Van Cliburn Competition - Report #7
Trafton Bogert
Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Ft. Worth, TX.
Someone asked me why I comment on the women's clothing, but not the
men's. I occasionally comment on the men's clothing--if not this
year, then four years ago. However, it tends to be far more
uniform--usually a tuxedo or a coat and tie--whereas the women have a
much greater variety of clothing options. I'm also partially color
blind and have trouble differentiating dark blue from black, among
other colors. Though I like fine clothes when I see them, I really
know nothing clothes, so my descriptions are going to sound pretty
lame. Frankly, I don't have much interest in men's clothing. It
doesn't seem to me that a tuxedo vs. a coat and tie merits comment.
Perhaps it does to others. If it is important to some readers, please
consider posting a reply to this thread (including the person who sent
me the email), and I'll try to be more thorough. I've also missed
noting some of the pianos, but only because I forgot, or I wasn't
certain which one I was looking at. (They do pretty much look the
same.) Someone also asked why I don't invent names for all of the
contestants. I prefer to mention a name only when one occurs to me.
Otherwise, the names might devolve into attacks on their physical
characteristics. Some of my reviews are cruel enough as it is,
without bringing attention to physical traits over which the
contestants may have little control.
Tue., 29 May 2001, 1:30 PM - Maurizio Baglini - Age 26 - Italy -
Cliburn Foundation NY Steinway - "The Cautious"
Schubert - Sonata in G major, D. 894
Liszt - Apres une lecture de Dante
The first movement of the Schubert was played delicately. It caused
me to listen and take note. The second movement was lacking a bit in
forward motion, and it was too cautiously played. He did have a way
of accompanying beautifully while bringing out the melody. The
remainder of the sonata failed to catch fire. This music was not
written to be boring, but it sounded that way. There is constant
invention along the way, intriguing melodies, and opportunities for
virtuosic technique, but he missed them.
There are few things worse than Liszt played with restraint. The two
should be antithetical. He still managed to make a lot of racket at
the end.
Tue., 29 May 2001, 2:35 PM - Stanislav Ioudenitch - Age 29 -
Uzbekistan - Hamburg Steinway - "The Actor"
Rachmaninoff - Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36 (1913)
Bach - Partita No. 2 in c minor, BWV 826
Liszt - Paganini Etude No. 2 in E-flat major
- Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
Ioudenitch used a low stool, a la Glenn Gould. It could be my
imagination, but I thought his tone suffered as a result. I think the
Rachmaninoff requires a bit more leverage than can be obtained by
playing from "underneath the piano." On the whole, I found his
playing of this sonata to be indifferent. There was somewhat more
tone in the third movement.
Again, his Bach again sounded indifferent. He certainly did not
plummet the depths of beauty to be found in this Partita.
The Paganini Etude was the best piece on his program, both flashy and
humorous. The melody had a nice lilt. He missed notes in the
Hungarian Rhapsody, and he was not in complete control of the piece.
He cranked up the tempo at the end for a spectacular finish.
Ioudenitch was selected as a semi-finalist in the 1997 competition.
However, he scalded his hand while pouring some hot tea and had to
drop out before competing. I remember seeing him in the lobby
afterwards with a bandage so big that it resembled a football. These
two factors, being here before and having dropped out, made him an
audience favorite. I felt that he was playing this to the hilt. His
manner on stage is somewhat cocky. At one point--perhaps between
movements of the Rachmaninoff--he looked up and out into the
auditorium, as if he had lived so long in his secluded brilliance that
he had to ponder what a bizarre place he was in, an auditorium full of
people. I think he's very smug and loves to have the audience eat out
of his hand. His repertoire for the preliminary round this year had
all been scheduled for his semi-final round four years ago, with the
exception of the Paganini Etude, which is what he played best. I
ranked him 7 of 35 in 1997, and I thought his playing was much
stronger then. Two of the pieces for his semi-final round this year
were included in his 1997 preliminary round.
Tue., 29 May 2001, 3:40 PM - Amir Katz - Age 28 - Israel - Cliburn
Foundation NY Steinway - "Fits and Starts"
Beethoven - Sonata in C major, Op. 53 "Waldstein"
Schumann - Kreisleriana, Op. 16
The first movement of the Waldstein was a solid performance, but
nothing noteworthy. The second movement was too slow and ponderous.
The beginning of the last movement should have been more mystical.
There was much soft playing in the coda, which sounded a little
unnatural. The coda was taken at a suitably fast tempo.
I have an LP of Horowitz playing the Kreisleriana (the earlier
recording on Columbia Masterworks is best). He captures the
exuberance of this work, yet he knows how to pace it so that it
doesn't ever sound rushed or hurried. He plays it with a slight
detachment, as if the music is playing itself, and there isn't a human
being making it happen. Katz's interpretation sounded jerky, by
comparison.
Tue., 29 May 2001, 7:30 PM - Albert Mamriev - Age 26 - Israel -
Cliburn Foundation NY Steinway
Shohat - Tragedy
Haydn - Sonata in C minor, Hob. XVI:20
Schubert - Sonata in A minor, D. 537
Liszt - Polonaise No. 2 in E major
There were lots of glissandi and pounding bass notes in the Shohat.
The piece was short and effective.
Some of the phrases were too slurred and indistinct in the first
movement of the sonata. Haydn should always be clear and crisp.
Throughout the piece, I felt that he was looking at this in terms of
markings on a page instead of considering what the music meant to him.
Why just go through the motions?
Schubert wrote piano music filled with melody, beauty, elegance, and
enough character to rival those in Dickens' novels. It is great that
so many of the contestants have programmed Schubert sonatas. Yet,
none of them have made a strong case for him thus far. Mamriev gave a
kind of tired rendition, going from one melody to the next without
relishing the beauty that was underneath his fingers.
Liszt: I have done enough complaining about Liszt and this pianist
both! There is nothing more to say.
Tue., 29 May 2001, 8:35 PM - Olga Kern - Age 26 - Russia - Cliburn
Foundation NY Steinway
Rachmaninoff - Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 36 (1931)
Shostakovich - Prelude and Fugue in B-flat major, Op. 87, No. 21
Wagner-Liszt - Isolde's Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Mozart-Liszt - Reminiscences de Don Juan
Kern wore a one strap black dress with a bow and ribbons which hung
down the back of the bench. She is another returnee, having been
known as Olga Pushechnikova in 1997. She would have played the
Rachmaninoff and the Mozart-Liszt on her semi-finals program in 1997
if she had advanced. I called her "The Technician" in my 1997
write-up, said that she obviously hated life, and ranked her 18 of 37.
Since then, she has given birth to a son who is now two years old.
Kern started at the top of the piano and rapidly descended to the
bottom with an enormous crescendo and a huge accented chord. I knew
by the end of the first measure that this would be very special. She
could instantly shift from thundering to great delicacy, and it was
all delivered in the most spontaneous way imaginable. The air was
filled with such sweet anticipation that I literally hung on every
note this woman played. I think that the theme of the second movement
is the most beautiful music which Rachmaninoff wrote, and when I heard
Kern play it, I wept. She took some very imaginative rubatos with
this music, and I loved the way she overlaid the second theme. The
third movement was highly agitated. Frequently, she dropped the
dynamic back, which caused me to listen even harder, but she could
build up to a tremendous tone. This was brilliant playing. The only
thing I know to compare it to is Horowitz's later recording of the
sonata, from the 1979/1980 season.
The Prelude and Fugue sounded like a cross between Bach and
Shostakovich and was quite beautiful.
Kern captured the ethereal beauty of the Liebestod. She made the
piano moan and groan. It was quite moving. In both Liszt pieces, she
made me wait to hear each note that she struck, and I could nearly
died in anticipation. She took her bow with her hand on her heart.
Tue., 29 May 2001, 9:40 PM - Davide Franceschetti - Age 24 - Russia -
Steinway Hall NY Steinway
Schumann - Davidsbundlertanze, Op. 6
Ravel - La Valse
Franceschetti is a pupil of Lazar Berman. His rendition of the
Schumann was exciting, seductive, and passionate. Each of the pieces
had individual character, and some of them were appropriately sweeping
or contemplative.
The opening of the Ravel sounded very ominous, and more expressive and
thoughtful playing followed. He had tremendous accents where he just
hammered the piano, and his foot was making quite a lot of noise.
This I found to be distracting, as it went on for some time.
Here is the way I would rank the thirty contestants. The
semifinalists are indicated:
1) Olga Kern - semifinalist
2) Oleksiy Koltakov - semifinalist
3) Alessandra Maria Ammara - semifinalist
4) Stefania Cafaro
5) Davide Franceschetti - semifinalist
6) Jong-Gyung Park
7) Antonio Pompa-Baldi - semifinalist
8) Xiaohan Wang - semifinalist
9) Oxana Mikhailoff
10) Maxim Philippov - semifinalist
11) Yuri Blinov
12) Edna Stern
-------------
13) Sergey Koudriakov - seminfinalist
14) Stanislav Ioudenitch - semifinalist
15) Andrew Russo
16) Vassily Primakov - semifinalist
17) Masaru Okada - semifinalist
18) Maxim Manioukov
19) Maurizio Baglini - semifinalist
20) Amir Katz
21) Albert Mamriev
22) Yunjie Chen
23) Jong Hwa Park
24) Tadashi Imai
25) Alexander Moutouzkine
26) Paavali Jumppanen
27) Anton Mordasov
28) Ying Feng
29) Dror Biran
30) Roger Wright
Four years ago, the jury was scraping semifinalists off the bottom of
my list, accepting my 29th, 30th, and 31st choices (out of 35). My
31st choice was Jon Nakamatsu, the winner of the competition. Enough
said.... This year, the jury and I are in much closer agreement. In
fact, I don't have particularly strong feelings past my #5 choice, and
i'm not extremely confident that my rankings past #5 are in the best
order. Though I liked Jong-Gyung Park's playing, I doubt that she
would have played well enough to rank in the top three. However, I
think that the jury deprived us of a strong semifinalist by
eliminating Stephania Cafaro. At 29, she is one of the older
competitors, and her playing was most impressive. The remainder of
her program was Beethoven's Son. In E-flat, Op. 7; Schumann's
Davidsbundlertanze, Op. 6; Lowell Liebermann's Three Impromptus;
Brahms F minor Quintet, Mozart Con. # 23; Saint-Saens Con. #5.
The competition was on break yesterday for rehearsals of the chamber
pieces. It resumes today at 1:30.
sch...@gefen.cc.biu.ac.il
: There are few things worse than Liszt played with restraint.
Cut out the last three words, and I'd agree with you 100%.
[re: Amir Katz's performance of the Waldstein]
: The coda was taken at a suitably fast tempo.
Did he play glissandi or note-by-note in the octave passages?
: I literally hung on every note this woman played.
^^^^^^^^^
I've told you a million times not to exaggerate!
Thank you for your reviews. Having read them, I'm curious to know how you
think this competition is doing relative to the traditional complaint that
competitions reward middle-of-the-road performances and penalize people
who are actually original or are willing to take chances. Years and years
ago, I used to follow the Three Rivers piano competition. I remember that
one of the required pieces in a preliminary round was a "late Beethoven
sonata." Most of the contestants ended playing the "Les Adieux" (!!!) because
they knew very well that no jury would ever agree on *any* interpretation
of, say, Op. 110.
-----
Richard Schultz sch...@mail.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
Opinions expressed are mine alone, and not those of Bar-Ilan University
-----
"You go on playing Bach your way, and I'll go on playing him *his* way."
-- Wanda Landowska
Don Drewecki
Just out of curiosity, Trafton, can you tell us who the piano
technicians/tuners are for this competition? What I'm hearing on NPR
sounds pretty good!
--
Don Drewecki
<dre...@rpi.edu>
Trafton Bogert
providing many pianos for the competition, incl. some of those in the
host family homes.
Grant
Trafton Bogert wrote:
> Here is the way I would rank the thirty contestants. The
> semifinalists are indicated:
>
> 1) Olga Kern - semifinalist
> 2) Oleksiy Koltakov - semifinalist
Interesting. These are the only two pianists that really stood out to
me. I guess that makes them my favorites too. The only other one was
Franceschetti because his "La Valse" was so much better than the one I
heard played previously by I forget who.
I will have to re-listen to Ammara's recital, as I was kind of surprised
that she was chosen a semi-finalist and to see her ranked so high by
you.\
Any comment on the choice of repertoire? It seems in a way very
limited. It was nice to see some lesser known Schubert and Haydn
sonatas, but overall there seemed to be a lot of repetition in the
programs. I don't care to hear anymore Rach 2nd Sonatas or Mephisto
Waltzs anytime soon. Also, there were not any Chopin Etudes that I
remember.
Thanks again for providing your reports.
Grant
Mikeq1139
played a bunch of times in the semifinals as well as the multiple performances
already. It's a great piece, but geez, there are a lot more interesting pieces
out there than this.
mike
Peter T. Daniels
>
> Trafton Bogert wrote:
> > Here is the way I would rank the thirty contestants. The
> > semifinalists are indicated:
> >
> > 1) Olga Kern - semifinalist
> > 2) Oleksiy Koltakov - semifinalist
>
> Interesting. These are the only two pianists that really stood out to
> me. I guess that makes them my favorites too. The only other one was
Seems like they were both O.K.
--
Peter T. Daniels gram...@worldnet.att.net
Grant
"Peter T. Daniels" wrote:
>
> Grant wrote:
> >
> > Trafton Bogert wrote:
> > > Here is the way I would rank the thirty contestants. The
> > > semifinalists are indicated:
> > >
> > > 1) Olga Kern - semifinalist
> > > 2) Oleksiy Koltakov - semifinalist
> >
> > Interesting. These are the only two pianists that really stood out to
> > me. I guess that makes them my favorites too. The only other one was
>
> Seems like they were both O.K.
Perhaps between the two of them they can corral all the awards.
Grant
JTT
"Trafton Bogert" <tra...@airmail.net> wrote in message
news:F9F9595B0CB3CD3C.99C709F9...@lp.airnews.net...
> Following is a continuation of daily comments/reviews about the
> Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Ft. Worth, TX.
>
> Someone asked me why I comment on the women's clothing, but not the
> men's. I occasionally comment on the men's clothing--if not this
> year, then four years ago. However, it tends to be far more
> uniform--usually a tuxedo or a coat and tie--whereas the women have a
> much greater variety of clothing options. I'm also partially color
> blind and have trouble differentiating dark blue from black, among
> other colors.
Most people have a problem with dark blue and black....those who are not
color blind.
.....
I've also missed
> noting some of the pianos, but only because I forgot, or I wasn't
> certain which one I was looking at. (They do pretty much look the
> same.)
Really, most people hadn't noticed the similarity.
Someone also asked why I don't invent names for all of the
> contestants. I prefer to mention a name only when one occurs to me.
> Otherwise, the names might devolve into attacks on their physical
> characteristics. Some of my reviews are cruel enough as it is,
> without bringing attention to physical traits over which the
> contestants may have little control.
>
One word names are pretty childish and very cruel. More imprtantly, the
fact that you would even *consider* mentioning physical traits is pretty
scary to me. Also, interesting that you openly admit to cruelty. What kind
of trait is that? Seems as though you are proud of that.
James