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I might be able to hear some of it myself once Ms. CfL is done commandeering the listening room in order to watch the US (Tennis) Open. ;-)
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A rather nerdly looking bunch. . .
Three of the four finalists in the Cleveland competition were women..... (And I thought the weakest of the four performers was the one male performer.) I guess it's the luck of the draw..........
I've talked to pianists who do competitions and they had stories to tell about how finalists were picked. Elements in play included who taught whom. There was a whiff of deals being made. This is of course anecdotal and something we're not likely to ever know. Again, competitions are different and juries are different.
In this case I agree with "luck of the draw". I don't think the finalists were necessarily the best for sheer musicality and musical personality. Some are pretty bland musically. They were probably the most media friendly and crowd pleasing. I think looks even come into it as well as stage manner. Possibly even nationality. Who knows.
I enjoyed Dmytro Choni - he's a possible winner. He seems to have the musicality as well as the pianism.
I frankly don't know why Thomas Kelly is in the finals. Home boy?
Alim Beisembayev always seems a bit mechanical to me, though he has good chops. Pianism is there, but I find him too bland musically. Boring to be more precise.
Looking forward to the other two finalists who were both pretty good in the preceding rounds.
Listening to the Brahms as I write - the last performance of the final. For me the three winners are:
Dmytro Choni (28,Ukraine) — Beethoven, Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37
Kaito Kobayashi (25,Japan) — Bartók, Concerto No. 3 in E, Sz. 119
Ariel Lanyi (23,Israel) - Brahms, Concerto No. 2 in B-flat, Op.83
I'd be happy for any of them to win, but I'm guessing Ariel Lanyi will take it.
He played a good Brahms 2, and I think a big work like this is effective in competition.
Dark horse is Choni - his Beethoven 3 was very nice. He has a future I think.
Kobayashi is already working with some known musicians so he's on his way.
I'll be very interested to see who wins - I've followed quite a lot of this.
I put Dmytro Choni (28,Ukraine) Kaito Kobayashi (25,Japan) and Ariel Lanyi (23,Israel) as my top three, and in the end they came 2, 3 and 4.
I find Alim Beisambayev pretty boring, despite his wonderful pianism. For me he doesn't have what it takes to be a really top pianist - a really superior concept of the architecture of a piece, and how to deliver that with contrast and appropriate phrasing. For me he's bland - he doesn't have that overall concept and architecture. I switch off.
Everyone else seems to love him. I think probably Kaito Kobayashi should have won - he did win the chamber prize, and he has made some well-known musical friends for future gigs.
. . . to any of these performances. I think your picks were pretty good in the sense that your 1, 2, and 3, picks were actually 2, 3, and 4. That's some pretty good picking - congrats!
I only got my computer system back up and working (with the new speakers) a few days ago. But at least I'm ready for the Warsaw Chopin Competition next month! ;-)
Looks like that babe from Peru is still in it! I still haven't found time yet to listen to anything from any of these folks.
No Gabriel Yeo who I thought was quite interesting in Haydn.
What do you think?
I went through the ten semifinalists, listening for as long as I could before my interest switched off, which in many cases was minutes.....The three I wanted to hear more of were:
Ariel Lanyi
Hyunjin Roh
Xiaolu ZangI enjoyed all three. I was quite taken with Hyunjin Roh in Stravinsky's Firebird and her Schumann was good too. She can certainly turn on the gas in the big pieces. Ravel's La Valse was a real tour de force! This unassuming looking dame likes it loud and exciting.
Xiaolu Zang played a good Schubert sonata and a sensitive and imaginative Scriabin Sonata 4.
Lanyi played some good Debussy and an interesting Szymanowski Variations.
Can't pick a winner but I feel these are the contenders. For thrills it's Roh, but the other two are both good.
Edits: 09/11/21
The replacement speakers for my computer room are supposed to arrive today, but the arrival time may not be until very late in the day.
. . . somewhere between Lafayette and Turlock (about 100 miles away).
Still no replacement speakers for the computer room yet. :-(
And when I track my delivery at FedEx, it just says "pending" - which is the same thing it's been saying since Saturday.
I had something coming via FedEx a couple of weeks ago. It sat in Sacramento for 3 days past my "delivery date", with the comment "may be delayed" and the expected delivery date 3 days in the past. It wasn't something I was in a hurry to get, but it was ridiculous. I'm having better luck with USPS!
Hope your speakers arrive soon.
In this era of buying equipment sight unseen (and sound unheard), the Dali Oberon 1's arrived earlier this evening. They weigh more than I expected for their size. I hooked them up and they sound fine (although, as expected, there's really nothing below 50 Hz - maybe I should get a small subwoofer at some point!). "Designed and engineered in Denmark" proclaims the information on the box - but on the back of each speaker, in much tinier letters, it reads "manufactured in the PRC". LOL!
Finals next. A few disappointing choices like Thomas Kelly and the guy from Kazakhstan, who I feel are both basically not very interesting. More crowd pleasers. It doesn't pay to be too original in these competitions. You need to be media friendly and probably fairly extravert and demonstrative. Like "professional" even if that means a bit boring. The other three are more interesting possibles. Maybe my vote goes to the guy from Ukraine, but the Japanese guy was good too and slightly ahead of Ariel Laniy who is OK too.
All the videos give me this error......
If the problem is at my end, I have no clue how to fix it.
When I press play on a given video, the rotating arrow spins around a couple of times and then I get a screen asking for my email (under which I've previously registered). Once I enter my email ID, it allows me to watch the video.
Is it possible that you need to register first? - or do you get that error message right off the bat?
"Is it possible that you need to register first? - or do you get that error message right off the bat?"
The latter case..... I never got any request to register..... This was on the latest Firefox browser......
If there is a registration involved, my computer's anti-virus may have mistaken it for a phishing scheme, and blocked it..... I'll need to investigate further.
I generally don't like "register to view" types of sites, a lot of wacky stuff going on. I've gotten burned in the past.
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