[Hogg]

I had the opportunity to attend this year's Van Cliburn piano competition in Fort Worth.  I didn't attend the whole event, as it's 22 days.  I did attend all of the finals during the last week.  Each pianist performed a 50-minute solo recital and two piano concerti with the Fort Worth Symphony under the direction of Maestro James Conlon.  The first concerto had to be chosen from a list provided by the competition which included Mozart, all of the Beethoven concerti and both Chopin concerti.  There were some fine performances by the young artists, ranging in age from 19 to 25.  However, I think the audience was dumbfounded by the selection of the two gold medalists, a 19-year old Chinese and 20 year-old Japanese.  The Japanese is blind from birth and plays everything from memory.  He land-marks the keyboard before playing and never takes his hands completely off the keyboard while playing.  The fact he can play is amazing.  I couldn't imagine playing the piano without sight of the keyboard.  Nevertheless his playing was not terribly convincing especially with Beethoven's Hammerklavier and Rachmaninoff Concerto #2.  The Chinese pianist was the youngest competitor turning 19 during the competition.  He is a master of the keyboard.  His technical abilities were unsurpassed by others in the competition.  However, I found his playing rather dry and unemotional especially the Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit and Prokofiev's Concerto #2.  My two favorite of the finalists were Di Wu and Evgeni Bozhanov.  Ms Wu delived nuances rendering  especially of the Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit.  Mr Bozhanov is a powerful player with great tone.  His Rachmaninoff Concerto #2 was powerful and riveting.   

Of course you can judge for yourself by listening to the archived performances at:
http://www.cliburn.tv

                                                                                   Jim

[S Clark]

I took the wife and adult daughter to the opening day of prelims to hear two Americans and a Russian.  Even the prelims were absolutely wonderful entertainment.  My daughter had never been to hear that level of piano and really enjoyed it.  All were excellent, but the Russian kid just had something extra.  He made it through to the semi's.  It was my first time to go and I will be in line to get tickets for the next one.

[lonewolfny42]

Prizes for the 2009 winners:

First Prize (tie)
Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii, 20 (Japan) and Mr. Haochen Zhang, 19 (China)

Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Gold Medal .. Cash Award of $20,000 ... Silver trophy cup ... International concert tours and career management for the three concert seasons following the competition .... CD recording on the harmonia mundi usa label ...
Contribution towards domestic and international air travel on American Airlines during the three-year tour.


Nice prizes....