Van Cliburn Competition Live Webcasts (Through June 7)

[Senta]

Discovered this year's complete Van Cliburn Competition is being webcast live at http://www.cliburn.tv  

The prelim performances that have already taken place are can be viewed in the Archives section, as well as portraits of each contestant. Really enjoying the programs and playing so far!! Very good quality video and audio and worth checking out.

[bhodges]

Thanks!  Didn't realize they had jumped on the webcast bandwagon, and glad they have. 

--Bruce

[The Six]

They were doing webcasts 4 years ago, too.

[Senta]

Has anyone been following this?   The talent has been extraordinary, with many very enjoyable and interesting performances.

The 6 Finalists were announced last night and I suppose the biggest news of the competition has been that Nobuyuki Tsujii has gotten this far, he is a 20 yr old Japanese pianist who has been blind since birth. All the rehearsals are being broadcast as they happen and his chamber music rehearsal (Schumann) w/ the Takacs Quartet was one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen. A couple of the chamber music performances were exceptionally good as have been the recitals...Tsujii's Hammerklavier was certainly a deciding factor for him to advance, his Adagio was astonishing.

Evgeni Bozhanov of Bulgaria is much talked about to medal, he's in the grand tradition of very excellent playing though with way too much face...besides him Di Wu of Julliard is a fav in her 2nd time at Cliburn, and her chemistry with the Takacs in Dvorak was the most joyful thing to watch!

Solo recitals have covered a huge variety of rep, the commissioned pieces all quite good with Mason Bates' "White Lies For Lomax" taking top place - very popular due to its heavy use of jazz elements.

The concerto rehearsals w/ Conlon and Fort Worth SO are being broadcast this week during the day, with finals going through the weekend - as well the webcast will feature various symposia in the the mornings, Thursday's Critics' Roundtable might be interesting (Scott Cantrell of DMN moderating).

[The Six]

His faces are absolutely ludicrous.

[Senta]

Yes, he and Deljavan...better to just look away.. 

[BachQ]

The 6 Finalists were announced last night and I suppose the biggest news of the competition has been that Nobuyuki Tsujii has gotten this far, he is a 20 yr old Japanese pianist who has been blind since birth.
...
Evgeni Bozhanov of Bulgaria is much talked about to medal, he's in the grand tradition of very excellent playing though with way too much face ...

Did you see the two rehearsals of Chopin's PC#1 yesterday (Nobuyuki Tsujii and Evgeni Bozhanov)?  It's difficult to fathom how Nobuyuki Tsujii could learn to play purely by ear.  His execution was seemingly effortless.

[Cato]

A review of the competition, with a great amount of distaste for the results, was written by Benjamin Ivry for the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124458728669699751.html

An excerpt:

"In 1966, the Cliburn competition jury got it right when it awarded a gold medal to the great Romanian pianist Radu Lupu. Since then, the competition has more often resulted in odd picks, such as the provincial-sounding Olga Kern and plodding Alexander Kobrin, Cliburn gold medalists in 2001 and 2005, respectively. Yet nothing in recent memory has been as shocking as this year's top prizes, which ignored the most musically mature and sensitive pianist competing in the finals, Chinese-born Di Wu, but gave gold medals to Nobuyuki Tsujii, a student-level Japanese performer plainly out of his depth in the most demanding repertoire, and Haochen Zhang, a clearly talented but unfinished musician who just turned 19. Second prize went to Yeol Eum Son, a bland South Korean pianist, and no third prize was awarded."

(My emphasis)

For Miss Di Wu see:

http://www.diwupiano.com/