Tag: Road Report

San Francisco might seem like an unlikely place for a Mahler tradition to take root. Mahler’s epic, heaven shaking symphonies don’t exactly match up seamlessly with the casual atmosphere of the Bay Area, its progressive politics, and foggy, clement summer days. But, that is exactly what has happened in San Francisco since Michael Tilson Thomas stepped onto the podium as the orchestra’s music director in 1995.

Before MTT joined the orchestra, the SFS was already known as one of the West Coast’s innovative orchestras. Former music director Edo de Waart advocated the music of American minimalists and Herbert Blomstedt followed up De Waart’s successes with electric performances of non-standard repertory by Hindemith, Wourinen, and Nielsen.

Continue reading Intemperate Mahler from temperate San Francisco

Who would’ve thought that there’s an up-and-coming conductor with a mop of Gustavo Dudamel-like hair who is younger than Dudamel himself? Well, the 26-year old Robin Ticciati is just such a fellow. Starting this fall, Ticciati begins his first season as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since 2007, he has been the music director of Glyndebourne on Tour and has already conducted several top-tier orchestras in Europe and has become the youngest conductor at La Scala (in 2005) and the Salzburg Festival (in 2006). Continue reading Ticciati teams up with Levin and the Age of Enlightenment in all-Mozart concert

One of the loudest splashes at this year’s Mostly Mozart Festival (now in its 43rd year) was made with “A Flowering Tree,” an opera written by John Adams as a commission in 2006 by Lincoln Center for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Originally premiered at the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna, Austria, this production of “A Flowering Tree” took place at the Rose Theater (in the Time Warner Center). I attended the performance on Friday, August 14th and was very impressed with the engaging new music that Adams created and the exciting performances by the principals and the chorus. Continue reading Adams’ A Flowering Tree blossoms at Lincoln Center

Richard Rodzinski, president of the Van Cliburn Foundation and John Giordano, chairman of the jury, subjected themselves to numerous questions by the press. Here’s a compilation of some of the questions and answers (some of which wandered away from the questions). This conversation took place before the final round. I just haven’t had enough time to post it until now.

Is there any way to assess the career potential of someone who only gets to the preliminaries or the semifinals versus someone who gets to the finals?

Rodzinski : Those who have studied these competitions find that the cream does rise to the top. You can have winners at the top who are very close together so that their final rankings are extremely close. The outcome depends on the subjective judgment of jury.

Giordano : That’s why we seek to have a diverse jury, and subsequently their judgments may lead to a top three winners who are equally deserving.

Rodzinski: In order to avoid a split jury, it is critical to have jurors approach music pretty much the same way, so that there is a cohesiveness, and no one has to compromise on a candidate. We have something built into our system so that if three or more jurors feel that a candidate is a potential medalist and does not pass on to the next round then we open it to discussion. That helps us to prevent ending up with a compromise candidate. I think that no major talent has slipped through because of this. Continue reading Press conference with Richard Rodzinski and John Giordano

After a long wait, the audience again took their seats in Bass Hall to hear the who the winners of the Van Cliburn Competition are. So, here are the jury’s decisions:

Gold: Haochen Zhang, Nobuyuki Tsujii
Silver: Yeol Eum Son
Crystal: not awarded

Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance(s) of Chamber Music: Evgeni Bozhanov, Yeol Eum Son

Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work: Nobuyuki Tsujii
Jury Discretionary Awards: Alessandro Deljavan, Lukas Vondracek, Eduard Kunz
Audience vote: Mariangela Vacatello

The jury vote was cummulative assessment after every round. I only heard the final round, but still came sort of close.

I’ve only got a few minutes to collect my thoughts about the six concert in the final round of this competition. Nobuyuki Tsujii gave the recital portion with pieces by Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt. He did very well (especially considering that a Japanese TV crew just stopped in as well as more Japanese press and his university colleagues), but seemed to be unable to get some of the spontenaity and joy that some passages in the Liszt.

Haochen Zhang played the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 with technical perfection. He was really with the orchestra. I’m still not sure about his emotional range.

Di Wu played the trumph card, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and it was dynamite. She was in her element and gave everyone the ride of their lives with full dynamic range. She is back in the running for a medal.

I don’t envey the jury in trying to figure out how to score all of this. I’ve got Vacatello at the top with Tsujii and either Son or Wu in second or third. We’ll find out very soon what the judges say.

For those of us who wanted to hear how quietly a pianist can play in a concert hall, Di Wu answered our prayers. The Chinese pianist used the softest, lightest, most delicate touch in her performance of Bach’s Toccata in F-sharp minor, BWV 910. Her playing forced the audience to listen so intently that no one in Bass Hall in last night’s concert (Saturday, June 6) moved a muscle. For her next piece, Wu transitioned to another time zone by playing Schoenberg’s “Klavierstucke” Op. 11. Wu wonderfully created the abstract and random landscape in this work. Moments in the piece also seemed to convey a series of questions and answers as the music switched from one path to another. Wu ended her recital with Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit,” and I felt that she excelled in achieving a spontaneous feeling in her playing – especially in some passages that were lightening quick. Overall, Wu performed very well and made a fine case for herself to move up the ladder in the competition.

The concerti portion of the program began with Evgeni Bozhanov’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18. The Bulgarian pianist set out to play the piece as loudly as possible, drowning out the cellos near the beginning, and continued through the enitre piece with this to-hell-with-the-orchestra attitude. This turned the Rachmaninoff work into a pianist versus the orchestra affair which everyone increasing the volume to the highest level possible. Bozhanov also messed up several passages and was very erratic at times. His crass interpretation left me numbed but the audience exploded, so I guess his gambit worked.

In sharp contract, Mariangela Vacatello gave a thoroughly engaging performance of Prokofiev’s Piano concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26. Her sound was very balanced and precise. She wonderfully built up tension in the first movement and released it with the orchestra as a partner in making the music happen. I loved the way that Vacatello alternated the robust and tender themes of the second movement, and she ended the piece with the orchestra in an electrifying blitz. Fortunately, the audience recognized her genius in this performance and gave her a standing ovation.

I think that Vacatello moved herself into gold medal contention with this performance. Tsujii is still there as well, with Wu and Son following. But there’s one more concert to go.

Today was a two-fer with one final round concert in the afternoon and another in the evening. The afternoon’s concert reflected an increased attendance, and the hall was almost filled to capacity. Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang opened his recital program with Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, which showed off his great technique and impeccable precision. However, it also revealed Zhang’s limitations in terms of being able to provide more contrast that would keep the piece interesting. Zhang also had the annoying habit of tapping the floor or a pedal so loudly that it became its own percussion section. And he hums loudly at times. These unfortunate idiosyncrasies get in the way of the music. After the Brahms, Zhang played Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit” and gave the audience a wider range of emotion from fluttering, light, transparency to muttering in the depths.

For the concerti portion of the concert, Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son tackled Prokofiev’s Piano concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16. Son wrestled this difficult work and came out with the upper hand, but not without some scars. She seemed out of control a couple of times and missed some notes. However, I really enjoyed the way that she teased the orchestra and then played together with it and then teased it again. She also showed tenaciousness and muscle that made her playing convincing.

After the break, Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18. Tsujii rushed the passage with the orchestra right after the beginning of the piece, but then got into sync and showed sensitivity and a warmth in his playing. One of the best parts occur ed when Tsujii and the orchestra were racing at a fairly good clip and then slowed down and quieted down exactly together. It was as if Tsujii had extra-sensory perception. I enjoyed his playing and still cannot fathom how he learned this piece.

At the point, I still see Tsujii in the lead, with Vacatello and Son following.

After the concert on Friday, I went the press room and then went around Bass Hall on the way to my hotel. Just at that moment, Van Cliburn was leaving the hall. Stanislav Ioudenitch, the 2001 Gold Medal winner and his daughter are next to Van Cliburn. I understand that Ioudenitch’s daughter is a fine violinist.

I noticed that Van Cliburn could barely take two steps before someone would come up to him for an autograph or want to give him a hug. Well, he seems to take to the time to comply with every demand in a very nice and gracious way.