Ashkenazy and Nobu

In November 2018, the Iceland Symphony will be travelling to Japan under the artistic direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy. The orchestra will perform two different programmes while there, and this concert presents the former of them – a foretaste of what is to come. Accompanying them will be Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii, called Nobu. Nobu is a star in his homeland, and not without reason. This 28-year-old virtuoso has been blind from birth but recognises no barriers, learning the most difficult works in the piano literature by ear. A gold medallist in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Nobu has appeared in all of the world's leading concert halls, and the DVD recording of his 2012 concert in Carnegie Hall was named DVD of the Month by Gramophone Magazine.

The programme features outstanding music by two masters of the Romantic and Late Romantic periods. Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 2 is at once lyrical and majestic, and Rachmaninoff's Symphony no. 2, widely regarded as his best orchestral composition, has been a frequent item on orchestral concerts around the world ever since its 1908 premiere.