The Fulbright has an interesting format. The judges winnow
down the hundreds of applicants to a semifinal field of 12,
each of whom gives a public recital; then, presumably, the
judges hear them doing their chosen concertos. The judges
choose the final three, who perform with our orchestra for
the edification of the judges and the delectation of the
audience, which has paid $40 a head for the privilege of
listening and being able to cast a vote for the $1000
audience favorite award.

Here's whom and what we heard, with my notes transcribed:

Name: Abdiel Antonio Vazquez Fortozo
Birth Year: 1984
Nationality: Mexican

[Weakish but musical tone]

Rachmaninov Sonata no. 2
[we missed this, as we arrived at 9:15]

Chopin Nocturne in d flat
[Some technical instability; recovery moderately quick; left
hand very stiff]

Ginastera Sonata no. 1
[Rhythmic hesitancy; odd conception didn't hold my interest -
instead of continuity, he emphasized the episodic aspect of
the piece. I went to the bathroom and missed the end of the
first movement and the beginning of the Presto; stayed
outside for the rest of the piece: the last movement sounded
kind of nice from out there. Afterward, Badura-Skoda told
the kid that he'd enjoyed this piece (when a judge singles
out one aspect of a performance for praise, you can be sure
that the rest of the performance wasn't approved of.]

Name: Gabriela Martinez
Birth Year: 1984
Nationality: Venezuelan

[scratched]

Name: Inna Faliks
Birth Year: 1978
Nationality: USA

[she played at 5:15 in the afternoon, instead of the 10:30
she had been scheduled for]

Chopin Polonaise-Fantasy
[And substituted some other piece, I think some obscure
Mozart for the Chopin; I found it cautious and kind of
dull [looked up later, Rondo K.511]]

Villa-Lobos Boisinho de Chumbo
[Seemed to capture the idiom; nice playing]

Paganini-Liszt Campanella
[Solid, middle-of-the-road virtuosity - I was disappointed
as I'd heard good things about her but got a headstrong
performer with a backward performance, to me the worst
possible combination]

Beethoven, Sonata Op. 111
[Kind of incoherent - wondered if performer is ill? The
Allegro appassionato captured the mad spirit of late
Beethoven; i.e., it's kind of incoherent. At the beginning
of the recital I'd wondered if she was a serious contestant,
as did B.-S., but later I decided that she was indeed a
serious contestant but not a serious contender. She
emphasized 'jazzy' elements of the piece at the expense of
rhythmic accuracy; as sometimes I take that sort of
license myself, I come down extra hard on others who do.]

[Talk about oblivious (or something) - she stuck around for
the last couple recitals, plopping herself in the seat in
front of B.-S. and gradually reclined herself so her
abundant curly hair just about touched his knee, and I said
(not quite out loud), girl, that's not going to work, you
played like a pig.]

Name: Viktor Valkov
Birth Year: 1980
Nationality: Bulgarian

[Ugly jacket (something I might wear) and uglier tie]

Schumann Arabesque
[Good facile technique captures Schumann's quirkiness and I
think amplifies it. Lovely tone. Let's see, I wrote, if he
calms down in the Ravel]

[He shed the jacket and put it on the floor]

Ravel Miroirs
[Brought some of that fey quality to the Ravel. Very shiny,
light touch, vast dynamic range - worked well with the
piano (others seemed to struggle with it) - sometimes the
touch was even too light. Barque sur l'ocean was very
atmospheric. Great contrasts in Alborada del Gracioso. I
even enjoyed his few mishaps]

Rakoczy March
[Captured perfectly the tawdry spirit of the piece.
Fistfuls of wrong notes, but again I didn't mind.]

[Later observation: I fortuitously caught a snippet of the
video, which shows that "fistfuls" was an understatement.]

Name: Corbin James Beisner
Birth Year: 1988
Nationality: USA

Busoni Carmen Fantasy
[Spectacular fingers: played it well]

Mozart Sonata K.332
[Too straight-ahead even for my tastes. Rubati seemed learned
rather than innate (what there was of them). A bit young and
deadpan]

Ravel Jeux d'Eau
[Very facile; didn't hold together as well in spots as I'd
like but on the whole nice (little mechanical too - esp.
compared with the Bulgarian guy)]

Liszt Scherzo and Marsch S.177
[Amazingly facile - seems to be his kind of music.]

Name: Moises Fernandez Via
Birth Year: 1980
Nationality: Spanish

Chopin Sonata no. 2
[He's a squirmer - had to keep my eyes averted, as his
mannerisms were too distracting. Quite nervous but probably
the most formed musician so far. Bad news: some guy near me
started rustling his program endlessly. Worse news: it was
B.-S. In the funeral march movement there was an interesting
meltdown followed by playing of great ferocity, an
overreaction to his mistake, and that probably cost him]

de Falla Fantasia Baetica
[In his element here but either energy or concentration
flagged toward the end. Still an exciting performance.]

Name: Esther Park
Birth Year: 1984
Nationality: USA

Beethoven Sonata Op. 31 no. 3
[Touch a little hard - good for the piano. Also a squirmer
but it seems a little more natural than prec. Appears to
believe in integrality in tempo relations among the
movements, something few do, and I agree with those who
don't as it makes the music seem artificially constructed.
She had the most control of all the candidates so far.]

Ravel Ondine from Gaspard de la Nuit
[Great command but for me way too straight ahead]

Liszt Reminiscence de Don Juan
[Extraordinary but (as with the young, generally) showed
fallibility at the end.]

Name: Young-Ah Tak
Birth Year: 1979
Nationality: Korean

Haydn Sonata Hob. XVI:50
[More nuanced than the previous also Korean-origin player,
but not nearly so precise. Not in general technically up
to the rest but fine musically]

Judith Zaimont Wizards
[Nasty piece o crap - I've heard it before though. Sounds
like a work chosen to hide shortcomings of technique]

Brahms Sonata no. 2
[First movement nicely massive - well done. For the rest,
as I said, "nuanced" ... but a bit ponderous, bringing out
the worst in a weak piece.]

Break time. We timed it so I'd run down to Grub's for a
couple takeout sandwiches, and we'd just have time to bolt
them down and get back for the start of the next recital.
On the way out, though, Jeannine our conductor collared us
to introduce us to some rich board member or something. So
though EL got through her sandwich okay and made it in for
the beginning, my Buffalo chicken wrap leaked, and I had to
make a 2-min detour to wash up and so had to listen to the
performance standing in the doorway.

Name: Zlata Chochieva
Birth Year: 1985
Nationality: Russian

Schumann Symphonic Etudes
[Appears to have good technique and taste, but the latter is
part of the problem, as the music is too cut-and-dried.
[added 15 min later] Cancel what I said about technique (as
the music went haywire). Overreliance on pedal. Best in
delicate passages; unconvincing in the massive sections
(small hands ?)]

Ravel La Valse
[Not nearly enough rubato in most spots - sounds more like a
dancing waltz than a listening one. But all that pedal, so
distracting in the Schumann, made a nice atmospheric effect.]

Name: David Theodor Schmidt
Birth Year: 1982
Nationality: German

[scheduled at 5:15, he was a good sport and came in at 9
because of the no-show]

Bach Partita no. 6
[Toccata and Allemanda disappointingly flaccid (EL liked
the clarity). Picked up at the Corrente, a bit much at
times - the tumble down to the next bar was engaging at
times but surprisingly close to disaster at others.
Sarabande nicely poetic. Gigue appeared trivialized.]

Liszt Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen
[A sadly small-scale performance, the big chords not big
enough; it lurched about a bit with no overall thread
(partly Liszt's fault)]

[A bit lightweight, plays younger than he is.]

Name: Sonia Chan
Birth Year: 1980
Nationality: Canadian

[Also fairly deadpan in the traditional Oriental way but
with some subtlety. Technically reasonably secure with a
few "veni, audi, et je ne crois pas mes oreilles."]

Schubert Sonata Op. 143
[First two movements glacial - wondered if someone had
slipped something into her lunch (or into mine). Allegro
still unassuming but some lovely pearlescent touches]

Chopin Sonata No. 3
[Tempi rather self-indulgent - this is not the place to
experiment with the extremes of taste. Scherzo was nice;
Presto finale had nice brio. The singing bits throughout
had something timeless about them, as if they were by
Schubert; it wasn't all Chopin's doing. This doesn't mean
that I enjoy this style in large doses.]

Jeannine was convinced that this one was going to be one of
the finalists, which was good as her concerto was Mozart 27,
which wouldn't require as much rehearsal time as the bigger
fancier pieces, but B.-S. railed rather angrily afterwards
to Ungar about some gratuitous flashy things in the Chopin,
so there was clearly no way this girl was going to make it
to the finals. I was between B.-S. and Jeannine and reported
this to her, and she was very disappointed.

Name: Lio Kuok-Wai
Birth Year: 1989
Nationality: Chinese

Schumann Davidsbundlertanze
[[On the other hand, too much predictability and too little
self-indulgence has its drawbacks] The performance was
pretty good, but I appended "(for a kid -!)." A few burbles
too, and in the most surprising places, as though he just
lost concentration for a while. Rather tame - I thought the
Bulgarian was the only one who properly captured the
"Schumannness" of Schumann. All I have to say is, not nearly
nuts enough (but as the Faliks woman showed, that may come
in time).]

Kreisler/Rachmaninov Liebesleid and Liebesfreud
[Virtuosic; quite charming, almost as if the chubby-faced
little kid had tasted of love's sorrow and joy already.]

After the recital, B.-S. rushed to the piano with a silly
grin, bent over, and played a bit of Liebesfreud while
standing up (not as well as the kid, I will add).

So we heard 10.5 x 45-min recitals in the space of 10 hours;
afterward EL said that she might never go to a piano recital
again.