NOBUYUKI TSUJII
Ahead of a colossal Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 (on 31 July), Nobuyuki Tsujii performs at the Église in a stimulating recital marked by the spirit of childhood and the torrid heat of Spain.
Programme
ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Kinderszenen Op. 15
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Children’s Corner
L’Isle joyeuse
Interval
FRANCIS POULENC (1899-1963)
Trois Novelettes
MANUEL DE FALLA (1876-1946)
El Amor Brujo (original piano solo version)
FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886)
Spanish Rhapsody S. 254
Nobuyuki Tsujii plays Debussy: Rêverie, CD 76 at Verbier Festival 2026
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Let us deal straight away with ‘the elephant in the room’ as English speakers wittily put it: Nobuyuki Tsujii (also known by the nickname ‘Nobu’) has been blind from birth. Born with congenital microphthalmia, the Japanese pianist showed astonishing musical gifts from an early age, reproducing on a toy piano the melodies his mother hummed to him. His method for learning a work? In addition to the Braille score, his teachers in the past and his assistants today record the left-hand and right-hand parts separately, so that Nobu can memorise every note and build a complete map of the music. In concertos, this absence of visual cues has fascinated conductors such as Valery Gergiev or Vladimir Ashkenazy who speak of his extraordinary ability to sense not only the keyboard but also his fellow performers and the audience before him.
For his eagerly awaited return to Verbier, Nobu weaves marvellous echoes between the childhood pieces of Schumann (Kinderszenen) and Debussy (Children’s Corner), before unfolding the full musical friendship between Poulenc (Novelettes) and de Falla (El amor brujo) then ending in the scorching whirlwind of Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole.
