Arthur Rubinstein Competition 2014

[faulty_damper]

This is just a fact of life, people: Don't play Schumann at piano competitions.  The music is crap and I won't listen to crap unless it's hitting the toilet.  There's a reason Chopin didn't assign any of Schumann's works to his students but did assign many of his own.

[schumaniac]

This is just a fact of life, people: Don't play Schumann at piano competitions.  The music is crap and I won't listen to crap unless it's hitting the toilet.  There's a reason Chopin didn't assign any of Schumann's works to his students but did assign many of his own.

can you explain? Schumann doesn't seem to be super-popular with judges at piano competitions, but his music is not "crap!" You can't say Carnaval, Papillons, Kinderszenen, Fantasiestucke, the Fantasy, the Concerto, is all crap. Even ABEGG is not crap. They are all finely written piano pieces. Not crap At least not to me. Schumann's music is unique (again, to me) in its texture (while it might be thick-sounding on the piano, unlike Chopin) and its variety of moods ("Florestan," "Eusebius").

[faulty_damper]

Let's just say that he wasn't a good piano solo composer.  He wrote very academically, i.e. he couldn't improvise so musical tone was lost on him.  Further, because he was such a lousy pianist, he wrote very simply but tried to make it more difficult.  It's just not very good. I've never liked his music and it's just boring to listen to because interpretation is pretty straight-forward.

[awesom_o]

It's just not very good.

It's just not very good.... much like the pianism of Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, and Gould, according to our friend faulty here.

Perhaps you'd be willing to share some of your compositions with us, faulty_damper?

I'm eager to hear how they stack up in comparison to some of that crap that Schumann composed. 

[pianoman53]

In the future, people will refer to Faulty the same way.

"Let's just say he wasn't a very good internet troll. He wrote very academically, i.e. he couldn't teach, so he couldn't think that people might think differently from him. Further, because he was such a lousy pianist, he wrote very stupid and simply tried to win people over with arguments that were made up. I've never liked his writing and it's just boring to read because it's obvious that he was a troll"

[j_menz]

With "whom".

"With whom I dread discussing piano" (thereby also avoiding the dangling participle), but "Who I dread discussing piano with".

This grammar lesson is a free service of Pedants Inc.

[starlady]

If it is allowed at this point to mention the original topic:  although I couldn't attend the competition I did get tickets for a concert the three winners will give next week at the Weizmann Institute  .   I am really looking forward to seeing the performers live and hoping for a more varied program than there was in the competition.  I will report on the concert in due time--s.