Page 181 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

Blind since birth, he relies on everything else he has to turn in performances
which are completely different from ones you would hear from other pianists.

The Royal Albert Hall is not the best of acoustics for concertos – and again I had
problems with the choice of piano they have used this year – but this didn’t
always sound the cleanest of performances – but it was very close to it. (I also

understand the BBC Radio 3 broadcast cut out at one stage so a check might not
be useful here.) But listening to Tsujii’s performance I was sometimes reminded
– for complete contrast – of Walter Gieseking, one of music’s legendary sight
readers, but who also happened to leave behind two of the least accurately
played performances of this concerto. Tsujii simply got the notes in the right
order – and at a considerably fierier tempo than Gieseking’s T.108 for the
opening of the third movement, for example.

Nobuyuki Tsujii plays Rachmaninoff’s Third with Domingo Hindoyan
conducting the RLPO © BBC/Chris Christodoulou

Nobuyuki Tsujii is interesting to watch. He has to measure the entire width of
the keyboard with his hands so he knows where he needs to begin a concerto –

and he needs to do this each time there is a pause in the piano writing. Similarly,
he does not remain motionless during those moments when he is not playing
but sways backwards and forwards with the beat of the orchestra, feeling the
rhythms. Contrary to the architecture of this concerto – two fast movements and
that massive first movement cadenza (and Tsujii chose to play the more
challenging ossia) – it was the central Intermezzo which I think proved more
difficult for him. Rachmaninoff’s tendency to make colossal hand spans and
stretches, especially working up towards the chordal climax, can be onerous –