Fulbright piano competition
 

Okay, you haven't heard of it, fair enough. But by the time they
get their act together for the second biennial, you very well may.


US2127 BOS LGA 1200 1306 319 2A

Went to check in on line, to follow the procedure I'd hinted
at before on FT, but it wouldn't take; at the airport, the
kiosk didn't work, either.

This being a mixed itinerary on 037 stock, of course my
United number (gold, zone 1) was in, with my new US status
(silver, just barely, zone 2), so I got the benefit of
neither the *G early boarding nor the US *S not too generous
upgrade benefit.

As with most shuttle flights, it was perfectly fine,
perfectly dull. I didn't bother to ask for Courvoisier, as
I knew there wouldn't be any. Just had a couple envelopes
of "salty crunchy junk."

UA 685 LGA ORD 1517 1709 752 2D
originally 1500 1630

It's a short jaunt, if the weather isn't too bad, from the
US terminal to the main one, so I walked, being beaten by
the bus by only a couple minutes. Had an hour at the club,
where I determined that my flight was mostly on time and my
e-mail inbox mostly empty, both good conditions.

Less good conditions: gusty winds at LaGuardia; dense fog
at O'Hare; tornadoes throughout the midwest. Flights were
not getting into or out of either very easily.

Lucky I didn't try to stand by for the originally-scheduled
2:00, UA685, which pushed back at 3:00 but didn't get in
until 5:25, a quarter-hour after ours (miracle of either ATC
or the flying tolerances of the 752 as opposed to the Bus).

Instead, I sat back on my originally scheduled flight,
relaxed with a double Courvoisier (the Extremely Grumpy
FA gave me a glass with a shot in it and a minibottle on the
side, telling me I could drink the second one whenever I
wanted), and snoozed for an hour. The usual song and dance
about jetbridge being tardy, so I had not a huge amount of
time to get to the hated gate F11.

Stopped at the first set of monitors and discovered that
the express flight had been delayed to 9:12. I squinted to
make sure that I hadn't misread that for 6:12 and then went
to nosh on free food at the club. Instead of a happy dinner
with friends I refreshed myself with raisins, potato chips,
and cheese and crackers.

At 8:45 I moseyed to the bus shuttle area only to find a
huge long line, so I decided to walk. 5 min to the B club,
5 min to the E-F bouche, 5 more to the end of F. The entire
terminal was chaos: huge lines at the feedlots and
drinkeries, people sitting in all sittable locations. Of
course, F11 was chaos, with people milling about only to
thunder angrily back up to the main area when their flights
were cancelled, only to be replaced by more people, whose
flights were mostly eventually cancelled or relocated back
upstairs; so a fair amount of churn. We were delayed until
9:26 and then 9:52 and then 10:06 and then 10:12 ...
meanwhile they got out flights to Tulsa and then Moline;
each time they announced a boarding, there came a cheer from
a different corner of the room, where the passengers had
huddled together.

UA6454 ORD XNA 2306 0028 CRJ 4A
originally 1750 1936

They loaded us up about 10:30, and then we sat and sat. They
had to clear a lot of flights. Took off after 11, got in at
about 12:30. No problem for me, as I snoozed, but my friend
and colleague EL had been at the airport since 11:30, which
the flight information line had promised. I am told we went
through some bad weather, a line of t-storms and tornadoes
and such, as I slept.

EL and I discussed plans for the next day: the original, if
I'd gotten in by dinnertime, had been to have a relaxed meal
with the family and an early bedtime so as to be able to
catch the whole load of Fulbright semifinal recitals. We
decided to play it by ear, as it were.

At home, collapsed into bed and hoped for a long sleep, but
for reasons unknown that was not to be. I was up at about 6,
and when EL got up at 7, we decided to catch the whole lot
anyway. What with breakfasting (not for me), teeth brushing
(I am not from Arkansas and thus have more than one tooth),
and so on, we didn't get out until 8:30-ish and arrived at
the Walton Arts Center in due time.

The contestants
 

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.

What a surprise to find a Piano Competition report on this Forum.
Thank you for posting it.^
Interesting................................

I wonder if there were any others?

What fun! ^ I love an insider look at these arcane events. And the bracingly forthright comments - laying into the flaws of composers, contestants and judges alike -are a treat. :D

Please let's hear how it all ends. And don't hold back so on the criticisms. ;)

Fascinating thread! Many thanks to the OP.

Violist reports the piano competition

(Witty technique interspersed with technical ambiance) :)

I spotted the signature of Violist on the Voices page of an April Hemispheres within the BOS RCC yesterday!

The Hemispheres issue was laying on the table beside the copying machine (which I was using), thoughtfully turned to the Voices page. :D I wish I had taken a picture -- this was my first spotting!

P.S. Given Violist's eloquent writing within this TR, it was quite surprising that his signature was on the scratchy end.

violist is a violist: scratchy is part of the job description.

Result of the competition can be found in the following website :

http://www.fulbrightconcertocompetition.org/

Stealing my thunder, I see!

:mad: ;)

Next day.
10 am rehearsal. We were pleased to know that the pieces we
had to learn in 36 hours were the Beethoven 4th, Rach 2, and
the Tchaikovsky (these being the works offered by the kids
who had been chosen as our three finalists). One of the
front-runners (Valkov) had produced the Prokofiev D-flat and
another (Fernandez Via) the Bartok 3rd, so we could have
conceivably been in very deep doodoo with only 7 1/2 hr of
rehearsals for three pieces. Rehearsal was about as good as
could be expected (not very).

=
7:30 pm rehearsal. The soloists unveiled - the two Korean
girls and the Macaunese teenager. The Tak girl was a bit of
a surprise, as though I found her playing quite musical,
her fingers wobbled a bit in the recital. Wow, was I wrong
about her technique. She played Rach 2 flawlessly. Esther
Park also showed another side of her musicianship - a bit
ferocious in the Tchaikovsky, which was by far not the best
rendition of it I've encountered, and in fact not the best
by an under-25 (that honor goes to Bobby Tumarkin, who gave
a very hot performance with the Pops in the late '60s or
early '70s when he was still a teen). Lio was secure
and not flashy in Beethoven 4; I don't think his performance
will win, but what do I know, my first two choices from the
recital stage didn't even place. What is in common among
them (besides their being Asian) is a very controlled
approach to the music.

Aside: the finalists were the youngest, the average (median,
mode, and one above the mean), and the second oldest.

=
Dress rehearsal just reinforced my impressions of the
performers. My choice: Lio, Tak, Park in that order.
My prediction of winners: Park, Lio, Tak in that order.

The second clarinetist (teacher of a buddy of mine in one
of my orchestras back east and now over the years a friend
in his own right) took me to a Thai restaurant on Dickson
St. called Bangkok Something, opposite Doe's Eat Place,
which I can't afford and which isn't open for lunch anyhow.
They agreed to make my food Thai hot, so that's a big plus.
Anyhow, I had vegetable-tofu soup, a Chineseish thing,
followed by pork with hot peppers, another Chineseish thing.
Pretty good but mild enough so I didn't eat the mound of
rather nicely done jasmine rice that comes with at lunch.
Mr. Umiker had the same soup and the "amazing chicken,"
which is standard peanut sauce with chicken and broccoli
floating in it; he got his medium, which was about the way
he liked it: he experimented, putting a few pinches of hot
pepper flakes in, and it became too hot for him - so the
kitchen had read him well. EL had wanted to call her kids
and arrange a meeting and had passed on lunch. Got her a
takeout order of shrimp (fried in too much batter) and
spring rolls (interesting: the wrapper made with sticky
rice flour, the filling ground pork and cabbage like a
dim sum filling).

Went back to the hall to do my e-mail and get a little work
done only to find the green room locked and nobody there to
open it up, so I returned to EL's car and had a little nap.

EL's daughter Wendy showed up, having driven with her b-i-l
from Elkhart, KS on their way to Greenville, SC; as they
were taking 412, Fayetteville was only a small detour, and
it'd been a while since they'd seen each other. EL wanted
to treat us to supper at Grub's, a local student and lowlife
dive that has cheap booze and good greasy grub. A hangout
for starving musicians and skinny twenty-year-olds but not
so good for those of us trying to watch our Calories or for
those with small children. I suggested an alternative place,
with windows and real food, but she really likes the burgers
at Grub's and was adamant. At length daughter Kristen and
son-i-l Barry showed up with the kids. I've got to hand
it to the place, they were ready with crayons, coloring
place mats, and chicken nugget dinners. The adults had an
assortment of sandwiches and drafts: my burger medium-rare
came medium-well but still juicy (it was made of a mix of
beef and spices and filler); the other sandwiches were I
guess fine; and pints of beer were just three smackers.

After a good visit, it was time for Wendy and John to get
back on the road and for us to get to the concert hall.

A small but enthusiastic audience, the creme de la mushroom
of Arkansas society, half-filled the 1200-seat hall.

Esther Park started off with a rip-roaring Tchaikovsky
concerto that was energetic, propulsive, rather savage, and
got a sizable standing O.

At the first intermission Lio, the Macau-Chinese kid who at
18 is a Curtis student, was pacing in the green room (there
was a dance performance in the little theater next door, so
the dressing rooms were much less generously allotted than
usual) shaking his head violently like an autistic child and
muttering to himself ominously. He's a fine musician with
huge promise, but I wonder about that intensity and where it
is eventually going to lead him.

His performance, committed, and musically and technically
outstanding, was nonetheless not a heaven-made match between
soloist and orchestra and Beethoven. We didn't help things by
coming in a bar early, en masse, in a crucial spot of the
third movement. Our conductor's face showed this horrified
look of, now this kid will lose thousands of bucks, and it's
all our fault. But in fact he never wavered, we got together
in a couple bars, and the audience probably never knew. He
got a medium-size standing O.

The concert ended with Tak playing the Rachmaninov, a fine
job that got by far the largest ovation of the evening.

We stuck around for the announcement of the winners but
first had to endure the acknowledgment and award of plaques
to maybe twenty people, from the mayor of Fayetteville to
the sponsors to the board to the dean of the music school.
Finally the prizes were announced: Lio, Tak, Park in that
order. Tak's Rachmaninov won the audience prize, naturally.

After which we headed out, myself heavily burdened with
luggage, musical instruments, and so on. As I was waiting
outside, the assistant concertmaster ran up to me: "I
believe that's my violin," he said. Turns out his violin
case is the same as the one I was using, and there had been
quite a hubbub until my stand partner realized that Ryan and
I had the same kind of violin case. I'd been tired and in a
hurry and had grabbed the wrong violin! Luckily Ramiro had
been awake enough to figure out what had happened. I was
thoroughly chastened and wondered for a moment whether I had
had a relapse.

===

We'd been supposed to play four I think concerts for the
schools (Adventures in Music), but the funding hadn't come
through, so I had two days to sit on my hands, visit with
EL's grandsons, and so on.

Nicely posted. How about a review about the next Van Cliburn competition?

Out of my price range. The good thing about the Fulbright was that it
was free. Anyhow, I don't think I could sit through 53 piano recitals,
and I wonder how the judges can (perhaps not all judges hear all
of the preliminaries). Anyhow, the next Cliburn is going to be just a
month or two after the next Fulbright, and I'm sort of committed
to the latter.

Sorry about that, violist.:p

Why do you call yourself "violist" since you are a violinist?!? Or am I wrong?

Thank you for the detailed report! ^ ^ ^

It's not unknown to be both, and I have more a "violist" personality than a
"violinist" one. I'm probably equally proficient on both instruments, but
the latter is generally more saleable.