Notable web postings - August 2019
Continued from Notable web postings - July 2019
Older notable web postings are collected at Notable web postings archival
August 27 19:00 Hokkaido Kitara Concert Hall Cliburn Competition 10th Anniversary Concerts
August 30 19:00 Osaka Symphony Hall Cliburn Competition 10th Anniversary Concerts
♪August 31 More sunshades
Gracious instagram from Mo. Neil Thomson
https://www.instagram.com/p/B12IbZggxpd/
Another very happy week in Japan with Nobu. Honoured to have been part of these Van Cliburn anniversary celebrations. And extremely excited to return for three weeks in March. Nine concerts with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.
#nobuyukitsujii #avexclassicsinternational #japan
It comes with a photo of the maestro with Nobu standing together at a train station. The maestro is in sport jacket over plaid shirt and jeans, and Nobu is in black tee (with larger lettering of Practice! Practice! Practice!) and jeans. And they are both wearing sunglasses, as in the photo posted by Mrs. Tsujii the other day of Fumi and Nobu.
These sunshades must be some kind of an inside joke last week. Or could it be that Nobu has decided to start wearing them, ala Stevie Wonder? Let's hope NOT!
Addendum: Sharp-eyed Twitter sunsoon points out that the "practice, practice, practice" lettering on Nobu's T-shirt has special meaning in the context of the Cliburn Competition. In the Peter Rosen documentary of the competition, there is a scene of Nobu seated in the car of his host family. Mrs. Davidson says to the filmmaker (Mr. Rosen) that she asked Nobu if he wanted to go somewhere for a change of mood, and the answer is no, he wants to go home. She adds: "He just wants to practice. He is a happy man." Seated in the back, Nobu is seen mouthing "practice, practice, practice." As proof, Sunsoon even provided these screen grabs from the documentary, at time-mark 47：50 in the Japanese edition (which I believe is different from the English edition).
I remember that response when Nobu was asked if he wanted to go swimming! :-) He said that he just wanted to practice practice practice! :-)
♪August 3 & 4 Planetarium show presened with Nobu's music
We heard about this too late🙁, but on August 3/4 the planetarium of the Kawakuchi Science Musuem presented a
"Summer Starry Sky & Milky Way Galaxy" show with recorded music 🎹 by Nobu as BGM (background music) -- Clair de Lune, La Campanella, liebestraum, etc.
I hope the shows were well attended.
Correction - thanks to @sunsoon16 -- The museum that hosted this valuable project of a Planetarium show with Nobuyuki Tsujii 辻井伸行 BGMis Kawaguchi Science Musuem.
♪August 22 Looking ahead ...
Onward and forward! This just shows up on the PIA ticket outlet site: A recital at the Kitara Hall of Hokkaido on March 1 2020.
CHOPIN's 4 ballades are mentioned and I suspect the program is the same as for his upcoming recitals in Europe/U.K., and if so, these are on the repertoire:
Schubert Impromptus op.90,
Scriabin sonata no. 5 op. 53,
Chopin 4 ballades
Nobu will be giving a concert at this very venue next week (August 27, Cliburn Competition 10th Anniversary Concerts ), and I bet there will be flyers handed out about this recital. Stay tuned.
♪ August 21 Back to School!
Summer is coming to a close, and concerts are picking up again. Nobu resumes his " The Cliburn 10 years" concerts in Hokkaido & Osaka next week.
And this tweet from Classic FM just came up.
https://twitter.com/ClassicFM/status/1164198688207638532
Our Orchestra in North West England, the @liverpoolphil, have a Fantastic concert happening in Liverpool next month: Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2 and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique – with pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii and conductor Vasily Petrenko!
Dare we hope that the Sept 19/22 concert will be streamed online, as with the 2018 concert of Nobu with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic & Mo. Vasily Petrenko? I remember that concert well!
=> Nobuyuki Tsujii with Vasily Petrenko & RLPO in U.K., February 2018
BTW you can still see the first mvt of that 2018 streamcast here=> https://www.classicfm.com/.../nobuyuki-tsuji-grieg-piano.../
♪ August 15 We have heard from Mr. Cantrell
Mr. Scott Cantrell has responded to my post still sore after all these years :
https://twitter.com/DMNSCantrell/status/1162042026310942722
Hardly “sore.” I acknowledged Tsujii’s amazing accomplishment. Zhang is a very different musician, and I did sense something special in his playing—a subtlety, an elegance—that I’ve rarely sensed from other pianists. He reminds me of Ivan Moravec, from me the highest praise.
My response:
You are entitled to have your favorite, and we wish the best for Mr. Zhang, but it seems there is NO NEED to bring up Nobuyuki Tsujii 辻井伸行 for comparison, after all these years. They are completely different pianists who just happened to cross paths @TheCliburn, a decade ago!
♪ August 13 He is still sore after all these years ...
Looking for Nobuyuki Tsujii news on Google a couple days ago, I came upon a posting by Scott Cantrell, former music critic for the Dallas Morning News.
The posting (dated August 6 2019) is a free-lance piece about performances at a music festival in Santa Fe, which has nothing to do with Nobu.
But in lavishing his praise for a recital by pianist Hoachen Zhang, Mr. Cantrell saw fit to write this:
"The Chinese-born Zhang was one of two gold medalists in the 2009 Cliburn, along with the blind Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. Tsujii's accomplishment of learning major repertory by ear, and playing with authority, was nothing short of miraculous. But there was something very different, and quite special, in Zhang's playing, an introspective subtlety doubly remarkable in a mere 19-year-old."
Ten years ago, Cantrell made no secret that he was not happy about Nobu's win at the Cliburn Competition, of which he wrote:
“If all the contestants had performed behind a scrim, if no one had known anything about them, if they had been judged purely on musical values, I honestly believe some other pianists would have advanced ahead of Tsujii.”
Judging from what he wrote in the recent posting, he is still sore after all these years. There is no earthly reason whatsoever for Mr. Cantrell to bring up Nobu in a piece about Mr. Zhang nowadays, who just happened to be in the same competition and named a co-medalist ... a whole decade ago! It seems time has not softened his take that Nobu was awarded the medal only because of his blindness, while Mr. Zhang is the real thing.
This is just a suspicion, but could it be that Mr. Cantrell harbors a resentment towards Tsujii because, contrary to his assessment, Nobu's career has risen brighter than his co-medalist?
Continued => still sore after all these years ...
Image below: Nobu holding the front-pages of two Texas papers the day after his Cliburn win.
ADDENDUM: According to Twitter sunsoon - this great photo came from a close friend of the Tsujii family. I hope they don't mind the photo appearing here. Sorry for the rudeness.
♪ August 10
The "Lalala Classic" NHK-ETV show aired in Japan last night (rebroadcast August 15 Thursday 10:25).
Many tweets -- like this one -- came up in its wake.
As I expected, the footage of Nobu's performance of Chopin's Heroic Polonaise is not new. The theme of the show is "Love for the Homeland", and it commemorates Japan's 100th anniversary diplomatic relationship with nations such as Poland and Iceland.
https://twitter.com/charoroomcharo/status/1159802026022150144
ららら♪クラシック
2019年日本と友好100周年を迎えたポーランドとフィンランド。それぞれの国の歴史に翻弄される中で生まれた「英雄ポロネーズ」「フィンランディア」。
以前放送し、ご好評頂いた番組を再構成して。
出演
ピアニスト…辻井伸行
指揮…尾高忠明
管弦楽…東京フィルハーモニー交響楽団
LaLaLa Classic
Poland and Finland celebrate the 100th anniversary of friendship with Japan in 2019. "Heroic polonaise" and "Finlandia" were born of a composer's love for the homeland of each country.
Restructured from previous broadcast of popular programs.
Appearances:
Pianist ... Nobuyuki Tsujii
Conductor: Tadaaki Odaka
Orchestra ... Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra
https://twitter.com/YukoK225/status/1159803234589933569
野球中継がきっかり21時に終わってしまい、Eテレのらららクラシックを観ています。辻井伸行さん演奏のショパンを聴きながら、旦那がうたた寝していました。贅沢！！
The baseball broadcast has just finished at 21:00, and I'm watching E-Tele LaLaLa Classic. I am listening to Chopin performed by Nobuyuki Tsujii while my husband is napping. Luxury! !
♪ August 5 Upcoming TV appearance
Nobu's new official website announced an upcoming appearance on the "LaLaLa Classic" show on NHK-ETV
https://twitter.com/avexclassics_jp/status/1158293055499227137
【テレビ出演情報 辻井伸行】
らららクラシック
放送日 ２０１９年8月９日（金）２１：００～（Eテレ）
２０１９年8月１５日（木）１０：２５～（Eテレ）再放送
ショパンの「英雄ポロネーズ」を演奏します♪
お時間ございましたら、ぜひご覧ください！
詳しくはこちら▼https://www4.nhk.or.jp/lalala
[TV appearance information Nobuyuki Tsujii]
LaLaLa Classic
Broadcast date August 9, 2019 (Friday) 21: 00 ~ (E Tele)
August 15, 2019 (Thursday) 10: 25 ~ (E Tele) Rebroadcast
Performance of Chopin's “Heroic Polonaise” ♪
Please have a look if you have time!
link: https://www4.nhk.or.jp/lalala/)
It does not sound like a live appearance, and I believe the performance will be this one from a past live appearance (on this show.)
But I have put the word out for our Japanese friends to let us now if anything of interest happens.
♪ August 4 Photo with actor Ken Wantanabe
Photo posted by Mrs. Itsuko Tsujii, presumably taken recently
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0uxvY3FV8N/
ミュージカル王様と私を観てきました！
伸行は映画🎬はやぶさでご一緒して
久しぶりの再会に大感激でした‼️
He is seen with the musical king!
Nobuyuki is together with Hayabusa.
I was very inspired by their reunion after a long time!"
In the photo, Nobu -- in long-sleeved pink shirt, is standing next to Mr. Wantanabe -- in military-fatigue-patterned T-shirt. Mr. Wantanbe's right hand is wrapped around Nobu's shoulders.
Ken Wantanabe, Japanese actor, played the king in recent Broadway revivals of the musical 'The King and I', and he is the lead actor in the 2012 Japanese film "The return of the Hayabusa", for which Nobu wrote the excellent theme music, which can be heard briefly in this trailer for the film.
♪ August 1 "We invited our friend Nobuyuki Tsujii as a soloist"
Mo. Valery Gergiev, who has invited Nobu to perform with him every year since 2013, appeared at a press conference today in Tokyo to promote a Tchaikovsky Festival coming up in December there.
Photo source: ranranentame
【ワレリー・ゲルギエフ マリインスキー歌劇場記者会見⑦】オーケストラプログラムでは、友である辻井伸行をソリストに迎えます。演奏機会の少ない作品も含めた、チャイコフスキーの30年間に亘る作品を演奏します。網羅するということに意義があると思っています。
"In the orchestra program, we invited our friend Nobuyuki Tsujii as a soloist. We will play Tchaikovsky's works of 30 years, including works with few performance opportunities. I think that it makes sense to cover them."
Nobu plays Tchai 1 on December 7.
Details at Tokyo Tchaikovsky Festival 2019