Piano Street's Classical Piano Blog

Starting May 22, all performances will be streamed live eleven hours per day and then archived for “on-demand” viewing.
http://www.cliburn.tv/

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas. It was created by Fort Worth area teachers in honor of Van Cliburn, who had won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition four years prior with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Van Cliburn was only twenty-three when he won in Moscow on April 14, 1958, at the height of the Cold War.
Upon his return to the United States, the young pianist received a hero’s welcome in New York City with a ticker-tape parade. This was the first and only time the city gave such an honor to a classical musician.
On that historic day, Van Cliburn became both cultural hero and unofficial diplomat. He went on to perform before every U.S. president from 1958 until today; the most famous of these concerts occurred in 1987 when he played for Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the White House. This occassion is now remembered as “the day the Cold War was lost.”

Historic video coverage featuring Van Cliburn:

The 2009 Competition

Twenty-nine pianists will compete in the Preliminary Round; twelve will compete in the Semifinal Round; and six will vie for top honors in the Final Round. All six finalists will receive a prize package offering three years of managed concert tours at over $1,000,000 total value.
Cliburn winners perform in hundreds of venues across the United States and abroad.

The 2009 Competitors

Past Top prize winners

Winners of the top prize awarded in the given year (first prize, unless otherwise noted):

2005 — Alexander Kobrin
2001 — Stanislav Ioudenitch and Olga Kern (tied)
1997 — Jon Nakamatsu
1993 — Simone Pedroni
1989 — Alexei Sultanov
1985 — Jose Feghali
1981 — Andre-Michel Schub
1977 — Steven DeGroote
1973 — Vladimir Viardo
1969 — Cristina Ortiz
1966 — Radu Lupu
1962 — Ralph Votapek

/patrick

The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata have joined forces to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn with a series of concerts and events. To promote the events a dedicated website has been created:

http://www.haydntheinnovator.co.uk

The RNCM Keyboard Festival (8 – 10 May) will feature all of Haydn’s keyboard sonatas. Graham Scott, Head of School of Keyboard Studies, and Artistic Director of the Keyboard Festival, commented, “Composed over the course of three decades the sonatas undergo an extraordinary passage of development from quite simple drawing room pieces to works of extreme harmonic, dramatic and intellectual inventiveness.

To complement these sonatas some chamber works will also be performed during the festival, most notably two of his piano concertos in their arrangements for piano and string quartet. Celebrated Argentinian pianist Nelson Goerner concludes the festival with a recital that includes Haydn’s exquisite F minor Variations.”

Murray McLachlan, RNCM Tutor & Head of Keyboards at Chetham’s, discusses the importance of Haydn and his music:
http://www.rncm.ac.uk/content/view/529/163/

/patrick

Pianist Stephen Hough’s blog at Telegraph:
blogs.telegraph.co.uk/stephen_hough

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The Guardian said “The most perfect piano playing conceivable…” and The Washington Post “a virtuoso who begins where others leave off.”
English pianist Stephen Hough has enjoyed a phenomenal recording career with over forty recordings, many of which have won Gramophone and Diapason awards and Time Magazine’s Classical CD of the Year. He is a champion of forgotten masterpieces and newly commissioned works and is an avid writer, poet and composer.
In September 2008, Stephen Hough was awarded a Gold Disc for his Saint Saëns´s concerto set as the most popular classical recording of the past 30 years. Quite uniquely, Hough is open about weaknesses, about moments when he’s deeply questioned his career choice as a touring musician. Fighting his nerves and overcoming moments when he says he fails to reach his own high standards. The “writings” section of his website is highly recommendable.

Article from The Independent

In Masterclass situation from the Masterclass Foundation series (www.masterclassfoundation.org)

Web Site: www.stephenhough.com

/patrick