that almost all of these are from jazz or pop music. Of the contemporary classical master pianists, only one is mentioned in those lists: the born-blind Nobuyuki Tsujii. This 31-year-old Japanese has been creating international fame for a decade since he won the prestigious Van Cliburn Competition ex aequo [jointly] in 2009. In the Netherlands, however, he was not known at all. That changed when he made his Amsterdam recital debut in the Large Hall of the Concertgebouw on Sunday 15 December 2019 as a substitute for the injured Nelson Freire. As has often happened in the Master Pianists series, getting to know this replacement was a big surprise and called for a follow-up performance: Tsujii left an overwhelming impression with his glowing renditions of the four Ballades and the four Scherzi by Chopin.
There are several reasons why there are so few completely-blind classical pianists on the international stages. On the piano, the lowest and highest keys are about 120 cm [4 feet] apart and the virtuoso piano literature is full of big jumps. A pair of functioning eyes are therefore almost indispensable. Concerto performance under a conductor is also difficult without visual contact. In addition, a blind person cannot sight read and therefore the scores must become auditory and / or through the very complex Braille notation. Then the ear is more obvious for the visually impaired pianist to specialize in improvised music. That is why blind classical pianists, at least at the top, are so scarce. In the last century, Tsujii only had one internationally renowned predecessor: Hungarian Imre Ungár, who became blind at a very young age, who won an international piano competition in 1932, just like Tsujii, namely the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. In a distant past it was Mozart's contemporary Maria Theresia von Paradis who, as a blind concert pianist, had Europe at her feet.
In our time, Nobuyuki Tsujii is unique, a phenomenon. He gives recitals all over the world and performs piano concerts with the most important orchestras led by top conductors. He is also famous as a composer, including film music. The visual world, which he has never known, is therefore an unknown quantity to him. His musical world is all the more intense that he brings out with the touch of his fingers on the piano keys.
Before Tsujii begins to play, his blindness is imbued by the rather awkward way in which he walks across the stage with his supervisor's arm, which bends too deeply for the audience and by the obsessively repetitive movements of his upper torso when he stands, sits on the piano stool and looks for its landmark on the keyboard. As soon as he starts to play, however, Tsujii comes to ease completely and becomes the music itself. His piano playing looks and sounds very accurate and is devoid of unnecessary movements. It seems also an advantage athat Tsujii never had the chance to see and imitate, in his youth, exaggerated theatrical gesturing pianists; he has therefore not acquired any wrong habits.
As soon as Tsujii sounded the first notes of Chopin's Ballade no.1 in g, opus 23, my thoughts about his visual handicap and the inherent admiration for his technique disappeared. As a listener you were immediately completely taken away by his fascinating storytelling. His intense concentration spreads to the breathlessly listening audience in the sold-out Great Hall of the Concertgebouw.
With his four Ballades, Chopin created a new genre in piano music. Although the composer may have been inspired by the literary ballads of his fellow countryman Adam Mickiewicz, he did not reveal anything about the underlying stories in the titles or elsewhere: the music itself is the story. Nobuyuki Tsujii turned out to be the ideal musical story teller for this. He gave each of these four masterpieces his own color.
It is known that Chopin did not like to play in large halls, had a soft and refined touch and sought intimacy for everything. Much of his music must be played from that intention, such as the Nocturne C sharp minor [no. 20 ], opus posth., which Tsujii plays for the first encore. Chopin's Ballades and four Scherzi are by no means intimate works. They have a great allure and Tsujii gave that in his impressive interpretations in a sublime way. His tone was great, with a considerable emphasis on the melodies in the right hand, but never became out of control or rude. He realized the wild passages in very high tempi that were just attainable and in which he managed to make all notes audible.
In the first two Scherzi, Tsujii, in my opinion, went a little too far in emphasizing the virtuoso, monumental side. Originally a scherzo - the name says it all - is a light-hearted interlude in a more profound sonata or symphony. Tsujii's interpretations could have been a bit lighter in that regard, but the fact is that Chopin has given a dramatic twist to the scherzo genre. The mouth-watering third Scherzo in C sharp minor, opus 39, with the sacred, recurring choral theme followed by those delightful sound of waterfalls; and the ripe Scherzo no. 4 in E, opus 54, came close to the ballades in terms of narrative power. It was precisely in this that Tsujii was the most convincing.
In his two encores, Tsujii concluded this unforgettable debut recital, after Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp-mnor, with Liszt's Paganini etude 'La campanella'. With all those mean, quick jumps in the right hand, this doesn't seem like a repertoire for someone blind. Although Tsujii's little fingers did indeed miss some keys, his imaginative interpretation of this work was phenomenal. It showed that Nobuyuki Tsujii is not only great in Chopin. This makes it look like a follow-up performance of this special artist in our country.
------
The reviewer is Christo Lelie, "PIANIST - ORGANIST - MUZIEKJOURNALIST"
http://www.christolelie.nl/
English biography
RELATED ARTICLES
Nobuyuki Tsujii debuts at the Concertgebouw Dec 15 2019
Collection of Nobuyuki Tsujii critics' reviews