The Poet who Hates Mozart

Posted at 8:56 PM on June 15, 2009 (9 Comments)

Her name is Laure-Anne Bosselaar, and I hope I say her name right on the radio...not because I want to be correct, but because she'll be listening and has a degree in elocution. (Check out her remarkable bio.)

The Pleasures of Hating

I hate Mozart. Hate him with that healthy
pleasure one feels when exasperation has

crescendoed, when lungs, heart, throat,
and voice explode at once: I hate that! -

there's bliss in this, rapture. My shrink
tried to disabuse me, convinced I use Amadeus

as a prop: Think further, your father perhaps?
I won't go back, think of the shrink

with a powdered wig, pinched lips, mole:
a transference, he'd say, a relapse: so be it.

I hate broccoli, chain saws, patchouli, bra-
clasps that draw dents in your back, roadblocks,

men in black kneesocks, sandals and shorts-
I love hating that. Loathe stickers on tomatoes,

jerky, deconstruction, nazis, doilies. I delight
in detesting. And love loving so much after that.

(Laure-Anne Bosselaar, "The Pleasures of Hating" from Small Gods of Grief. Copyright © 2001 by Laure-Anne Bosselaar. Used by permission of the poet and BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.)

Laure-Anne Bosselaar joins us on PT on Tuesday the 16th to read "The Pleasures of Hating"...and it's an evocative, rhythmic, churning read, you gotta hear it! I'll post a link to the audio as soon as I get my hands on it.

Very curious to hear if there's music you love to hate? Leave a comment.

More poems by Laure-Anne Bosselaar here. Interview with her here.

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Wrapping it all up

Posted at 6:48 PM on June 10, 2009 (6 Comments)

This Cliburn Festival entry written by Gregory Allen, Professor of Piano, University of Texas at Austin, exclusively for Performance Today's Fredlines.

Travel and exhaustion have prevented my posting since the Awards Ceremony. Yes, it's old news by now, but here are my thoughts about Sunday's final performances, as well as reactions to the outcome and to the competition as a whole.

Nobu Tsujii's recital was thoroughly professional, if not as compelling as his previous work. Sorry to say, the Appassionata sounded a bit too much like Rubinstein - clean, sober and grounded, to be sure, but not quite to the manner born. (Let's face it, Rubinstein was never considered the greatest Beethoven player of all time.) Surprisingly, the Chopin Berceuse was rather prosaic, and the Liszt Rhapsody seemed overly, um, is respectful the right word? Is it possible that the poor guy was just tired??

Haochen Zhang sure didn't sound tired - if anything he burned up more calories in the Prokofiev 2nd than in all the other rounds combined. Not to put down Yeol Eum Son's admirable achievement in the same work, but I thought Zhang's was more disciplined, more accurate, more rhythmically secure, and at least as powerful relative to the orchestra. If I had to quibble, it would be that he didn't appear to be moved by the dark Slavic narrative that constitutes the last movement's middle section. (That's really the only part of this concerto that asks for some degree of poetry.) Otherwise, a stunning performance!

I got pretty much what I expected from Di Wu's Rachmaninoff Third. This piece has become such a rite of passage among competition players that surmounting its immense technical challenges is no longer a big deal (sort of like the Liszt Sonata). She did that adequately, for the most part. But her control of tempo and sonorities was spotty, and the architectural organization was erratic at best. As I've noted before, I think her playing is very attractive on a superficial - and visual - level, but trying to find deeper significance is, for me, a futile search.

So... The awards have been announced, and the jury has pretty much validated my educated guess as to the medalists, notwithstanding the first-place tie. To them is due all possible gratitude, for their expertise, professionalism and stamina. I personally think they got it right, insofar as Cliburn winners have always been the pianists who play a broad range of repertoire accurately, tastefully, and consistently, with just the right degree of imagination and dignified showmanship - just like Van himself. (To those who look at this tendency with disdain, who see boring propriety trumping unconventional individuality over and over, I say - you're not entirely wrong. Lang Lang would never win this competition...) In this case we had Bozhanov, who seemed to fit the mold and was well positioned to win a medal, until his idiosyncrasies went berserk. Vacatello might have been a prime candidate if not for inconsistencies that, unfortunately, may have been beyond her control. Wu, with all her audience appeal, was lucky just to make the finals. (My opinion, of course.) Several of the others who didn't, like Kunz, Lifits, Deljavan, Lam, Myer et al, showed distinctive personalities as well as respectable integrity. Ultimately, though, it is these three medalists who are best suited to represent the ideals of the Cliburn Competition. In the real world, for better or worse, ya gotta have a hook, a defining image, and each of them has one. The diminutive Samurai warrior, triumphant over adversity. The shy youth, guileless, humble and wise. The serene diva, draped in radiant robes. These things can help a career, and shouldn't be completely discounted, but of course they're ultimately peripheral to the qualities of outstanding pianism and musicianship that really speak to us. I'm thinking that all three of them have an abundance of these assets, and that we'll be hearing from them a lot in the future.

It's been a special privilege for me to be able to share my experiences here. Many thanks to Sevan Melikyan at the Cliburn, and Fred Child right here at Performance Today, for having faith in my untested abilities as a music critic - I hope I've shown some progress in the quality of my grousing and sniping! Thanks also to you faithful readers, and especially to those who have posted comments. And so, with the figurative flourish of a fermata over the final double-bar, I'm outta here...
GA

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It Won't Be Long Now...

Posted at 4:47 PM on June 7, 2009 (3 Comments)

The finals of the Cliburn have just finished. It's been an exciting competition, with an extraordinarily fluid dynamic over the past five days. Each performance has added a new wrinkle, and to my mind, the jury could decide in a number of plausible ways. For the record, though, here's how I think it might come out:

Gold: Haochen Zhang
Silver: Nobuyuki Tsujii
Crystal: Yeol Eum Son

Chamber Music Award(s): Zhang (Schumann) & Bozhanov (Franck)

New Work Award(s): Kunz, White Lies; Lifits, Hagen Suite

There may be a Jury Discretionary Award. My guess would be Andrea Lam.

Again, this is only one of several possible outcomes...we'll know soon enough!
GA

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Saturday's Double-header

Posted at 11:10 AM on June 7, 2009 (0 Comments)

This Cliburn Festival entry written by Gregory Allen, Professor of Piano, University of Texas at Austin, exclusively for Performance Today's Fredlines.

Time constraints require xtreme twitter mode...

Recitals: Zhang's Brahms Handel was modest in scope but persuasive on its own terms. Gaspard was technically superb, if not especially colorful: tonal palette in stark grays and blacks. (Le Gibet benefited from that in an unexpected way.) Scarbo unleashed more animal instinct than we've heard before from Zhang. It's been noted that he almost never misses a note; what struck me today was that he also pays scrupulous attention to pedaling.

Di Wu's Gaspard was overly liberal with rubato; Ondine can take it, but the other two pieces suffered. Le Gibet was not a success. She does a lot of hand redistribution in Scarbo - which is fine by me - but she also fakes a bit too much. Her Bach was tasteful but boring; it seemed out of place in the finals. Schoenberg's Op. 11 was an intriguing choice; she played it well, but needed better textural layering: I wasn't always sure where the Hauptstimme was.

Prokofiev Concertos: Both 2nd (Son) and 3rd (Vacatello) were solid and commanding. Son gets a prize for quickest turnaround - three performances in less than 48 hours. It's astounding that she could have enough strength to get through one of the most athletic concertos in the repertoire. In places she caused some avoidable ensemble glitches, though... Ditto, in spades, for Vacatello - she frequently seemed unaware that she was making almost impossible demands from Conlon and the orchestra. But it was certainly exciting - after two underpowered performances she seemed fired up and ready to go for the jugular.

Rachmaninoff 2nd: One of the two performances was disappointing - and it wasn't Bozhanov's. (His was, unfortunately, quite predictable: eccentric, fractured, grotesque, faked, narcissistic, vulgar, and - oh, me, I don't have time to go on...) No, sorry to say, it was Tsujii who has met his match in the Big Concerto category - and here it's impossible to disregard his handicap. Because he has to play so close to the keys, he's not able to get enough upper arm and shoulder into his sound: up against a massive orchestra he's underpowered. And his ears, marvelous as they are, weren't able to pick out the essential rhythmic elements in Rachmaninoff's murky orchestration. (And I thought Conlon was pretty insensitive, especially at the very beginning.) It was a valiant effort, but I'd have to say that he probably should stay away from this rep, at least in live performance - in a studio recording, of course, balances can be adjusted and ensemble problems edited...
GA

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Finals Day Three: Disappointments

Posted at 11:03 AM on June 6, 2009 (7 Comments)

This Cliburn Festival entry written by Gregory Allen, Professor of Piano, University of Texas at Austin, exclusively for Performance Today's Fredlines.

"Con onor muore chi non può serbar vita con onore." This line from the end of Madama Butterfly came to mind during the most profoundly quiet moment of the Beethoven 4th tonight. (It's the inscription on the blade that she reads just before doing the deed.) Why on earth would I think of that? Because, if I had a cell phone (which I don't!), and I forgot to silence it, and it went off at such a moment, shattering the spell for countless thousands of music-lovers worldwide, I think there would be no choice for me but to commit hara-kiri. Do you read me, thoughtless perpetrator??

What made it so infinitely annoying was that it happened during one of the few really inspired moments of Mariangela Vacatello's performance. Sorry to say, she seemed out of sorts - again - and mostly fell short of conveying the uniquely spiritual character of the work. Were the extravagant swirls and waves of the first movement magically ethereal? Not really; as in a lot of performances I hear, they sounded like scales and arpeggios dressed in their Sunday best - sort of like looking at Seurat's Grande Jatte up too close. Did the slow movement have the choked-off, suffering quality we associate with the lamenting Orpheus? Well, no, in part because she played it without soft pedal, which Beethoven asks for. And does her score indicate presto for the last movement? Mine says only vivace... I couldn't help feeling that her stoic manner got in the way of experiencing the full magnificence of this piece; as in some of her other performances, I wished she would unmask her artistic vision more candidly. (I also think she would do well to treat her conductor with more respect...)

Speaking of respect, Yeol Eum Son continues to earn mine: she has consistently been reliable, secure, and serenely unflappable. That's not to say that her Chopin F minor Concerto was the performance of my dreams, but she's a pro, no question about it. Here and there she was able to plug into the special sense of communicative long-term thinking that I've noticed before; when she gets in that mode I find her playing irresistibly involving. (I was looking for it in the 2nd movement of Op. 111 last night, but didn't find it.) It does bother me that she doesn't seem to have the imaginative, discriminating ear for sound that has distinguished so much of the playing in this competition; I keep thinking it's the instrument that sounds so tired and tarnished, but even her earlier performances (e.g. Schumann's Fantasiestücke, the Debussy Preludes) were kind of monochrome. In sum, then, this was a minor, if not unexpected, disappointment.

But the award for outstanding achievement in the category Most Majorly Distressing Disappointment goes to - ta-daah! - Evgeni Bozhanov. Remember the first round, when I wrote "a fresh, direct approach without affectation?" Well, I think he's decided he should maybe invest heavily in affectation. In the semifinals his "extraordinary clarity" has now been traded for cryptic obfuscation; the "stupefying intensity" has become shocking perversity; and no previous notice has been made of the glaring chinks in his technical armor that were brazenly on display in this recital. (Come to think of it, they were fairly obvious in the Chopin Concerto, but it went by in such a blur that we didn't notice.) No, I'm afraid I wrote, "he's on track to win this competition, so he can do what he likes!" At this point I would suggest that we collectively rescind that invitation; Mr. Bozhanov has revealed a creepy megalomania that should not be condoned...
GA

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The Finals, Session Two: Youth will have its Day...

Posted at 2:58 PM on June 5, 2009 (4 Comments)

This Cliburn Festival entry written by Gregory Allen, Professor of Piano, University of Texas at Austin, exclusively for Performance Today's Fredlines.

I heard Arthur Rubinstein only once live in concert: Houston, spring 1976, during his last tour (at age 89). But last night I swear I heard him again, channeled into the Bass Hall by Nobuyuki Tsujii (age 20), the phenomenon of this competition. In an earlier post I mentioned that I don't think it's a bad thing for an artist to develop his/her interpretive views based on great performers of the past; after all, we don't create art in a vacuum, and there's much truth in tradition. We don't have to slavishly adhere to it, and there's always room for fresh insights, but we should be aware of our roots, and respect them. I often sum up this philosophy with what I thought was a facetious hypothesis: If you can really, truly sound like Rubinstein by listening to recordings, I'm not gonna complain! Well, to my mind, Mr. Tsujii has accomplished something amazingly close to just that. (Of course it's just a facile convenience to say that he emulates Rubinstein to the exclusion of all others; I'm certain that he listens to and assimilates qualities of many wonderful pianists.) But there it is: what I heard in this Chopin E minor Concerto was an elegant old-style performance, a virtual reincarnation of the spirit of an earlier time, delivered without affectation, posturing, prettification or apology. Like I said yesterday, it's a rare achievement to just Get It Right. This one did, and I'm in awe.
(Did I mention his, um, handicap? I didn't? Oh well, never mind...)

For the second time, Haochen Zhang was put in the unenviable position of following Mr. Tsujii, but somehow I doubt that he's susceptible to neurosis or superstition - he's just a brilliant young man on a mission, and it seems to me that his mission has very little to do with competitive one-upsmanship. He showed up at 10 p.m. to play his Mozart D minor, which he did with his customary precision and self-assurance. But what wowed me was his three-dimensional immersion in the emotional drama of the piece. Without ever stepping outside the boundaries of good Mozart style (except in the cadenzas, which were appropriately done in good Beethoven style), he found wonderfully varied shapes, articulations and sonorities - which were matched with striking vitality by Maestro Conlon and the orchestra - adding up to one of the most compelling journeys through the D minor that I've ever experienced. I think I'll try to emulate Zhang the next time I play this piece!
(Oh darn, I see I haven't mentioned that he just turned 19... how careless of me!)

I mean no disrespect to Yeol Eum Son by leaving discussion of her recital til last. Remember that she was on my list of picks for the finals, and that her Spanish Rhapsody and Barber Sonata were really outstanding - even her Brahms Quintet has gained in my estimation with a few days' hindsight. Her program was skillfully planned as a cohesive progression: Lyrical Bach (in B-flat) leading directly into song-like B-flat Schubert variations; stormy F minor Schubert setting up angry C minor Beethoven, followed by ethereal C major variations. She played with style, finesse and great concentration. What I missed, though (and I know you saw this coming), was a convincing overview of each piece; the remarkable sense of architecture and inevitability that was evident before seemed to be undermined by too much attention to local detail - and that in turn was hampered by sonorities that were, to my ears, less than ravishing. This recital demonstrated the difference between eminently respectable, professional-level pianism and gripping, inspired artistry - with fatigue no doubt being a major issue in the equation. Ms. Son is the only one of the six who has to play her three portions of the finals on consecutive days - one can't help but sympathize with her...
GA

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Coming down the home stretch - The Finals, Day One

Posted at 3:30 PM on June 4, 2009 (2 Comments)

This Cliburn Festival entry written by Gregory Allen, Professor of Piano, University of Texas at Austin, exclusively for Performance Today's Fredlines.


The Finals began with Mariangela Vacatello's third solo recital, and she didn't exactly disappoint - but neither did she knock it out of the park. The outer movements of the Italian Concerto (NB: this was an Italian playing in the Concerto round...) were brisk and jolly, while the central Andante sang out with beautifully modulated tone. She portrayed Chopin's seldom-played E-flat Rondo as the very model of a 19th-century parlor piece: showy but decorous, good-humored and never vulgar. Whenever I hear playing like this (both the Bach and Chopin), I'm always struck by the scarcity of performers who manage to simply Get It Right. Now, some day I hope to hear Ms. Vacatello's Gaspard and have that reaction, but I have to say that this time out, she showed signs of mental and physical fatigue. Which is not to say it didn't demonstrate superior intelligence and vivid imagination - her Scarbo was decidedly more harrowing than most, and some of her technical feats were jaw-dropping. It was clever programming to add the Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue as an 'encore'; droll humor and robotic dementia (is that an oxymoron?) provided an effective exclamation-point to the recital. (And in case you were vexed by her lack of dynamic variety in the fugue: the score indicates ff marcato from beginning to end.)

Did Evgeni Bozhanov just have an off night? Or did he decide he hadn't yet sufficiently flaunted his nimble fingers? Or was he out to just totally dominate the conductor? What I'll remember most about his Chopin E minor Concerto is the arrogance he showed in attempting Argerich-like tempos in the outer movements - without in any way matching her uncanny precision - and the way he kept banging out bass lines like a bumptious time-beater. I found a lot of it undignified and self-serving... But the piece is not all about virtuosity, and it's true there was much to admire in the lyrical passages. In particular, the second movement was phrased in long arches, with ornamental melismas treated as integral parts of the melody. (At times I felt his dynamic range was a couple of sizes too large for the piece - rather like Joan Sutherland in Lucia.) I still think Bozhanov is the front-runner in this competition, but after this performance he'll need to seek some degree of redemption.

Di Wu played Beethoven's B-flat Concerto nicely, with sincerity, respect, and good spirit. Yes, she fluffed some passages, but no more or less than anyone would under the circumstances. (Her performance began at 10 p.m. - she's tired, the audience is tired, geez, I think even the piano sounds tired!) I would just point out two things, though: one, although she played the slow movement with beautiful sound, I found myself wondering whether she has a clear overview of it. Is it an intimate soliloquy? An ardent romanza? A simple serenade? There seemed to be an uneasy blend of all three characteristics. And in the last movement, I know it's all too easy to dive in at an exuberant tempo that sounds fine on the piano, but you have to realize that the orchestra's larger mass of sound just doesn't want to move at that speed, even under an experienced and supportive conductor like James Conlon. So, once the tempo disparity has been exposed in the tutti statement, the soloist really should back off and try to get along. (This MO is especially relevant in this Classical-style dialogue.) Ms. Wu apparently thought the orchestra was just being intransigent - she tried to pull them along every chance she got, with the result that the whole movement sounded scrappy and - dare I say? - unprofessional on both sides of the podium.
GA

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The Quintets at the Cliburn Semifinals

Posted at 8:55 PM on June 2, 2009 (2 Comments)

This Cliburn Festival entry written by Gregory Allen, Professor of Piano, University of Texas at Austin, exclusively for Performance Today's Fredlines.

As promised, some thoughts on the chamber music portion of the competition...

Schumann's Piano Quintet is really the first great work in the genre, written in 1842. It has always had multiple performances in the Cliburn Semis, and this time around we heard it four times (which is plenty - one year there were seven of them!). Michail Lifits brought his inquiring mind to it, with variable results: along with some beautifully balanced sonorities, there were also some tempo problems, overpedaling, and an unsettled quality of interaction with the quartet. I got the feeling the piece was new to him and hadn't had his full attention. On the other hand, Mariangela Vacatello's performance seemed seasoned and comfortable - maybe a bit too much so, for the quartet didn't seem particularly engaged. A solidly professional effort, then, but unfortunately a bit ho-hum. Then of course there was the unprecedented excitement that came with Nobuyuki Tsujii's appearance - how could he possibly interact with the quartet without eye contact? Well, just fine, thank you... not surprisingly, there weren't any interpretive quirks that would confound the ensemble, but as a middle-of-the-road reading it was perfectly acceptable. Last came Haochen Zhang, and here the question was, how much chamber-music experience could he have, being so young? Well, my guess would be, quite enough to put across a sharply defined, freshly conceived interpretation that made the quartet come alive and play with even more precision than they normally do. (This was especially apparent in the absolutely steady march tempo in the second movement.)

The Brahms Quintet is one that can take a rather wide range of stylistic viewpoints, but of the four performances, I thought only one was really successful in combining the idea with the reality. Ran Dank's was a patently ego-driven approach: too fast in all four movements, it had the feel of an aggressive dare both to the quartet and the audience, as if to say "This is MY TEMPO, take it or leave it." He did, however, judge tonal balances astutely. It seemed to me that Alessandro Deljavan showed more of his Italian heritage here than elsewhere. Tempos flowed, phrases were smoothly linear and the ensemble rapport was good... but I think one can go too far in trying to avoid Teutonic heaviness: this was a bel canto Brahms that lacked gravitas. Kyu Yeon Kim's version was efficient, with firm rhythmic control and good architecture; it was also tonally drab, with uninflected dynamics and little sense of blend between piano and strings. That left Yeol Eum Son, whose strong performance provided a satisfying conclusion to the semifinals; although I found the first movement just a tad routine, the slow movement was lovingly shaped, and the last two gained terrific power by virtue of rock-solid, not-too-fast tempos and inexorable forward momentum.

Dvorak's Quintet has the reputation of being the easiest of these four works (which it is, at least in terms of strictly pianistic challenges), but there's a huge difference between a so-so walk-through and a thoroughly captivating experience; among longtime Cliburn observers like myself, Jeffrey Kahane's performance in 1981 (!!) is still legendary. The piece wasn't so lucky this time around. The three competitors who chose it all seem to have taken its congeniality for granted, although Di Wu did manage to provide a little something more than cheery superficiality. There are those who preferred Andrea Lam's version and that's fine - I found it proficient but glib. And there was Eduard Kunz, who hadn't learned it, didn't demonstrate much in the way of collaborative skills, and delivered more heart-attack moments than any unsuspecting public or string quartet should ever have to endure...

The Franck Quintet is always the odd-man-out among this immutable tetralogy of the Cliburn Semis. It's massive in scope, extremely difficult technically, and requires a quartet with more tonal cohesion and a bigger cumulative sound than the others; and let's face it, its musical language and message are just not so user-friendly. Having said that, I'll happily volunteer to play it if you don't want to! Without actually researching the matter, I think Cliburn history might show some correlation between the eventual winners and those who chose the Franck - I know that was the case with Ioudenitch in 2001. Evgeni Bozhanov gave it his by-now-familiar polished, personal stamp; this man simply commands attention. I would have preferred a richer, more pedaled sonority, better pacing in some sections, and in particular, a more brooding, hypnotic quality in the slow movement - but hey, he's on track to win this competition, so he can do what he likes!

And what about the Takacs Quartet? I was more impressed with them than in the past; in general they seemed to show an interest in making music, rather than just taking up space onstage. OK, I confess I have never found their collective sound very alluring; they tend to use a one-size-fits-all vibrato; and I'm often exasperated by their inelegant phrasing. But they were adaptable and supportive, and displayed real chamber-music camaraderie much of the time. They do a tough job very well, and my hat's off to them!

That's enough for today. I have some further thoughts about the chamber music experience that I'd like to share, but they'll have to wait. Hasta mañana...
GA

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Last of the Semis

Posted at 12:03 AM on June 2, 2009 (1 Comments)

This Cliburn Festival entry written by Gregory Allen, Professor of Piano, University of Texas at Austin, exclusively for Performance Today's Fredlines.

It's hard to watch Nobuyuki Tsujii play without considering the miraculous gift he has, being blind... and yes, I mean that the way it reads: his handicap is the springboard of his creativity, in much the same way that a deaf composer managed to produce the Hammerklavier Sonata. Whether or not you respond positively to his artistic intention (or Beethoven's, for that matter), the fact remains that this young man has phenomenal abilities that the rest of us can only dimly comprehend. He CAN play the Chopin Etudes, the Hammerklavier, the Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto (I'm listening to his rehearsal with conductor James Conlon as I write this) with the sensitivity, confidence and flair of a seasoned professional. And he's all of 20 years old. And stands about five-two. And did I mention he's blind? OK, let's try to assess his semifinal performance with some degree of objectivity. Being the only pianist to offer John Musto's Improvisation and Fugue, he had the field to himself; without any point of reference, I heard - well, sensitivity, confidence and flair. The first two movements of the Beethoven had finely controlled rhythmic energy and clean, unadorned sonorities. In the magnificent slow movement, he didn't quite blow me away; other pianists have plumbed its depths more meaningfully, though probably few of them are only 20. During the Fugue I confess I had in my head the image of the proverbial roomful of monkeys tapping out the complete works of Shakespeare - but come on, doesn't it always sound rather like that, even in the best performance?... No, Mr. Tsujii is an inspiring artist, and rather than cynically disparaging him as little more than a sideshow attraction (as some have), I for one am grateful that, with the Cliburn Foundation backing him, he's now positioned to become a valued cultural ambassador and role-model. (I do hope he'll learn some English!)

Michail Lifits got off to an unfortunately rocky start in the Liszt Sonata; I wasn't sure just when he recovered from it, if in fact he ever did. His very special ear for sound was evident (it's really extraordinary at low dynamic levels), and the sense of architecture was seemingly pretty solid - too bad it all suffered from nerves, exhaustion, indigestion, whatever... There was good news though: his version of the Hagen Suite was full of character, imagination and sincerity; the lyrical lines in the middle movements were beautifully delineated. This was easily the best performance we heard, and I'm willing to admit that there's more to it than I had thought. Strangely, it would seem that Prokofiev just isn't the thing this year (although we'll hear the 2nd and 3rd Concertos in the Finals). In the 7th Sonata, Lifits had some original ideas here and there, but on the whole it seemed half-baked and dispirited. I felt truly sorry for him, because I do think he has demonstrated a respectable integrity as a musician.

A different sort of problem afflicted the Schubert D Major Sonata that opened Alessandro Deljavan's program: put very simply, he just hadn't fully learned it. To my ears, there was plenty of evidence: conspicuous memory slips, poorly defined textures and articulations, pallid melodic tone, bangy climaxes, etc. - none of this was noticeable in his previous outings (well, maybe the lackluster sonority). Things didn't improve much thereafter; even with the score, he didn't seem to have much of a clue about White Lies, and the Scriabin 5th Sonata was desperate. I had Deljavan on my list of possible finalists, but after this undistinguished showing, I'm sorry, there was just no chance...

And so concludes this series on the semifinal solo recitals. This seems a good time for a quick review of these blogs... I've tried to be honest in my critiques, but I'm not claiming to be right all the time. My sometimes sharp criticism is not, repeat not, a personal attack on the player, any more than the jury's decision is. Believe me, I empathize totally with these contestants - I've been there, done that, I feel their pain! When I was cut in the first round at the 1977 Cliburn, there weren't any bloggers to clue me in on the reason(s) why; I had to realize on my own that I made some poor repertoire choices, I played the wrong piano, I had a bad head cold and couldn't hear normally... Oh, and there was also that inconvenient truth that my playing was proper, academic, stolid - in a word, BORING. So if I point out that this one's Liszt isn't quite performance-ready, or that one's Brahms isn't a very good competition piece, or that he needs to pay more attention to pedaling, or she is clearly having an off day, or whatever - it's all about our shared goal of doing the best we can, of keeping our eye on the prize, artistically.

I promised a report on the quintet performances, which should post tomorrow. Of course by now we know the six finalists - and have probably placed our bets on the winners. Tune in to the concerto performances (and the last solo recitals) on the webcast: Weds. through Fri. at 7:30 CDT, Sat. at 1:30 and 7:30, and Sun. at 1:30. The awards ceremony will be at 5:00 Sunday.
GA

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IMHO, The Finalists

Posted at 11:08 PM on May 31, 2009 (1 Comments)

This Cliburn Festival entry written by Gregory Allen, Professor of Piano, University of Texas at Austin, exclusively for Performance Today's Fredlines.

OK, folks, here are my picks for the Cliburn Finals (in alphabetical order):

Evgeni Bozhanov
Ran Dank
Yeol Eum Son
Nobu Tsujii
Mariangela Vacatello
Haochen Zhang

Based on past history at this competition, I know the jury will often play a wild card; if that happens tonight, I'm guessing it might be Di Wu in place of Ran Dank. Anything else will be treasonous...
You heard it here first!
GA

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