SERENDIPITY - Minuro Nojima Revisited
Among his peers, Nojima was the best pianist
Minuro Nojima died this year.
“…At the time of his death Minuro Nojima was President of the Tokyo College of Music. Nojima was a child prodigy in Japan, won a major nationwide competition there as a teenager, studied with Lev Oborin in Moscow and then with Constance Keene and Abram Chasins in New York City, and burst upon the international music scene as a second prize winner of the Van Cliburn piano competition in 1969. Although known and highly respected amongst pianists as a "pianist's pianist," he was not well known to most music lovers, largely because he did not like to make recordings and made very few.” SOURCE
To many, Nojima was the best pianist among his peers. From a very conservative nation, Nojima’s art crossed my path and the path of the conservative nation Hungary.
This tale is not from the Persian THE THREE PRINCES OF SERENDIP, but rather from another not quite as tall a tale that begins with: “this is the rest of the story”:
Was it serendipity or mere coincidence that I scooped Reference Records’ famed LP of Minuro Nojima’s Liszt piano works for The Abso!ute Sound in 1986?[1] Perhaps the first, for decades later editor Robert Harley, as well as others, had called it the best piano recording of all time…ever. I am aware about another that may be just as enjoyable, albeit it is a significantly more-deliberately-paced La Campanella.[2] Truth be told, I enjoy the second quite a bit. RR’s is the slightly airier, spirited, and purer-sounding recording.
Recorded at CA Civic Auditorium, Oxnard in December 1986 by Professor Keith O. Johnson, MusicWeb International’s famed classical music editor Christopher Howell chose it as the Recording of the Month in 2007. In other words, according to many an opinion, Nojima’s is the epic recording of these pieces.[3]
“I …start off by saying that Nojima really does seem to be the greatest pianist practically no one has ever heard of, but I see Wikipedia has got there first. My exploration of the “Hatto originals” has led me to the discovery of an unexpected number of excellent pianists. Of all those I’ve heard so far, the one who has had me reaching for the adjective “great” is Minoru Nojima…I am going to declare that this is one of the great Liszt discs in the catalogue.
In Feux follets he has that miraculous evenness of touch which gives the passage-work a life and poetry of its own, something we normally have to seek in records by the likes of Ignaz Friedman. Again in La Campanella total clarity allied to unfailing tonal beauty make for an alluring display of delicate pointillist colours. Every note seems to have its own individual voice. At the other end of the spectrum Nojima unleashes a demoniac force in the Mephisto Waltz, without loss of clarity and without any hardening of the tone, while in the central section he is able to withdraw into a world of private meditation.”
I could not have said it better, although, trust me I tried. At the time, 1986, I thought to myself, how could I convey its brilliance, other than its sonic vitality that all audiophiles understand? How can I convince the reader it is the virtuoso performance and piano recording for all time?
For the technophiles amongst you:
Transcendental Etude No. 5 "Feux-follets"
Simon 3 min. 39 sec.
Hatto original 3 min. 39 sec.
Nojima 3 min. 30 sec.
Hatto revised 3 min. 28 sec.
Indeed, as Farhan Malik measured the timing and pacing - and the realization of Howell’s (2007) and my words from 1986 - we see that there are not so minor variations between the world’s best pianists who had actually recorded these works.[4] Nojima’s performance seems sped up in the other tunes on the LP/CD. I think this impression is due to the recording’s clarity. One might also consider that Nojima’s falls in-between the range of the Hatto original and revised, as well as we see the audible transparency in the Nojima recording. Hatto was, to say the least, less reserved in her later recording.
However, there is a suspicion, see the references, that Hatto may have plagiarized Nojima’s work.
Listening to Nojima once again (I have both the LP original and the CD), I am reminded of my dad, a master watchmaker who studied at the IWC academy in Shaffhausen, an obsessive opera lover who bought seasonal tickets for my pianist sister and the family. I could see him coming out of his jewelry store in Pest (the city across the Danube from Buda) and looking up wistfully at Franz Liszt’s apartment across the street. What possibly could he have been thinking?
Maybe this?
Franz Liszt’s piano – Budapest Museum
And that, friends, is the rest of the story.
Perhaps it is not just a coincidence that I had gravitated back to the places of my origins and to the music I love.
It may be SERENDIPITY.
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THE POLITICAL THEOLOGY OF CONSERVATISM SEEKS TO CONSERVE WHAT IS GOOD, VALUABLE, WHAT IS NOT TRANSITIONAL ONLY, WHAT LIFTS THE HUMAN SPIRIT AND AFFIRMS LIFE, SECURITY, HAPPINESS & BEAUTY!
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met a delegation from conservative US think-tank the Heritage Foundation, at his office on Tuesday. Daily News · 29/11/2022
“The organisation led by Kevin Roberts is today considered the most influential American conservative domestic and foreign policy research institute.
Hungary is today one of the most oft-criticised countries on the international political scene because of Hungarians’ resistance to left-wing ideology, parties at the meeting said. Hungary has chosen a unique, nationally minded path when it comes to politics and governance, which has led to political and economic success in recent years, they added. Conservatives don’t have to be afraid to fight the culture war and must not give up traditional values like sovereignty, faith, work and the family, they said.”
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REFERENCES: The Ultimate Hatto Hoax
[1] http://www.referencerecordings.com/ClassicalIntro.asp
[2] George Emannuel-Lazaridis. Super Audio Surround Collection Vol. III
[3] At AMAZON Minuro Nojima's FRANZ LISZT
[4] http://www.farhanmalik.com/hatto/lisztetudes1.html
[5] Hungary: Illiberal Democracy in Action - American Renaissance
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© Andrew G. Benjamin is in finance, real estate and equities, a former advisor to New York City mayor’s office (Subcommittee on Taxation, Finance and the Budget). Benjamin wrote extensively about politics, transnational and domestic, intelligence and military affairs, security and strategy, economic issues, Mideast, terrorism, technology and high end audio.
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