Speaking of Pianists

It has been an interesting two-plus weeks for piano lovers absorbed in the Cliburn Competition in Ft. Worth, Texas.  Portland Piano International hosted a group of forty at the Semi-Finals from May 28-31.

Most people have seen the results by now, but if you’ve not read any of the bloggers, critics or other reviews or commentaries, here is one from blogger Chris Shull at Star-Telegram.com (Ft. Worth, TX).

I’ve agreed with Chris for the most part throughout the competition, and this article sums up my feelings about the winners.

All of the finalists this year were terrific pianists, and all had something important - and in some cases very different -  to say.  But it was the listeners, real or virtual, and many more than usual this year thanks to the internet broadcast, who were the real winners.

Visit Portland on July 12, just five weeks hence, to hear the Silver Medalist, Yeol Eun Son, at the Portland International Piano Festival.  Her set of Debussy Preludes in the Semi-Final round was gorgeous.

 portlandpiano.org

Probably the most important decision any of the 29 pianists in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition can make is the choice of which instrument they will play in the series of performances.

DFW.com has an interesting story about one of the competitors, Washington state’s Stephen Beus, exploration of the three available pianos.  Did he make the right choice?

For those unable to attend the Competition, live internet braodcast of all recitals is available for the first time this year at www.cliburn.tv.  Follow the link there to download the Silverlight program that will allow you to view the broadcasts.

Several bloggers, including Portland’s own James McQuillen, will keep us informed as the Competition progresses.  Natacha Kudritskaya, a 25-year-old Ukrainian pianist drew the first position and will begin her recital at 1:00 local time today.  Beus follows her at 2:05.

For those interested in the encore at Sunday’s recital featuring pianist Arnaldo Cohen, it was Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho by Ernesto Nazareth.  My score translates the title loosely as I’ve Got a Cavaquinho.

According to Wikipedia, “The cavaquinho (pron. /ka.va.’ki.ɲu/ in Portuguese) is a small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings.”

Those wishing they could hear Arnaldo Cohen’s version again are in luck.  Here is a YouTube clip featuring the great pianist, obviously playing the Nazareth after a concerto performance with The Utah Synphony.

This link will take you to David Stabler’s review of the unforgettable recital.  Stabler is Classical Music Critic for the Oregonian (Portland, Oregon).

Those are Peter Dobrin’s words from his review of pianist Arnaldo Cohen’s Philadelphia recital in November of last year.  Yes, he is talking about technique, and goes on to say that “ precisely because technique is such a firmly settled question in Cohen’s playing, he was able to draw attention to so many other lovely aspects of his persona.”

“He’s a stylish musician, though not a mannered one. He’s powerful but not percussive. He emphasizes organization and structure, though the freedom of his tempos breaks through when it serves an expressive purpose.”

Cohen plays two recitals in Portland next week and also leads a master class on Saturday evening at Sherman Clay/Moe’s Pianos.  Check the PPI website for program details and for information about the master class.

He features Liszt’s B Minor Sonata on both Sunday afternoon and Monday evening here. Back to Dobrin for comments on the Liszt: “It’s a Cohen signature piece, one of those matches between player and repertoire in which one seems to complete the other. And again, the technique, as impressive as it was, receded in relation to the more important feat of uncovering musical meaning.”

Arnaldo Cohen is one of the giants of the piano world.  His understanding of inner lines and textures in music and his sense of structure is remarkable.

You can find Dobrin’s Philadelphia Inquirer website - philly.com - review here.

The world’s most important piano competition begins this month in Ft. Worth, Texas.  The 30 pianists selected for the Preliminary Round beginning May 22nd  through 26th represent an incredibly high standard.

One pianist not in the starting lineup dominates the Ft. Worth news this week, and you can read all about 12- year-old Lewis Warren Jr. in this article from the Dallas Morning News.

Warren is definitely doing his part to spread the word about classical music, and he has the secret of all successful musicians;  ” ‘He sees his talent as a gift to share,’ said his mom.”

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition announced today the 30 pianists who will compete in the 13th annual event.

They are, listed alphabetically:

Stephen Beus*, 27, USA

Evgeni Bozhanov, 25, Bulgaria

Yue Chu, 25, China

Ran Dank, 27, Israel

Alessandro Deljavan-Farshi, 22, Italy

Yoonjung Han, 24, Korea

Kyu Yeon Kim, 23, Korea

Naomi Kudo, 22, USA/Japan

Natacha Kudritskaya, 25, Ukraine

Eduard Kunz, 28, Russia

Andrea Lam, 27, Australia

Soyeon Lee*, 29, Korea

Ang Li*, 24, Canada

Michail Lifits, 26, Germany

Spencer Myer, 30, USA

Ilya Rashkovskiy*, 24, Russia

Mayumi Sakamoto, 26, Japan

Yeol Eum Son, 23, Korea

Victor Stanislavsky, 26, Israel

Chetan Tierra, 25, USA

Nobuyuki Tsujii, 20, Japan

Mariangela Vacatello, 27, Italy

Vassilis Varvaresos, 26, Greece

Lukas Vondracek, 22, Czech Republic

Di Wu*, 24, China

Amy Yang, 25, China

Feng Zhang, 23, China

Haochen Zhang, 19, China

Ning Zhou, 21, China

Zhang Zuo, 20, China

*Past Cliburn competitor

See this link for more information about the announcement:

Auditions for students in piano, strings and brass, woodwinds and percussion were held on Sunday, February 22, in Vancouver, Washington for the fifteenth annual Young Artist Competition of the Orchestra.

2009 Winners in the Piano Division were:

First Place: Stephanie Cai of Lake Oswego, OR (Jean-David Coen, teacher), Second Place: Mighten Yip of Portland, OR (Dorothy Fahlman, teacher), and Third Place: Mary Stone of Washougal, WA (Barbara Roberts, teacher).

All winners receive scholarships, and the first place winner in each category will also perform with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the April 18 & 19 concerts.

Go to the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra web pages for more information.

Congratulations to these young artists and their teachers!

The screening auditions for the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition are complete as of today, Tuesday February 24, 2009.  Now the waiting begins for these young musicians until March 5th when the Foundation will announce the names of approximately thirty pianists selected to participate in the next round.

The Thirteenth Van Cliburn competition will take place May 22-June 7 at Bass Hall in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Most of the 155 applicants have auditioned by performing a forty minute recital during January and February in Shanghai, China; Hanover, Germany; St. Petersburg, Russia; Lugano, Switzerland; and New York.  Screening recitals in Ft. Worth wrapped up this evening.

Portland Piano International will host a group of around 40 music lovers for the Semifinal round of the Competition, May 28-31.

There are so many wonderful young pianists (applicants must be born after 1978) in the world that it must be incredibly difficult for the jurors to select the thirty who will advance to the Semifinal Round.

For regular updates on the competition, follow this link to the Cliburn web pages:
www.cliburn.org

I’ll also be talking about various aspects of the Competition at
portlandpiano.org

Gabriela Montero recently changed the program content of her upcoming Portland appearances.  She sent the following program notes for her all-improvised recitals:

To my listeners: This might be the first time, or one of the first times, that you attend an all-classical improvisation recital. This is not a jazz concert and I am not a jazz pianist. I am a classical pianist, and when I improvise, my language derives mainly from that world of sound, harmony, and structure.

Recently, I’ve decided to include in my concert schedule recitals that are entirely improvised. You might ask why. But why not? Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Albeniz, and others all extemporized with great skill before delighted audiences; and some, like Liszt and Thalberg, even participated in improvising duels. Some composers improvised on their own pieces in concert. The abilities of Chopin, Liszt, and Beethoven at this were well-known, and it was common for them to improvise portions of their already-written pieces. Why has this art nearly disappeared? I suggest that a desire to perfect the notes on the page (Is that really possible? How can we measure it?) has eclipsed the search for spontaneous creation. But spontaneity has its own value. By begetting a unique experience shared by the performer and audience, improvisation can invoke the moment when a classical piece arises from the subconscious and crystallizes in the composer’s mind.

Now, I don’t mean to put myself in the same category as Beethoven and Bach! But I was born with a talent for improvisation, and when doing that I feel most free and alive as a musician. When I improvise, I seem to inhabit a white void, and that is where my music comes from. I can’t stress enough how the process that these improvisations go through is as much a puzzle to me as it is to everyone who asks me: How do you do it? The value in this music is that it is created without thought, and that what leads me is pure inspiration, and not formulas or patterns.

Thank you for taking part of this musical experiment. I hope you enjoy the evening. Let’s imagine that we are back in the early nineteenth century…

— Program notes by Gabriela Montero

For ticket information, go here.

Pianist Richard Goode will play Franz Schubert’s final sonata in his second Portland recital on Tuesday, October 14th.

The Sonata in Bb Major, D. 960, written in the last year of Schubert’s short life, is a work of transcendental beauty.

Goode discusses Schubert over dinner with the late David Blum, author of Quintet: Five Journeys toward Musical Fulfillment (Cornell University Press, 1998).

“Some people feel that there’s a premonition of death in those last sonatas,” he said. “Yes, there’s a darkness and fatalism, but you find those qualities in Schubert from way back, not only in his last year. One of the things that move you in Schubert is the coexistence of marvelous beauty, sweetness, and grace with a kind of terror waiting to be disclosed.  More than Beethoven, he evokes the uncanny. You feel how vulnerable that beauty is.”

In addition to the Goode piece, Blum’s wonderful book contains stories about Yo-Yo Ma, Jeffery Tate, Josef Gingold and Birgit Nilsson.

Tickets are available for Goode’s Tuesday evening Portland performance.  Go here for information.