Nobuyuki Tsujii Carnegie Hall Debut

The Nobuyuki Tsujii Carnegie Hall Debut Live solo piano concert was performed on November 10, 2011, and this disc came out promptly, in early 2012. The keep-case booklet is almost entirely in Japanese. Neither the booklet nor the disc menu gives track numbers. But the tracks are numbered. If you enter the number you want on the numerical keypad and sit still, the disc will take you to the track you selected. So here are the track numbers and the pieces performed as best we have been able to sleuth them out (as non-Japanese readers):

1. Opening

2. John Musto Improvisation and Fugue

3-5. The 3 movements of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 ("Tempest")

6. Liszt Étude No. 3, "Un sospiro"

7. Liszt Rigoletto Paraphrase

8-23. Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (There are 16 tracks here which are listed on a sub-menu to track 8.)

And now 3 encores:

24. Steven Foster "I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair" --- arranged by Nobu (I think)

25. Chopin Prélude No. 15 "Raindrop"

26. Mystery number. Short, simple, absorbing piece that sounds to me like Schumann. But I can't identify it.  I saw something on the Internet suggesting Nobu wrote this in a classical style in honor of a "Yuku." If that's so, then Nobu should maybe focus on composing rather than performing.

27. End Credits

Released 2012, disc has 5.0 Dolby TrueHD sound. Grade: B+

"Nobu," blind from birth, is a piano prodigy who learns masterpieces by ear and also composes. He has other challenges in addition to sightlessness. For example, his head bobs about in a kind of Brownian motion that has little apparent relationship to the music he's playing or what is happening around him. This is somewhat disconcerting until you get used to it. He got his big breakthrough in 2009 at the Cliburn Competition and has since made a number of recordings. This is his first HDVD. 

At the Cliburn Competition, Nobu was controversial. Some jury members thought he was too "special" to be put up against all the top sighted performers. Other jury folk found themselves sobbing as he played. And for sure, he is very paradigm of the instant underdog. (Is the U.S., underdogs always win.) So the solution was to award 2 first prizes: one for Nobu and the other for the winning sighted player.

This Carnegie debut was probably made on a modest budget. The HD picture quality is not top notch. The resolution is a tad fuzzy, one camera had trouble rendering the piano strings accurately (jaggies and the like), and there is a camera on the wall behind Nobu and facing the audience that is plain, old SD (usually anathema to us). No information is given about the sound sampling or other aspects of the audio recording.  The piano doesn't sound as "real" as it does in the AIX Chamber Music Palisades recording with its 96kHz/24 bit sampling, but it does sound as good as the piano played by Volodos in his Vienna recital recorded by Sony.

The program and performance is highly enjoyable to watch. (If you just listen, you might detect that Nobu's execution is not as rock solid as that of the top sighted players.)  You also get a keen feeling for the event. The N. Y. audience was happy with Nobu, and Nobu's face at the end becomes grotesque as he strains to control his emotions. Finally, a cameraman behind stage catches tears gushing while Nobu's companion comforts him. You can't get something like that with a CD.

So what grade should I give for this expensive disc? I start with a "B" for the program and performance. I move up to B+ because it's so inspirational to see what Nobu has accomplished. I wish I could go further, but the technical issues discussed briefly suggest I stay with the "B+." I hope Nobu/Avex can find a way to produce this HDVD in the West with English and other languages to make it more accessible.