A rush of orders for CDs, a DVD and book featuring Nobuyuki Tsujii in Japan has followed the pianist's sharing of the top prize at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in the United States.
Two of Tsujii's CDs and one DVD have been released by Avex Group Holdings. According to an Avex official, about 10,000 copies of his 2007 CD had been sold until his victory. However, since then, orders have poured in at a rate of 10,000 copies a day.
About 3,000 copies of his Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 CD and 1,500 copies of the DVD, both released last year, had been sold before the prize-winning announcement. Since then, however, sales of the CD and DVD had reached about 30,000 and 10,000 copies, respectively.
The Avex official expressed surprise at the exceptional sales, a rare phenomenon for classical music. "This is an unprecedented reaction [to Tsujii's win]," he said.
Meanwhile, about 35,000 additional copies of the book "Kyo no Kaze, Nani Iro?" ("What's the Color of Today's Breeze?"), written by Tsujii's mother, Itsuko, 49, about how she reared her son, blind since birth, were reprinted after his triumph, due to new orders.
