Award-winning blind pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii makes his first recording for Challenge Classics with conductor Yutaka Sado and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin on a disc that includes Sergei Rachmaninov’s much-loved Piano Concerto No.2 and three popular pieces for solo piano by Franz Liszt.

Blind since birth, 21-year-old Nobuyuki Tsujii was joint-winner of the Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. Since winning the competition he has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, and the Ravinia Festival, and given recitals throughout the USA. He has worked with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yutaka Sado and Vladimir Spivakov. Future plans include appearances with the BBC Philharmonic and Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and recitals in Berlin, Belgrade and Basel. Nobuyuki Tsujii has made a number of recordings for Avex Classics including an all-Chopin recital disc, and a live DVD recording of his 2008 solo recital at Suntory Hall.

After having spent three years of creative hardship without writing anything, the composition of the Second Piano Concerto restored Rachmaninov’s confidence in his creative abilities, and the first complete performance of the wiork in 1901 brought him great and lasting success. Franz Liszt was a multi-faceted musical genius, and the solo piano pieces featured here cover several aspects of this.