Tag: Road Report

Last night’s concert (Friday, June 5) in the finals seemed to juggle things a bit more. Bulgarian pianist Evgeni Bozhanov presented his recital program first. He started with Takemitsu’s “Rain Tree Sketch I” and gave it a very delicate, impressionistic flavor. It seemed light as air and carefuly constructed. Bozhanov followed it with Schumann’s “Davidsbündlertänze,” a long musical dialogue. Despite Bozhanov’s wide range of expression and skillful technique, I have to admit that I lost the thread of this piece about halfway through. Bozhanov then played Liszt’s waltz on themes of Gounod’s “Faust,” which alternated between the theme of Marguerite and a rustic dance of the villagers, and, I suppose the turmoil in Faust’s mind as he looks on them and which to have his youth back. Bozhanov put the hammer in hammerklavier towards the end of this piece with a thunderous finale. It seemed over the top, but it was also fun to watch him bang on the Steinway. Some of the critics didn’t like this at all, and I’m guessing the the jury might not have been all that impressed with it either.

After intermission, Yeol Eum Son, the South Korean pianist, performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21. Son did a fine job but the dynamics in every movement ranged from medium loud to loud. She didn’t get the attention of the audience because there was a fair amount of coughing during the second movment, which is a very sensitive and introverted part of the piece. Somehow, her Chopin seemed to be off the mark.

Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello, in the final number of the evening, gave a convincing performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58. She dazzled the audience by feeling her way into the music and bring us with her. The soft and tender sections felt natural and genuine and not done for effect. Her fast and forte passages were scintillating and conveyed a sense of joy and completeness. Vacatello’s stock in the competition just went up a couple of notches. But we are only half way through the competition at this point. More later.

On Thursday, members of the press were treated to a special meeting with conductor James Conlon, who is leading the Fort Worth Symphony in all of the concerti that are played during the final round of the Van Cliburn Compeitiiton. (FYI: Conlon has been the conductor at the Van Cliburn since 1997.) We met him in the green room at Bass Performance Hall and peppered him with all sorts of questions. The following transcript covers most of the conversation:

Tell us about how you work with the Van Cliburn finalists.

Conlon: I enjoy conducting these young pianists. I have enough experience and confidence that I can pretty much deal with just about anything that they are going to throw at me. I do collaborate with them in sense that there are mutual issues to clear up. I try to help them to be at their best for the competition. I don’t try to impose a tempo on them. I tell them that I want to hear you play. Within 10 minutes, I have a pretty good idea of what their style. I only say something when it [their playing] goes out-of-the-box so far that it is not right. I don’t mean that I don’t accept out-of-the-box imagination and creativity, because that’s what we want. I’m referring to something that impossible to execute. So, like an indulging parent I give them maximum space. Let them be who they are so that they can show that to the jury and the public.

Continue reading Press conference with James Conlon at the Van Cliburn Competition

I attended the second concert of the final round last night at Bass Hall and immediately noticed that more people were in attendance than on Wednesday evening and that the wardrobe-glitz factor had also increased.

This is my first time at the competition, and it’s the first time that I’ve seen a camera suspended from a long arm (or boom) from the ceiling above the stage area. This camera swings silently above the performers and captures their performances for the Cliburn TV production. It’s remotely controlled from a booth somewhere. This camera-eye thing is not obtrusive and the audience seems to adapt to it very quickly. I’ve only seen cameras onstage once before – at the Defiant Requiem concert (Oregon Symphony/PBS) a severak years ago and they seemed to disturb the whole concert experience, because, there was a person who had to ride with the camera as it hovered above the stage and swung around to capture the chorus, orchestra, and soloists. So, if orchestras folks should come to the Van Cliburn festival to a good look at the camera here to see how it might enhance the concert experience.

Continue reading Van Cliburn Competition Update – second concert

I will be posting articles about the Van Cliburn Competition, because I’m am attending it as an invited member of the press. Last night I heard the first concert in a series of six. Mariangela Vacatello, a 27-year-old pianist from Naples, Italy started things off with a piano recital of Bach’s Italian concerto in F major, BWV 971, Chopin’s Rondo in E-flat major, Op. 16, Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit”, and Shostakovich’s Prelude and Fugue in D-flat major, Op. .87, ,No. 15. In Vacatello’s hands, the Bach was precise, understated, and genuine, Chopin crisp, and the Ravel very evocative. She ended her recital with a rollicking Shostakovich. The audience rewarded her with sustained applause and I think that they took three bows.

Bulgarian pianist Evgeni Bozhanov (age 24) played Chopin’s Piano concerto No. 1 in e minor, Op. 11 with the Fort Worth Symphony under the baton of James Conlon. Bozhanov gave a spiritied performance of this work. I wasn’t entirely convinced of his pianissimos and I think that he could’ve lingered here and there a bit more, but everything else was pretty outstanding, and the audience applauded vigorously right after he finished.

Di Wu, a 24-year-old pianist from China performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19 with the orchestra under Conlon. I liked her enthusiasm for the piece, but her playing seemed a little out of control. The audience responded to her with warm enthusiasm.

Tonight, I’ll hear three more pianists, including the 20-year-old blind pianist from Japan, Nobuyuki Tsujii.

If you are curious about these pianists and the their competitors in the Van Cliburn Competition, click here.

Hello from South Bend Indiana! I’m here as part of the Spectrum Dance Company’s four-city national tour. Rajan Krishnaswami (cello), Judith Cohen (piano) and myself (violin) are presenting the work of Irwin Schulhoff at Notre Dame’s magnificent DeBartello Performing Arts Center. The director of Spectrum, Donald Byrd, has brilliantly choreographed a deeply moving work titled The Theater of Needless Talents. It is based on the horrors of the Holocaust. Schulhoff himself perished in a concentration camp, and his work would have likely gained a much wider audience had it not been his untimely death. It’s very difficult to perform a work of such tragedy night after night, and I find myself emotionally drained after each performance.

After much anticipation, Judith, Rajan, his cello (it gets it’s own seat on the plane) and I arrived in South Bend on Tuesday night. We were nervous for our first rehearsal with the dancers and Donald, but it went well. Donald worked with Rajan and I on the pacing in Schulhoff’s Duo for Violin and Cello so that we could create a better sense of direction and forward motion for the dancers. Though beautiful, the hall’s acoustic is quite dry as is was designed for theater and dance, not chamber music. We have had to compensate by bringing up some of our dynamics and playing without our mutes in the slow movement.

Our first performance went very well, except for one major caveat: In the last movement of the Duo, with one page to go, my string went POP and I had no E-string! What do I do? Do I stop the show and the dancers, or do I continue on without my string? I the heat of the moment, I decided to continue on without it and replace the missing high notes with extra energy. It worked, and I think many audience members didn’t even notice!

We have two performances to go at Notre Dame. The Company will present another show in Richmond, VA while I make a personal stop in New York City for a few days. Then it’s off to Ogden, Utah. I’ll keep you posted soon with more photographs updates from the trip.