Nobuyuki Tsujii Carnegie Hall Debut

 

The Nobuyuki Tsujii Carnegie Hall Debut Live solo piano concert was performed on November 10, 2011. This disc came out promptly in early 2012 for the Japanese market.

The keep-case booklet is almost entirely in Japanese, and the disc plays only in Region A.  If you don't speak Japanese, you would want to get the EuroArts version of this which is region-free. 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 I have been able to sleuth them out (as a non-Japanese reader):

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 "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,"— arranged by Nobu.

25. Chopin Prélude No. 15 "Raindrop"

26. The last encore is a piece by Nobu called "Elegy for the Victims of Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011." When I got this title, the Japanese text left me with no clue about the name.  Short and absorbing, the piece sounded to me like Schumann. But I thought: "If Schumann wrote this, everybody would be playing it. Although it is basically in classical style, it has an attitude that's too modern for Schumann." I tried two smart-phone apps that identify musical pieces by sampling them in the smartphone mike and comparing the sample to a database of music. No luck. So then I figured this had to be by Nobu, and that turned out to be right. 

27. End Credits

Released 2012, disc has 5.0 Dolby TrueHD sound.

For more comments about this concert, screenshots, and a the grade of A-, see the EuroArts version of this title. I make no effort here to show a YT clip or information about buying this Japanese product.