Finals June 4: Tsujii Steals the Show
By Mike Winter
Earlier today reporters, music critics, and official bloggers met with James Conlon for a general Q & A, and I asked about the challenges of rehearsing with Nobu, the short name for Nobuyuki Tsujii. How are cues given? How are repeat spots in rehearsal communicated? Briefly, the best cues during performances were discovered to be by Conlon’s audible breath just before the downbeat, say before the big C major chord that opens the closing theme restatement at the end of the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto, which they will perform tomorrow night. During rehearsal, a chord from the orchestra immediately signals to Nobu where to start. Rebecca Stern, 3rd chair outside in the Fort Worth Symphony, whom I’ve known since her childood in Boise, told me Nobu knows instantly where the orchestra is. I mentioned that the orchestra gave an exceptional accompaniment to Nobu in the Chopin Piano Concerto No.1 in last night’s performance. ”He’s an inspiring person,” came Becky’s reply, nodding in agreement. The audience and I felt the same way. From the first phrase it was clear Nubo’s Chopin would be an eloquent and heart-felt performance; it turned out to be technically superb as well. His eyes may be sealed, but his soul was wide open. Nobu played from the heart, as if he’s known and loved this piece for most of his 20 years. Also inspiring was the sight of Mikail Lifits, another soul-filled pianist, perched in rapt attention in his front row seat. Not that all was perfect–Nobu was a little ahead on a few occasions, and he rushed a little during the lovely French horn solo in the first movement. But Conlon’s main message was that a disservice is done to Nobu if one judges him on anything other than musical terms, as compelling as his human story may be. Like the audience, I am swept away by both: by how well he plays, and how he plays so well.
Yeol Eum Son opened the evening with her recital of Bach-Petri, Schubert’s two impromptus from Op. 90, and the Beethoven Op. 111. She is clearly a masterful pianist, but nothing was memorable last night–lovely performances, but nothing more. The audience loves her.
Haochen Zhang concluded the evening with the Mozart D minor concerto (K. 466). Zhang has played everything superbly, from Mozart to Stravinsky. Some listeners feel a sense of detachment, but I am fully engaged with his every note, even if he has just turned 19. Joyce Yang was the same age at the 2005 competition, and it didn’t slow anyone’s admiration down, especially mine, and her career is booming. The same is likely to happen for Zhang.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
This is only marginally relevant, but I can’t find a more appropriate thread. Please - is anyone else having trouble viewing the live webcast right now? I haven’t been able to get on for hours, and I’ve been missing all today’s rehearsals. Any similar experiences out there? - Thanks, I am feeling sick missing any of this!!
June 5th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I tried earlier today and could not even click the player to launch.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Webcast is working for me right now…hopefully it continues to run smoothly.
June 5th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
How is the name “Yeol Eum Son” pronounced? I’m not quite getting it when I hear it mentioned by Jade on the webcasts.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
When that happens, close all your programs down and reboot. That has helped a lot of people.
Reception was fine here today in California. But not yesterday, near the beginning. And that one was experienced just about everywhere, it seems.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
This is a first time blog entry for me. Re: difficulties viewing either live webcast or archived performances: here in Tulsa, I’m on Cox high speed internet, and we have a top of the line sound card and speakers. Once we got through the download, there have been no problems at all with anything on this website. So, maybe problems other people have are with their individual systems. I’m just happy to be able to hear all of this wonderful piano music played by talented young people. As a child, my Dad took me to hear Van Cliburn with the Oklahoma City Sym., and I met him and got his autograph. It’s probably what led me to be a musician and teacher. I never thought I’d be able to hear the Cliburn Competition, since I’m always in a teaching semester during it. This is as good (maybe better?) than a grueling marathon of concerts in Fort Worth.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
can’t get it to work either.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
@ion: The first syllable is pronouced as Yeo (as in the american southern slang, ya’ll, but without the ‘ll at the end). The second syllable is pronounced ‘reum’ but this is more complex than it seems. Firstly, the ‘r’ is rolled in the European way, it is not the American ‘r’. Secondly, the eum is the same as the last syllable in aut’UMN’, or as in the latin c’UM’ sancto.
When Koreans come to the States, they often try there best to romanize their names for our benefit, but often this is difficult because they have certain vowels and consonants that we do not have. There is one particular consonant in Korean that can be either ‘l’ or ‘r’ depending on where it’s placed in the word. That’s where the difficulty arises in this particular name. Hope this was helpful. (By the way, this name translates to ’summer’ in English.)
June 5th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Thanks, Mike
WOW! Since departing after the Prelims I confess I had lost some sleep over Tsujii, hoping and wondering how.
Now we know he will open all the musical windows for all of us. Others, also not sighted, will surely follow.
Cheers,
Tom & Susan
Tom
June 5th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Yeol Eum Son’s Chopin #2 rehearsal sounds closer to Tsujii’s from last night than to Liszt, i.e., Bozhanov. But don’t expect her Chopin to surpass Tsujii’s, although she will come close.
Di Wu’s rehearsal of the Rach 3 is impressive. Hers could potentially be the best concerto of this competition.
June 5th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Hey, does anyone recognize this piece?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBcGAt3pSNY
I think it one of Tsujii’s own compositions, but I’m not sure.
June 5th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Having no threads or comments on the rehearsals that are now over I’m curious if any out there saw Son’s Chopin 2 rehearsal. Your thoughts on how she and orchestra did? I missed it but got to hear some of Vacatello, and all of Zhang and Di Wu.
I very much enjoyed Di’s Rach 3 and she seems to be getting a huge sound out of the piano where required. I’m thinking it will be a thilling way to close the competition.
This is starting to turn into a very interesting horserace, and I am not so sure about my initial predictions for the medals as I was before.
June 5th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Mike, I think those Schubert Impromptus come from op. 142.
June 5th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Dave,
Son’s rehearsal in Chopin #2 sounds a lot more like Tsujii than Liszt, i.e., Bozhanov. Just don’t expect her to surpass Tsujii in Chopin.
June 5th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Mike Hawley, Ken, and James:
Let’s have a thread where we nominate the top 5
individual performances we heard so far. Here are my favorite 5:
Tsujii: Chopin #1
Son: Spanish Rhapsody
Di Wu: Gounod-Liszt Faust Waltz
Bozhanov: Mozart sonata
Ran Dank: Beethoven sonata
June 5th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I’m really surprised that no one has said this, but is anyone else a little perplexed by the lack of range in Tsujii’s chosen repertoire? With the exception of the required piece, everything he is playing was written between 1805-1905. I just think that the limited range should really work against him, how could they award a medal to someone who didn’t demonstrate how he interprets baroque or classical music?
June 5th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Jack,
I was thinking the same thing regarding Tsujii.
He will play Beethoven Appassionata in the final recital. He is primarily a Beethoven/Chopin/Liszt guy who dabbles a little in modern music. So, he is sort of a “traditionalist”. I don’t think he can play Barber, Bartok or Scriabin effectively, Rubinstein doesn’t play those either.
June 5th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Hey, Jack I hear and understand your point on Nobu but I couldn’t resist being a little snarky and asking-
Isn’t all the music of this competition supposedly in the classification of “Classical music”?? But seriously… my point is- just b/c Nobu doesn’t play some perceived expected historical range of music some of us expect, it in no way disqualifies him from being awarded a medal. He has shown range enough for me.
June 5th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Jack, I have read all of your blogs and I can see you are trying to find faults with Nobu anyway you can. I feel you do not want him medal no matter how well he plays. I am certain that Nobu will be able to play any repertoires from any period of time. Besides, he is fulfilling Cliburn’s competition rules and he played all of his repertoire magnificently. So who cares!!
June 5th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Lifits: Prokofiev sonata 7
Vacatello: Petruska/ Gaspard
Zhanq: Petruska
Bozahnov: Schubert sonata (last)
Raskovsky: Rachmaninov sonata / Beethoven op.110
June 5th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I forgot the Nobu`s “Hammerklavier” on top of everything…
June 6th, 2009 at 3:21 am
Well, I have been able to access and hear all that the Cliburn website offers. I do have Time Warner broadband. I watch on my beautiful 21″ monitor my son gave me for my birthday. While Ms.Jade’s comments have usually been interesting, she obviously just loves Yeol Eum Son, who is just okay in my opinion. While I thought Mariangela Vacatello was SUPERB with her Beethoven No.4 concerto! Jade was like, “Well, she played that and tomorrow we will hear the big guns.”
I have a comment about an interview with one of the jurors, I think it was Pressler, who said in effect, “No, we definitely pay no attention to the audience, they do not know what the music is supposed to be like.” That is so wrong!! We know plenty. And plus they better choose audience pleasers for the top slots what with all the concertising those pianists will be doing! Folks will not want to pay to hear someone who puts them to sleep.
I still prefer Boshanov and Wu for the top two picks. Just love Tsujii, what’s not to adore in him? The other three are marvelous as well. It will be fascinating to see whom the judges pick!