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Earlier this week, Nobu made it into the semi-finals.  I caught a bit of his rehearsal with the string quartet prior to their perfromance.  He had to have both a translator and a guide there to make up for his lack of English skills as well as his blindness.  Regardless, as soon as they started playing, everything flowed together seamlessly.  It was even better during their actual performance on stage.  There were many people who were waiting for this moment, hoping that somehow Nobu would “expose” himself as being a poor pianist who gets special treatment for being blind (I guess they weren’t listening to his Chopin or Debussy carefully enough) but he came back with a nuanced and attentive performance that didn’t dominate the quartet nor lie in the background throughout.  Tomorrow is his solo recital, he’ll be playing Beethoven’s monster of a piece, the Hammerklavier sonata.  It’s a very ambitious choice to play, and if he can pull it off well then it will be the most impressive performance so far in the competition for sure.