Van Cliburn Contest

[Ziggy]

Announced semi finalists:

Ning An
Davide Cabassi
Sa Chen
Jie Chen
Ying Feng
Chu-Fang Huang
Alex. Kobrin
Gabriela Martinez
Maria Mazo
Roberto Plano
Wang Ziaohan
Joyce Yang

[shadow]

I'm quite disppointed; I thought Koltakov really desreved to go through and Urasin as well.

[iumonito]

For me the greatest loss was the elimination of Elizabeth Joy Roe.  I expected Andaloro, Kim and Beus to have problems with the Jury, but not her.  Andaloro is in the Chopin in September, just in case you care.

I was surprised to see Koltakov and Franceschetti not move forward, but the survival of Plano and Mazo greatly make up for it.

[anda]

i didn't see all the 1st stage, but i'm glad to see cabassi and mazo in 2nd round, and also i'm very glad roberto plano got in semifinals despite his disastrous ginastera (based on the rest of his program, he's fantastic). sa chen is a surprise, i didn't think she'll get to 2nd stage.

[simaaili]

Urasin,Rashkovsky,Koltakov,Moutouzkine all can not advance,What a pity!
How excellent Russian pianists!

[kghayesh]

Actually I don't just know how the jury chooses between these excellent pianists. I just don't see any difference between them. They all play with fabulous technique and with much expression and most importantly with no mistakes at all.

For example, i am so surprised how Mamriev was eliminated. His playing was so virtuositic that i have never seen any thing like that. Also, Lilian Akapova was so wonderful with so much sensation to the piano. I was shocked to see those two eliminated.

Does anybody know the criteria of choosing between these fine pianists so that when i go there i take care of these things ....

[Alde]

Actually I don't just know how the jury chooses between these excellent pianists. I just don't see any difference between them. They all play with fabulous technique and with much expression and most importantly with no mistakes at all.

For example, i am so surprised how Mamriev was eliminated. His playing was so virtuositic that i have never seen any thing like that. Also, Lilian Akapova was so wonderful with so much sensation to the piano. I was shocked to see those two eliminated.

Does anybody know the criteria of choosing between these fine pianists so that when i go there i take care of these things ....

I totally agree.  If you read all of the competitor biographies you will notice that all of them have won first prizes at other international competitions.  You should read the Ivory Trade by Joseph Horowitz.  In this book he talks about the problems about competitions with specific examples from the Van Cliburn competition.
I guess that's the problem with pianists of today.  There are just too many of them.  Where as 100 years ago that was a different situation.  I am sure it must even be more difficult for the Van Cliburn Foundation to pick the jurors, then for the jurors to pick the semifinalists!

[iumonito]

Not really.  The juror pool remains fairly constant, so there is no guessing game there; and different competitions look for a different type of winner.  The Van Cliburn rewards musicians over technicians and individualism over cookie-cutter pianism.  Feghali, Ortiz, Ioudenitch and Petroni all won over a serious number of Yundi Li types.  The Chopin, on the other hand, rewards the literalist virtuoso (like Pollini and Yundi Li, and punishes the individualist (contrasting examples: Alexei Sultanov was denied first prize precisely because he does things his way -- he had previously won the Van Cliburn, Ivo Pogorelich did not even make it to the finals).

Too much poetry, instrospection and individualism gets you in trouble, though; hence Beus and Andaloro not going forward.

[Dazzer]

well a majority of them live in the us...

[Motrax]

It's difficult for the jury to choose 12 people out of 35 to move forward, and frankly, I think they've done a wonderful job for such a daunting task. I certainly disagree with a few of the pianists they chose, but all things considered, it's still an extremely talented, diverse group. That they didn't choose a few of my own favorites to move on doesn't mean their overall decision was bad. Unless you dislike the entire group, it's better just to accept their choices and move on - they aren't perfect, and they don't pretend to be, but they do what they feel is best.

Poetry and instrospection are exactly what got people like Roberto Plano and Joyce Yang (for her Bach) into the semifinals.

There are certainly differences between pianists, though it takes a good deal of experience to start differentiating between them. Why do you think some pianists like Gould or Arrau were so popular, where others with even better technique still remained unknown? 100 years ago, there were still many, many pianists (and this applies to other musicians and artists as well) barely scraping together a living while some very small number ever made it big.
So far, pretty much everybody's made some mistakes, but that's certainly not the most important thing. Piano isn't about athletics, it's about music. My favorite out of the 35, Chu-Fang Huang, missed some chords at the end of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Sonata, but the performance was still magnificent, and I wouldn't've found it too much better with the right notes. It's about the sound and overall effect the pianist produces, not necessarily accuracy. (Of course, it's not good to miss notse, and there are some places where missing notes sounds a lot worse than others, but perfect accuracy is less important than creativity, and phrasing, and dynamics, and rubato, etc etc).

I found Mamriev to be somewhat bland, despite his technique. Look at how many others in the competition have equal (or even better) technique, with the addition of more honest musicianship - I believe that's why Mamriev didn't make it. I did indeed wish Akapova moved up, but again, the jury's decision is a hard one and perhaps they didn't find her performance as compelling as I did.

So there's my two cents... 

[iumonito]

Mot, I mostly agree, although neither Plano nor Joyce Yang are introspective at all, IMO.  Poetic, certainly, but they (like Pompa-Baldi in 2001) play with great emotional risk (unlike Beus, who - like Richter at times, was playing strictly for himself (or God) and not for us).

I am embracing An, I liked his recital, very much "stick your neck out and see what happens."

[Nordlys]

Is it just my computer or is the quality of the webcast terrible?

[Motrax]

Nope, the quality really is that bad.  I've gotten used to it, though. And it's still enough to get a full sense of each performance. It's nice enough that they have a webcast at all, I guess.

[simaaili]

Actually I don't just know how the jury chooses between these excellent pianists. I just don't see any difference between them. They all play with fabulous technique and with much expression and most importantly with no mistakes at all.

For example, i am so surprised how Mamriev was eliminated. His playing was so virtuositic that i have never seen any thing like that. Also, Lilian Akapova was so wonderful with so much sensation to the piano. I was shocked to see those two eliminated.

Does anybody know the criteria of choosing between these fine pianists so that when i go there i take care of these things ....

Joyce Yang's DonJuan makes a great mistake at Var.II...and for the pieces choosed by her...It seems too simple!
I don't know why she could advance to the semifinal,there is lots of competitors do better than her!

[redintegra]

Is it just my computer or is the quality of the webcast terrible?

Mine is pretty good, even when fullscreen.

[Alde]

Is it just my computer or is the quality of the webcast terrible?

I noticed that DVDs of the competition will be for sale.  I guess that the Van Cliburn Foundation doesn't want anybody to make bootleg recordings to be sold illegally.

I have also noticed that everytime a performer begins, there is no sound.  There is a second delay.

However, I can't complain.  It would cost me a fortune to fly to Texas and purchase tickets.

[xvimbi]

I have also noticed that everytime a performer begins, there is no sound.  There is a second delay.

That is in case a performer makes a mistake and starts to utter "offensive" words or in case there is a "wardrobe malfunction." The extra second gives the moderators the chance to insert "bleep" into the audio stream or to insert a Coca Cola logo into the video stream

[Dazzer]

Mine is pretty good, even when fullscreen.

doesn't matter if its full screen or not. you still download the same amount of content.

[iumonito]

Is it me, or the webcast (both at KCTU and www.cliburn.org) is down?

I am missing Jie Chen and very much want to listen to Mazo's chamber music performance.

[Motrax]

If the cliburn site is down (which has been happening a lot these days), copy/paste the following link directly into your media player and things should work fine.

Edit: The link was working yesterday, but not today... I'll see what I can do about that. 

The only way I can get there directly seems to be when I click on the recent file list in RealPlayer (that's what I've been using). Copying and pasting the URL doesn't work anymore (for me at least). 

[redintegra]

doesn't matter if its full screen or not. you still download the same amount of content.

Certainly. All I was saying that mine is in pretty good quality, to a point where I can view it in fullscreen mode and still not be bothered by it. The faster your connection the better the quality, most of the time. I think mine is setup to download at 300kbs.

[jlh]

If the cliburn site is down (which has been happening a lot these days), copy/paste the following link directly into your media player and things should work fine.

https://reflectweb.reflectsystems.com/mediaFactory.aspx?WCID=df73cd8a-75fb-44d8-98e5-0451eee381b6&StreamID=83&MediaID=2

Nope... that link doesn't work either.

[iumonito]

Ok, here are my favorite six:

Martinez
Kobrin (I liked him much better this round)
Plano
Huang
Sa Chen
Joyce.

Chamber music award to Cabassi.  He is a great musician and I would take him over Sa Chen in this round, but I think the jury will penalize him for his La Valse (alas, I would be happy if I could play it half as well).

[Axtremus]

I have heard only very few performances, but I comfortable with Kobrin, Huang, and Joyce Yang going into the final round. Ning An won't make it this time.

[Motrax]

THE FINALISTS ARE:

Davide Cabassi
Sa Chen
Chu-Fang Huang
Alexander Kobrin
Roberto Plano
Joyce Yang

I got 4/6 on my list.

I'm very happy with these results - though as usual, they are disputable, I think that from the 12 semifinalists, this is a very good bunch to move forward. My personal favorite is Huang - I wasn't sure that she'd move up, she seems to get very little mention. Now the real excitement begins...

About tonight's performances - Kobrin really impressed me. I thought he was awful in the prelims, but his Schumann was pretty good, and his Rachmaninoff was simply unbelievable. He struck me as cold and distant before - his performance tonight was completely heartfelt and honest. Huang's chamber music was simply phenominal - not only did she play incredibly well, both during solos and with the quartet, but the Takacs quartet itself seemed to be divinely inspired during the performance. I've never seen musicians working so well together - they're rubato (in a quintet!) was perfectly timed and perfectly synchronized. Absolutely stunning.

For the afternoon, Mazo didn't impress me at all 'till she got to the Beethoven, which she played absolutely wonderfully (though I don't dispute the jury's decision to cut her - I guess they didn't want someone with a narrow repertoire). Martinez was very solid, though I don't believe it was a memorable performance. I didn't like her Mozart, though her other playing was very good (I thought she played the modern work a bit better than Huang - hard to say, though, since I don't like the piece at all to begin with).

[wintervind]

THE FINALISTS ARE:

Davide Cabassi
Sa Chen
Chu-Fang Huang
Alexander Kobrin
Roberto Plano
Joyce Yang

I got 4/6 on my list.

We must have the same list

[Motrax]

Oh, I didn't think about it last night, but I'm a little upset Ying Feng didn't make it. Her chamber music wasn't so good, but she had a really beutiful, delicate touch. She's the only one I"ve ever heard make the Brahms Paganini variations sound like anything more than loud chords and fast notes.

My list was Yang, Huang, Plano, and Kobrin for people who definitely made it, and from there I put Martinez/Sa Chen/Ying Feng as people who might make it (I really thought Cabassi wouldn't advance).

[Motrax]

*Bump*

Isn't anyone watching? It is one fo the biggest competitions in the world.

[Goldberg]

Which is probably why it doesn't really interest me very much at all...but I do plan on catching one of the concerti. I think. So far I haven't done much but look at the repertoire of the finalists and it's all pretty much the same ol' same ol' except for a guy who, if I recall, is Russian and plays some pretty cool stuff. Otherwise, yeah, it's like Brahms Paganini Variations, Liszt Spanish Rhapsody, Appasionata, Rach 2, etc...although having said that I am impressed to see someone playing Mozart and one of the Beethoven concerti...and NO RACH 3!!! YES!!!

[pianonut]

friday   june 3, 2005

who is this first guy?  oh, davide cabassi.  i like the way he spells his name.  he uses a lot of motion in his playing (and emotion!)  almost too much for me, but i like the sound he gets out of the piano at times.  he is definately talking to the piano (he loves the piano very much).  would like to know what he is saying.  (whispers to herself, what would i say to the piano?  this note is going down faster than the others, that tuner!, wow, this sounds good, i don't like the sound of that note (how can i avoid it), ok. that's where the pedal kicks in)

[pianonut]

is this chu-fang playing the beethoven e minor concerto?  if it is, i really, really like her playing.  not having heard anyone else besides davide tonight, i vote for her so far.  she has exquisite control and unexpected energy.  also, she is very easy to watch and is extremely graceful.

i think i was wrong. the lady playing this was really good, but was wearing a white dress.  now the purple dress arrives and i am sure she is chu-fang.  she has such a sense of phrasing.  this is as difficult as watching 'designers challenge' and picking the winner.  love the fugato part.

[Alde]

is this chu-fang playing the beethoven e minor concerto?  if it is, i really, really like her playing.  not having heard anyone else besides davide tonight, i vote for her so far.  she has exquisite control and unexpected energy.  also, she is very easy to watch and is extremely graceful.

i think i was wrong. the lady playing this was really good, but was wearing a white dress.  now the purple dress arrives and i am sure she is chu-fang.  she has such a sense of phrasing.  this is as difficult as watching 'designers challenge' and picking the winner.  love the fugato part.

I agree Huang is my favourite.  However, she will most likely not win because she is not white!

[Dazzer]

funny...

chu-fang in one of its tone combos means Kitchen...

[BoliverAllmon]

funny...

chu-fang in one of its tone combos means Kitchen...

interesting

[BoliverAllmon]

what happened to being creative in your choice of concerto repertoire? sad that a bigger variety isn't being played.

boliver

[The Six]

They have to pick one classical concerto, so it's no surprise there's so much Beethoven. I'm sure they would have to choose something the orchestra is familiar with, as well.

[BoliverAllmon]

They have to pick one classical concerto, so it's no surprise there's so much Beethoven. I'm sure they would have to choose something the orchestra is familiar with, as well.

I didn't realize there was a requirement for a certain concerto. I just thought it was two concertoes.

boliver

[anda]

They have to pick one classical concerto, so it's no surprise there's so much Beethoven. I'm sure they would have to choose something the orchestra is familiar with, as well.

actually, they have to pick their 1st concerto from a list provided by the organizers (and not all concerts on this list are classical), as for the 2ns, they can choose anything - and a good orchestra needs max. 3 rehearsals to get familiar with a concert.

[BoliverAllmon]

my sound card decided to bite the dust today. No finals for me. Oh the luck.

boliver

[The Six]

I'm sure there are still limitations on what they can choose...they won't drag in a chorus for Busoni's concerto, will they?

[BoliverAllmon]

I'm sure there are still limitations on what they can choose...they won't drag in a chorus for Busoni's concerto, will they?

doubtful, but even still. There is more to the world of piano concertoes than Beethoven and Rachmaninoff. Play ligeti, Schoenberg, Korngold, Ravel, Barber. Something else people.

boliver

[iumonito]

The orchestra they are playing with is not a good orchestra and they only get one reharsal per concerto.  It would be extremely foolish to pull a Ginastera 2d piano concerto on the orchestra; you would never be able to get any support at all.

In fact, mainstays of the repertoire such as Bartok 2 and Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody (this year being an exception) rarely get played because of the ensemble difficulties.  This year it will be the first time in several editions that Prokovieff 2 will get played also.  (That's tomorrow matinee, Joyce Yang, who many favor to win).

I am pulling for Davide Cabassi and Roberto Plano, the musicians in the pool of 6.

[anda]

radu lupu won playing prokofiev 2nd - at least that's what i know.

plano and cabassi are my favourites too - true pianists, not just young promising talents! (imho)

[iumonito]

My desired result:

Cabassi
Plano
Yang

My expected result:

Kobrin (maybe ex aequo with Yang)
Yang
Plano

I think the collapse in Barber's sonata is going to be too much for Sa Chen, who otherwise would surely medal.

[Nightscape]

The Final Results

Gold: Alexander Kobrin
Silver: Joyce Yang
Crystal: Sa Chen

Best chamber music:
Joyce Yang (Dvorak Quintet)

Best performance of a new work:
Joyce Yang (Currier’s Scarlatti Cadences + Brainstorm)

Discretionary awards:
Sodi Braide, Jie Chen, Gabriela Martinez, Maria Mazo

[iumonito]

I failed to point out that Joyce Yang walked away with $11,000 more than Kobrin, having won the Chamber music and New pieces awards.  Funny.

[surferpianoman]

Here are my 12, in order of appearance:

Davide Cabassi
Davide Franceschetti
Sa Chen
Stephen Beus
Giuseppe Andaloro
Elizabeth Joy Roe
Alexey Koltakov
Gabriela Martinez
Alexander Kobrin (yikes!  If i were a jury I would put Maria Mazo in and leave Kobrin out)
Wang Xiaohan
Mariya Kim
Chu-Fang Huang

The jury's list comes in 45 minutes, so post yours fast!

I wished that Davide Cabassi had won, I think he plays well. Sa chen plays well too. 
Alexander Kobrin I guess plays well too. Great technique.