After London - new thoughts on Nobuyuki Tsujii

by M. L. Liu, June 5, 2012

In my wildest dream,  I never expected what the England concerts brought.  So many memorable moments:

◆Nobu being brought on and off stage by the great Vladimir Ashkenazy, not in the the usual way, but in a "two-men conga",  with Nobu placing his hands on the shoulders of the grandfatherly  all-time Russian great.  I laughed at the sight, then I cried at the poignancy. 

◆The serene expression on the young face of Nobu, seen through my binoculars, as he played the Prokofiev Concerto No. 3 seemingly effortlessly.

◆The roar that instantaneously sprang up from the audience in the Royal Festival Hall, on the last note of the Prokofiev.  It was as if the audience had been holding its breath collectively in suspended disbelief and wonderment.

◆The delicate notes tumbling forth from the finger tips of Nobu, as he played the otherworldly Rachmaninoff prelude Op.32 no. 12  for  encore in the Royal Festival Hall.  Someone from the audience stopped by to ask me if I knew the title.  I didn't at the time.

◆The sound of laughter and talking between Nobu and mother Itsuko, wafting from the dressing room,  as I and a line of people  were led  backstage for a meet-and-greet.

◆The stifling heat in the old Colston Hall in Bristol.

◆Ashkenazy, in street clothes, showing up at the Colston Hall box office to pick up a ticket for his wife, an hour before the performance.

◆The cluttered stage at Colston Hall that made me worry about how Nobu would be led to the piano.

◆Nobu's Chopin Concerto 1 and Nocturne no 8 in the Colston Hall -- in spite of the countless times that  I had listened to them on tape, the live performance thrilled me to the bone.

◆The thunderous applause of the audience in the Colston Hall, undiminished in volume even after  Nobu was brought back to the stage three times.

◆Nobu resplendent in tuxedo backstage, although he must have yearned to change into more comfortable clothing.

◆ Nobu recognizing my name when I mentioned it, and stretching his arms out for a hug.

◆Being thanked by Nobu, his gracious mom, and his Avex manager for my long-time support --  reducing me to a speechless emotional blob.

You can read about it all in Nobuyuki Tsujii in England, May 2012 

To all who care about Nobu:  take my word for it, he is doing extremely well.  I wish you could all see how happy he was in England.  And why not?  On the day when his successful London debut wowed the British audience and  made news in Japan,  tickets for his August Tokyo concert sold out in thirty minutes.  He passed the challenge of playing Prokofiev with flying colors, while folks in Japan raved about a coffee-drink commercial featuring him and popular Japanese singer Seiko Matsuda.   As an unexpected exclamation mark, I got to watch the Japanese movie "Return of the Hayabusa" on my flight home, and had the pleasure of seeing the  name of Nobu, who composed the film's theme music, as the end-credits rolled on screen.  It doesn't get much better than this.

Quotes from positive reviews from England have already made their way to the artist's page maintained for Nobu by the talent agency IMG (http://imgartists.com/artist/nobuyuki_tsujii_-_joint_gold_medalist_of_the_thirteenth_van_cliburn_interna/).  I only wish that the concerts had received some attention from the major British publications such as the Guardian and the Telegraph.    And I hope that the London concert was recorded and will be broadcast some day (unfortunately there were no signs in the concert hall of any recording or filming) .

In case you think that Nobu's success is due to good karma and luck, let me tell you that behind the scenes, Nobu worked his heart out to achieve this latest success.  From a piano coach whose blog I have had the privilege of visiting, I learned that England was Nobu's second time performing with Vladimir Ashkenazy.  She wrote that Ashkenazy liked Nobu's previous performances with him in Japan, so he offered Nobu the opportunities to perform with him in England, but  -- perhaps as a challenge -- with a request asking Nobu to play the ultra-virtuosic  Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3, which Ashkenazy himself famously performed in his younger days. 

Nobu had never played Prokofiev until this past March, when, with the help of the blogger coach -- who made the herculean task of transcribing the complex score to cassette tapes -- "Nobu spent every moment on the piano when he was not sleeping or eating,  practicing so hard that the hammers in his Tokyo piano broke."  The blogger coach wrote that at the last session that she spent with Nobu prior to his departure for Europe, Nobu had to  change his sweat-soaked clothing twice. (As an aside, this coach mentioned that for Nobu's 2011 debut performance with the most prestigious symphony orchestra in Japan, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Nobu got a request for an encore from NHK only the day before the performance.  The two worked until 3AM on the day of the concert to perfect Tchaikovsky's "Troika", which Nobu played beautifully.)

With the thought of Nobu's sweaty sessions with his blogger coach in the back of my mind, I trained my binoculars on Nobu while seated in London's Royal Festival Hall on May 24, and was delighted to see that Nobu was relaxed and confident throughout the performance.  There was no sign of nerves at all, and he in fact looked completely concentrated but happy.   This is what the coach wrote in her blog afterward: "The London concert brought confidence and growth to Nobu. He had such strong conviction and high spirit even before leaving Japan."   She added: " This tour was a success from day one;  Ashkenazy praised Nobu's performance, saying that he (Ashkenazy) enjoyed it very much."

That confidence was palpable when I had the fortune of seeing Tsujii-san backstage in London and again in Colston Hall in Bristol.  I think you can see that confidence in the photo on the top of this page, which was taken by me backstage in Colston Hall.

So, to all who love Nobu, please allow me to say that Nobu is doing just fine.   He continues to do well in Japan, where Nobu Fever lives on.  In June, he will perform in Taiwan, perhaps signaling the beginning of Nobu's reach to the promising market in Asia outside of Japan.  In July, the world will see Nobu perform in St. Petersburg, Russia,  in a recital as well as in a concerto with red-hot Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.   Early next year, those of us in North America will get to see a lot of Nobu, with numerous appearances  scheduled from January through March.

But, life would be too perfect without a few dark clouds.  So I will share a few lingering misgivings.

Amid the euphoria, there have been some well-meaning concerns expressed to me about Nobu.  There are some who disapprove of Nobu's extra-curriculum activities such as his own compositions and his appearance in the coffee-drink commercial (CM, as the Japanese like to call them).  Having experienced the same concerns myself in the past, I appreciate  that these worries come from true concerns for Nobu.

At the same time, based on what I have observed, I am now certain of  Nobu's commitment to classical piano music.  To me,  this commitment has been demonstrated in how hard he worked  on the Prokofiev and the Rachmaninov Prelude that he performed so masterfully  in London.  Although I had written otherwise in the past, I have now  come to see those  extra- curriculum activities -- the CM, the composing -- as activities that give pleasure to Nobu.  They are necessary diversions from the rigor and drudgery of learning and performing classical music.  I have, in fact, become quite a fan of Nobu's original compositions.  Keep your mind open: I think there is more to Nobu's compositions than what some people perceive.

Another down-beat note is that the big boys in London, the critics and reviewers at the Guardian and the Telegraph, chose to snub the Ashkenazy-Tsujii concerts.  What can I say?  I thought that they would consider the Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 worthy of some of their precious attention, but apparently not.  Fortunately, there were many very well-written  reviews, most of them  overwhelmingly positive -- although a few learned souls did find it incumbent upon themselves to inject nitpicking criticisms.   I think we will just have to accept that, perhaps because of his handicap, it may be some time before mainstream reviewers would come to see Nobuyuki Tsujii  without the preconception that his popularity has more to do with  sympathy for his  adversity than for the merits of his virtuosity.

Even in Japan, Nobu is not without dissenters.  On this Japanese posting of a news article about Nobu's successful London debut,  http://news.guideme.jp/kiji/cdc3c8af0037f684638da445b5401d0f,   there is a thread of comments that contain some derisive remarks about Nobu, to the effect that his piano is inferior and his success is a sheer  product  of media hyping.  These comments, coming from "kura-ota"s (high-brow classical music aficionado in Japan) who were not even at the concert,  smack of jealousy.  Snobbery  exists  everywhere in this world.

Finally, let me share some rare information freshly discovered by a sharp-eyed long-time Nobu fan, MK.  In her blog, the admirable piano coach of Nobu mentioned  in one posting that although she spent more time working with Nobu personally, Nobu has  another piano teacher that is neither childhood teacher Mr. Kawakami nor Mr. Yokoyama, whom we saw in the Cliburn documentary.     Through ingenious investigation, MK identified this teacher as Japanese pianist/professor Takahiro HOSHINO,  http://homepage2.nifty.com/TakahiroHOSHINO/english/e_prof.htm (http://homepage2.nifty.com/TakahiroHOSHINO/japanese/j_frame.html ), as mentioned on this profile of Nobu for an upcoming concert that features Nobu: http://www.stellartheater.jp/kouen/2012/0824_tsujii.html  

Mr. Hoshino does not have a wiki-page, but his profile indicates a world-class musician who currently teaches at Ueno Gakuen University (Nobu's alma mater) and Touhou college (one of the most renowned music schools in Japan).   Among the concertos listed in  repertoire of Mr. Hoshino: Prokofiev no. 3 and Rachmaninov no. 3.

Knowing this has allayed a long-time  concern of mine, which is that I was afraid that Nobu, having graduated from the Ueno Gakuen University in 2011, might have chosen to go without an instructor.  In recent  interviews, Nobu has made statements to the effect that performing with great musicians is itself a learning experience, implying that he no longer needed piano lessons.   I am glad that he has the good sense of seeking guidance from  a pianist who has the experience that qualifies  him to provide criticisms on Nobu's interpretations.  Judging from Nobu's  success with the Prokofiev 3, this relationship has panned out.

Caring wise people, including Mr. Peter Rosen*,  have suggested that Nobu should study under a western scholar  such as Leon  Fleisher or Menahem Pressler.  Although I myself had, in the past, harbored hopes of Nobu coming to the U.S. to study,   I have seen enough of him now that I will say that Nobu, because of his lack of  English proficiency and his  special needs, would not enjoy living abroad for long.  And --  at least for now -- I don't see him comfortably interacting with  foreign teachers, great as they are,  such as  Menahem Pressler.  I have come to the conclusion that, for now,  Nobu has the best arrangement: a professor who can critique his piano interpretations, a tireless coach who is willing to work with him on the most demanding assignments, and performance experiences with the likes of Ashkenazy and Gergiev. 

Nobu is thriving under this arrangement.  Let us celebrate and enjoy his successes.

(My deepest thanks to two Nobu fans MK and NS, who provided invaluable translation on some Japanese writings mentioned in this piece.)

*Mr. Peter Rosen  made the highly successful 2009 Van Cliburn Competition DVD as well as the Nobuyuki Tsujii Carnegie Hall Debut Live  DVD.

Appreciation  for  Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii

Related articles:

Nobu Fever lives on (April 2012)

Nobuyuki Tsujii plays Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 (April 2012)

Nobuyuki Tsujii in England, May 2012

Nobuyuki Tsujii in Europe, May 2012