Cliburn 2009: May 22 - June 7
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closeTuesday, Aug. 04, 2009
Cliburn co-winner takes quick break from coping with 'Nobu fever' with Cowtown visit
By BARRY SHLACHTER
dfw.com
FORT WORTH — Quick to smile anyway, Nobuyuki Tsujii stepped out of the Neiman Marcus dressing room and beamed a 1,000-watt grin, letting his entourage — two agents, four department store employees, two Cliburn Foundation staffers, a representative of his Japanese record label and his mother — know he had found the perfect performance gear: a crepe wool tuxedo by Armani with a retro, ’50s-style shawl collar priced at $2,700.
The 20-year-old blind Japanese pianist was in Fort Worth for one night last week after a concert at Colorado’s Aspen Music Festival.
He came to be outfitted — part of a $5,000 wardrobe allowance gifted by Neiman’s for becoming a co-gold medalist in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition — and to discuss concert scheduling.
It was all a break from the crush of Japanese media attention, known in his homeland as "Nobu fever," that erupted immediately after his June victory.
Tsujii, who is clearly relishing the newfound notoriety, told the Star-Telegram: "I don’t think I myself have changed because of the 'fever.’ But it has come as a surprise. I did not know I had become so famous and now, with so many offers to perform, I have to say 'no’ for the first time."
Though classical music is more popular in Japan than in many other countries, there has never been anything like the mania there over a homegrown concert musician before, his agents said.
National newspapers reported his Cliburn win on the front page — the fact that China’s Haochen Zhang shared top honors was hardly mentioned. More than 30 TV crews covered Tsujii’s airport arrival, according to reports from Japan.
Japan’s Chopin Piano magazine issued a glossy, 78-page special issue about Tsujii’s victory, and a publisher announced that his achievement would be noted in a new public-school textbook.
After Tsujii said at a news conference that it would be a relief to his parents when he married, a flood of mail came from female fans.
A female TV journalist was roundly attacked for insensitivity after asking Tsujii what he would like to see if his sight was restored for a single day.
The reply, however, won Tsujii kudos: "I’d like to see the faces of my parents. But I already see them every day with my heart’s eye."
As for finding the right woman, reporters were told that he would like to experience the kind of intense love that inspired Chopin to compose his best music.
Regarding his career, Tsujii expressed the hope that someday his style would be so distinctive that his renditions of Chopin or Beethoven would be recognized as carrying his personal stamp.
Another goal, he told the Japanese media, is to be viewed by audiences as a professional who can deal with a tough schedule, a less than perfect piano or problems with the hall’s acoustics and yet turn in a first-class performance.
A previously scheduled concert in Tokyo had been only 40 percent sold. Not only were all seats snapped up after he won the Cliburn, but the $53 tickets were resold for $530 despite ticket scalping being illegal in normally law-abiding Japan.
Tsujii was also invited to perform Aug. 28 before Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, both solo and in duet with his teacher, Yukio Yokoyama. The Karuizawa Music Festival wants to promote it as Tsujii’s first post-Cliburn scheduled performance, creating friction with his agents, who want to save that distinction for a purely solo date.
Even his mother, Itsuko Tsujii, a former TV presenter and author of two books about raising her son, has been flooded with more than 50 offers to lecture on parenting and will likely do three a month from August, she said.
The avalanche of Japanese performance requests forced his management company, Concert Imagine, to declare a moratorium on new bookings, said Naoaki Hirabayashi, an Imagine agent accompanying Tsujii.
"We are very hesitant about having too many concerts," Hirabayashi said. "This is an important period in his career so we have suspended any decision making."
There are other complications.
In Japan, many concert venues are lumped into several competing groups, often aligned with media companies and demanding exclusivity. Generally, an artist may perform for one group but not another.
Before he was famous, Tsujii could skate around the restrictions, but no longer.
Another issue is Europe, where concert halls do not pay travel expenses, unlike in the United States, Cliburn board Chairman Alann Sampson said. Because he is blind, Tsujii travels with two other people, considerably raising the costs.
A sponsorship deal has been struck with All-Nippon Airways to supply three sets of tickets for a limited number of trips from Japan to Europe.
"Still, if there is a deficit, we will cover the cost because it’s important for building Nobu’s career," Hirabayashi said.
So far, American critics are not fawning over Tsujii.
Last week, Harry Steiman gave him a mixed review in TheAspen Times.
"With every note in place, and little pedal, he favors quick tempos, often very fast," Steiman wrote. "But it’s muscular not fleet. Clearly, he has been coached well. But much of music came out mechanical and lacking in depth. . . . His Chopin, the 12 Études, did not surge. His Beethoven, the 'Hammerklavier’ Sonata, did not thunder, and the fugue got a bit smudgy. His best moments, to my ears, were the most delicate — particularly the grace of Chopin’s Berceuse in D-flat major, the simplicity of the third etude, and his encore, the first movement of Beethoven’s 'Moonlight’ Sonata, tender and yearning."
In Fort Worth, after choosing the Armani, cummerbund, suspenders, bow tie and studs, and asking Neiman’s to order a pair of wider Ferragamo patent-leather shoes, Tsujii expressed his readiness to perform two or three times a week. "It’s easy for me to recover from performances. I can go to a resort for recreation in between."
Tsujii’s father, an obstetrician-gynecologist, took the family to a posh Okinawa resort where Tsujiispent seven straight hours swimming in a private pool that adjoined their suite, he said.
Finally, asked how his life has changed since the Cliburn, Tsujii replied:
"I have become more confident. But I feel I am just at the starting line of my career."
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