The great pianist Minoru Nojima has died. Nojima was a child prodigy and studied in his early years with Lev Oborin in Moscow and Constance Keene and Abram Chasins in New York. He came to international attention initially as the second prize winner in the 1969 Van Cliburn Competition.
He earned much admiration from his fellow pianists in his subsequent career. (I recall how, at the end of one of Nojima’s recitals at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Leonid Hambro ran down the aisle towards the stage shouting to everyone, “This is it; this is it. This is what piano playing is all about.”) But his public fame in the U.S. was, to begin with, inhibited by his reluctance to record, apparently through dissatisfaction with the sound available on commercial recordings. Then in the mid-1980s, with approval from Reference Recordings founder Tam Henderson, I gave Nojima a pack of Reference Recordings records after one of his concerts, with a note asking him please to listen to see if the sound met with his approval and saying that, if it did, RR would be interested in making a recording with him. In a fairytale ending, he took the records home to Japan, listened, and then called his U.S. agent, saying that he did not know who these people were but whoever they were he wanted to record with them. And thus, soon after, there came to be the Reference Recordings Nojima Plays Liszt and later Nojima Plays Ravel.
These were exceptionally well received musically and in audio terms, as well. Regrettably, further recordings never quite came to pass, though interest remained on both sides. Nonetheless, these two recordings remain as treasured records of the artistry of one of the supreme pianists of our time—and even of all time. Minoru Nojima will be much missed.
Tags: IN MEMORIAM
