中華表演藝術基金會 Chinese Performing Arts Foundation

聲音所表達的激越靈動形象伸行演奏會聽後感
惠風 2011-4-12

從伸行(22歲)所選的作品：莫扎特(27)的【巴黎奏鳴曲K330】 , 貝多芬(32)的【風暴奏鳴曲】與慕莎斯基(35)的【展畫組曲】 , 或許可以猜測 , 天生失明的伸行“心裡的眼睛”所看的“樂中的圖畫” 。作曲家跟他年齡相近 , 青年人內心的失落與憂患感覺 , 通過音樂表達 , 深深感動了滿堂聽眾。

一代才人貝多芬的【風暴奏鳴曲】作於他耳朵失聰的最初期。伸行本人必有更深切體會與同情。

【展畫組曲】悼念亡友 , 更加是今天日本“集體悲懷”的風情畫。

這兩個曲目所描繪的 , 風雨飄搖、心潮洶湧、生死憂患中寬廣的畫面 , 是這個音樂會的主旋律。

通過伸行明朗澄澈的演繹 , 我們竟或能窺見伸行所“看見”的形象。如何從災難的憂思超越到忍受(或接受？)災難的平靜 , 是不是伸行心境的一部份？我們不得而知。

【展畫組曲】樂章標題所提示的複雜畫面 , 容易讓我們想像作曲家慕莎斯基不止在【畫展】中悼念剛去世的朋友(畫家 ) Viktor Hartmann , 或許更預期了作曲家自己(在七年後)的永久歸宿 , 不久也離開了這個生死繁華對照的花花世界。Hartmann 有一張畫存世 , 題為 Le grande porte de Kiev 。是他所設想的東歐(回教圓尖頂型)建築圖案。(紀念)門一邊形狀如婦女花帽而另一邊如斯拉夫軍人頭盔。激烈的對照是【展畫組曲】最後一章的標題 , 是不是代表作曲家與畫家對人生的總結？是個有趣問題。

我的感覺是 , 伸行在為這次海嘯地震中死亡的同胞們 , 獻上沉痛而又莊嚴的哀思。複雜感情的形象化 , 令聽者似有【禪】的領悟經驗。

三次encore中 , 他演奏了兩首自己的作品 , 如詩如畫的音樂小品 , 讓我們在一瞬間窺見這個失明人心中的複雜而又明亮的圖畫。是一次絕對難得的音樂晚會。

NOBUYUKI TSUJII
NANCY LEE AND PERRY R. BASS GOLD MEDALIST AND
WINNER OF THE BEVERLEY TAYLOR SMITH AWARD
FOR THE BEST PERFORMANCE OF A NEW WORK
THIRTEENTH VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

When Gold Medalist Nobuyuki Tsujii (pronounced No-boo-you-key Soo-gee) rose from the piano having completed his final performance at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, audience members leapt to their feet, and jurors were moved to tears by his passionate interpretation of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11. The extraordinary and poignant performance by the young pianist from Japan and resulting audience fervor has taken on a momentum that Time Magazine coined "Nobu Fever."

Mr. Tsujii is in high demand by presenters and orchestras worldwide and has catapulted to rock star status in Japan. In the 2009-2010 season alone, he performed over 50 engagements throughout Asia, in addition to appearances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., Aspen Music Festival and Academy in Colorado, Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany, and in recitals across the United States.

In the summer of 2010, Mr. Tsujii made an acclaimed debut at the Ravinia Festival, which the Chicago Tribune praised for "fearless technical assurance, accuracy and musicality…the rounded tone, suppleness of line and lyrical grace he brought." He followed this with an appearance at a gala event featuring all three medalists of the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in concert with the National Orchestra of the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo and a residency at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy.

Highlights of Mr. Tsujii’s 2010-2011 season include appearances at the Mondavi Center and UCLA Performing Arts Center with the Takács Quartet and a tour of Japan with the BBC Philharmonic under the baton of Vladimir Spivakov. He will perform solo recitals in all regions of the United States during October and March, as well as in concert with the Edmonton, Hudson Valley, and Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestras. A European tour in the winter will take him to Belgrade, Berlin, Basel, Manchester, and Moscow.

In addition to his gold medal, Mr. Tsujii won the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work for his interpretation of John Musto’s Improvisation & Fugue, which he performs again as part of the Cliburn at the Modern series in Fort Worth in October 2010. His ability to learn and perform challenging scores was referenced by Scott Cantrell in his review for The Dallas Morning News: "It's almost beyond imagining that he has learned scores as formidable as Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata by ear…Through all three rounds, he played with unfailing assurance, and his unforced, utterly natural Chopin E-Minor Piano Concerto was an oasis of loveliness."

A documentary on his extraordinary achievement as the first-ever Gold Medalist from Japan in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was broadcast on NHK television throughout Japan. Peter Rosen’s documentary of the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, A Surprise in Texas, features Mr. Tsujii prominently and was released to critical acclaim. The success of his debut recording, debut, on the Avex label led to a second recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. A third all-Chopin recording is soon to be released. The live recording of his appearance at the Cliburn Competition was released by harmonia mundi and named "Critic’s Choice" by Japan’s foremost recording magazine Record Geijutsu. His complete competition performances are available at Cliburn.tv.

Blind since birth, Nobuyuki, who is referred to as "Nobu," believes that "there are no barriers in the field of music." His philosophy was first affirmed at the age of 7 when he was named first-prize winner at the All Japan Blind Students Music Competition. At the age of 12, he made noted recital debuts at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Since then, he has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and played with most of Japan’s leading orchestras, as well as the Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. In 2005, at the age of 16, he was presented the Critic’s Award at the Fifteenth International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Poland.

Nobuyuki Tsujii is currently a participant in the performer’s program at Ueno Gakuen University and has studied with Masahiro Kawakami, Yukio Yokoyama, and Kyoko Tabe.

Mr. Tsujii enjoys swimming, skiing, hiking, and communing with nature. When he met with 275 piano students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area following the competition, he advised them to "Please practice your best, but also please remember that you have to take the time to experience life to give your music meaning. I do things like mountain climbing, swimming, skiing, walking by the river. Whatever you like to do, this will help you enjoy your music more."

For additional information: details

PRESS QUOTES

NOBUYUKI TSUJII, GOLD MEDALIST
2009 NANCY LEE AND PERRY R. BASS GOLD MEDALIST

"Nobu" Fever: Japan Falls for a Blind Piano Prodigy
"Classical music critic Yukiko Hagiya calls his sound ‘pure and crystal-clear.’ Michel Beroff, one of the jurors for the Cliburn Competition told the monthly piano magazine Chopin, ‘The special thing about his performance is his sound. It has depth, color and contrast, the genuine music.’ "
- Yuki Oda - Tokyo, Time Magazine

Kennedy Center Debut, May 2010
"In a challenging but narrow program of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Mussorgsky, Tsujii displayed a control of the keyboard that would be impressive from any pianist; that he did so entirely by muscle memory boggles the mind. Tsujii was virtually note-perfect all afternoon; his finger independence in Mussorgsky's "Ballet of Chicks in Their Shells" and "Limoges" was extraordinary, and his firm control of great washes of keyboard sound in Liszt's "Un Sospiro" was impressive."
- Robert Battey, The Washington Post

13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
"It's almost beyond imagining that he has learned scores as formidable as Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata by ear…Through all three rounds, he played with unfailing assurance, and his unforced, utterly natural Chopin E-minor Piano Concerto was an oasis of loveliness…He brought delicate expressivity to Debussy's first book of Images and admirable proportion to the first movement of Beethoven's Appassionata, and he managed to make Liszt's La Campanella fun but not vulgar."
- Scott Cantrell, The Dallas Morning News

13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
"Tsujii kept the audience spellbound from start to completion. He received an instantaneous and sustained ovation, a tribute to his character and also to musicianship that is unpretentious and edifying."
- Chris Shull, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor
"No vidente de nacimiento, Nobuyuki ofreció una interpretación cargada de lirismo e ímpetu, que le merecieron las más grandes ovaciones de pie."
"Blind since birth, Nobuyuki offered an interpretation charged with lyricism and energy that earned him a grand standing ovation."
- Hoy, Santo Domingo

Chopin Nocturne in D-flat Major, op. 27 - Ravinia Festival
"I admired the rounded tone, suppleness of line and lyrical grace he brought to Chopin's D-flat Major Nocturne (opus 27)."
- John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune

Liszt "Un sospiro" from Trois etudes de concert, S. 144 - Ravinia Festival
"Liszt's Un sospiro ("A Sigh") and Rigoletto Concert Paraphrase roared and sang in the grand Romantic manner. The nonchalance with which Tsujii negotiated the etude's fiendish hand-crossings took your breath away, as did the ardent sweep he brought to the opera transcription."
- John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition - Ravinia Festival
"Tsujii ended with that knuckle-busting gift to all virtuoso pianists, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which just so happens to be Ravinia's "One Score, One Chicago" selection for this year. This grand tour of the Victor Hartman portrait gallery enlisted every weapon in his considerable arsenal. And much of his playing was as good as it was amazing – his light-fingered depiction of children at play in the Tuileries gardens, the menacing, sonorous sweep of ‘Baba-Yaga.’"
- John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune

Recital - Bass Performance Hall
"Tsujii’s magnanimous spirit was felt throughout his recital."
- Chris Shull, Fort Worth Star-Telegram