Chopin and Rachmaninoff with Nobuyuki Tsujii and Slobodeniouk at Severance

2025’s Summers at Severance series concluded Thursday with guest conductor Dima Slobodeniouk and guest pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii.

Tsujii is 36 years old and hails from Japan.  He has been blind since birth but that didn’t prevent him from tying for the Gold Medal at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.  Based on what I heard last night, the prize was entirely deserved.  He and the orchestra performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21, a concerto which has been somewhat underappreciated on account of its orchestration which is sort of “meh.”  It’s also a finger twisting challenge for even the most gifted pianists.  Tsujii’s mastery of the work was not merely a question of technique, which would be superb even in a sighted person; Tsujii’s interpretation was entirely his own without resorting to eccentricities.  The pianist avoided unnecessary swooning rubati, instead using constantly shifting dynamics and coloration for expression.  Slobodeniouk and the orchestra presented a lovely accompaniment, with greater clarity than is often heard in this work.  For example, there was a melodic line in the celli that I’d never taken particular notice of in recordings, and the brief sequence in the finale where the strings play col legno battuto (with the wooden side of the bow) was appropriately charming and rustic.   

The performance was rapturously received, and the pianist’s encore was a staggering yet musical rendition of Liszt’s La Campanella. 

Following intermission Slobodeniouk returned to lead the orchestra in Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27.  The Cleveland Orchestra has a long association with this symphony, being the first orchestra to record the work in 1928.  The orchestra’s library still has the conductor’s score used at those sessions,  marked in the composer’s own hand with the cuts made to fit the work onto twelve 78rpm sides.  Slobodeniouk performed the work without cuts, as has fortunately become customary these days.  Initially, the first movement moved tepidly along, only catching fire during the long development section where the violas play those low dissonant notes.  From there things improved and Slobodeniouk brilliantly drove the climax and coda home.  The scherzo which followed was on point, with brilliant pacing and voicing of the central fugal section.  The third movement had a lovely plasticity of phrasing, with alternate tension and relief.  This led to a beautifully expansive finale with wonderful use of dynamics and eschewing of the cheap sentimentality occasionally heard in this work.  At the work’s rhythmic conclusion, the conductors eyeglasses flew from his head and into the viola section, where they were promptly retrieved by a violist.

The orchestra’s 2025-2026 season starts in September, and I have already purchased tickets for 20 of the performances.