Ya'll, it's kind of ironic- you all seem to be dropping this guy ceaselessly, but you have to realize, he's making a lot of money doing what he is doing, so obviously he's not a TOTAL hack. Someone likes him, or he wouldn't be having concerts, etc. as well as his own cool website
. He's laughing all the way to the bank.
Please.
Fame isn't everythig
So many talneted people struggle thru this music industry and not get anything. Some people with no talnet, no nothing can earn millions and become like a international star.
Show-B is all about money. If the company think you will make money for them, then they will promote you.
And popularity doesn't goes with talent in most of the case.
I hate to use this analogy, but it's more close to the 'classical music' field, so:
Ignaz Paderwski is one of the most famous and beloved pianists in the early 20th century. But everyone who has seriously studied music knows he is not a extremely good pianist. At least there are like 10000 more talented concert pianist out there. But no one cares, while all the serious musician counthing his wrong notes, he was counthing the money he got.
A comman misconception, Fame does not have little to do with talent. Especially in this world, while most of the people care about 'appearance' and 'outlook'.
I have heard more than once that people say:
"Oh, Maksim is so much more handsome than Yundi Li and Lang Lang(they are like the only pianists those people know), he is like the GOD of piano"
He made me sick... SO as the statement...
Anyway, i did a little bit research on him too.
He was like claiming he won a 'Rubinstein Prize' before, then I went to the Arthur Rubinstein competition website, there wasn't any competition going on that year he claimed he won the Prize!
I was suprised, so I tried to search for like a competition with 'Maksim' and 'Rubinstein', it turned out to be a small local competition in Romania with the same name 'Rubinstein Competition'. That made me think he is such a liar.
And again, I don't think playing Rach2 with the background CD playing is a very good display of his technique or musicsianship.
He have ashamed himself and the name of all pianists.
Anyway, I have done with my whinning. I do feel bad about those piece, when i saw he played Flight of the bumlbe bee on TV, cause he is not playing with all the background music going on. He played like 3 times slower than normal, and with tons of wrong notes, and no music involved....
The next day i still heard some girls saying 'DId you see that Maksim guy last night, he was so AWESOME! and he is so handsome too....'
(And also from above, don't abuse the word 'neo-classical' on him, there are so much more better music worth that title.')