Thursday, July 7, 2011

International Piano Competitions


For the classical music fans and especially piano fans that are interested in international competitions, the following link has all competitions, festivals and events including dates and further links to the different websites:


Checking the “Piano Calendar” from the menu on the left, you can see there are many competitions all around the world almost all year round. I don’t know if all the competitions have or will have an online webcast to view the performances but I will keep posting updates on the relevant competition when covered.

The next competition I will post updates on will be:
Cleveland International Piano Competition July 27th – August 7th, 2011.


Liszt International Piano Competition September 8th – 19th, 2011.


More information will be posted later this month.
Enjoy!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Relaxing time

And what a beautiful day to relax on and in the water after 2 thrilling weeks being attached to the internet...






For the music fans, next post will provide information on the next piano competitions.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

ParaClassics.com archive


The archive works again and I found all of the piano finals when selecting by competition dates but there are 2 mistakes. The piano performances from 29th June are under the category of the 28th. These are Seong Jin Cho playing the Tchaikovsky concerto and Alexander Romanovsky playing the Rachmaninoff concerto. Here’s the link to archive:

Listen to Daniil Trifonov and ParaClassics.com

I don’t know what is going on with the archive section on ParaClassics webcast; it’s unavailable for a while. It might being updated now but the last time I checked it Daniil Trifonov and Yeol Eum Son’s concertos performances with the orchestra were removed. The recitals were still available but if you want to listen to Daniil plays Chopin concerto No.1 for piano and orchestra and many others, here’s links:



Enjoy!

XIV Tchaikovsky competition is over

Daniil Trifonov receiving the great Tchaikovsky statuette, Congratulations!


Daniil Trifonov Grand-Prix winner XIV Tchaikovsky comp. 2011

The competition is over. It was a marvellous 2 weeks, listening to top musicians, and the fact that I could follow it all online and listen to all performances live made it all such a great success for us, the online audience.

For the winners it is just the beginning. As part of the competition’s regulations, the winners will tour for 3 years around the world as the winners of the XIV Tchaikovsky competition. Information about the performances, schedule etc. can be found on the official Tchaikovsky competition website:



I know I will follow the schedule and will be very interested to listen to Daniil Trifonov and to Yeol Eum Son live on stage, or any of the other piano competitors from round II. I am very curious in which countries they will perform and maybe it will be the next excuse for me to go traveling. Nothing better than combining traveling with good music, it goes very well together, at least for me.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - Grand-Prix - results

Nice performances tonight, each and one of them. It was great to listen to the winners from all disciplines in one evening. Truly, all fine artists. Bravo!

And the winner of the grand-prix goes to….

Daniil Trifonov.

Daniil received a statuette of the great Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and even though the announcement didn’t come as a surprise to anyone it was an excitement moment in general and I’m sure for him, maybe the best of his life.

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - gala concert - grand-prix

Yeol Eum Son keeps amazes me each time I listen to her. She played so well tonight a part of Prokofiev concerto for piano and orchestra (didn’t understand which No. as it was said in Russian only) incredible!

The grand-prix winner will be announced at the end of the concert, of course… keep us all in suspense….

Enjoy!

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - Gala concert - Moscow

I just finished watching tonight’s gala concert in Moscow, (not live for the first time) and all I can think of is WOW WOW WOW !!!

So Daniil Trifonov didn’t play all what I hoped for but he did surprise me with La Campanella by Liszt that he also played as an encore at the XIII Arthur Rubinstein competition last month. He started his performance playing the 2nd & 3rd parts from the Tchaikovsky piano concerto No.1 that we heard 5 times in the finals and after that the beautiful mentioned piece. All played beautifully according to the standards Daniil got me used to… Ye, this young pianist is deep in it now and he has expectations to fulfil. He made himself a big name and he will just have to make it.


It’s definitely worth watching, an outstanding performance, either live on Saturday 20:00 Moscow time or any other time through this archive: Daniil's performance at the end of the concert.


Enjoy!

Friday, July 1, 2011

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - grand-prix winner

Update: Saturday's gala concert and grand-prix award in St. Petersburg will starts at 20:00 Moscow time and not at 19:00 as mentioned earlier.

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - Daniil Trifonov Winner

So you think it is over, ha? Well, not just yet. 

Daniil Trifonov 1st prize winner!








Yeol Eum Son 2nd prize
Yes, we have the discipline winners but we still don't have the Grand-Prix winner. What is the Grand-Prix? One grand winner to be chosen from all disciplines which will be awarded on the gala concert tomorrow night in St. Petersburg, starts at 19:00 Moscow time, and will be broadcasted on the usual webcast. There is also a gala concert of the winners tonight in Moscow but no awards tonight. I don’t know the program of the concerts as it was not published but if it will be available I will post it. The gala concert tonight starts at 19:00 Moscow time and should be broadcasted as well on the usual webcast. I hope to hear Daniil Trifonov plays Chopin and Tchaikovsky concertos again, but I think this is too much to hope for…

It was a very entertaining couple of hours yesterday waiting for the awards ceremony to start. I was ready online with the broadcast a few minutes before the planned starting time (8pm Moscow) but due to the late arrival of the St. Petersburg jury and participants, the final start time of the event was over 1 hour and a half later. While waiting, I got on the facebook page of the competition and there everything was happening…. 

For about an hour and a half people were chewing nails, making comments and jokes that clearly show signs of nervousness and anticipation. Bets on the winners followed by discussion and arguments, people not able to find the webcast, worried that they’re missing it, begging for someone to post the link again or tell them what they can see to check if they see the same. Tips to use FireFox and not IE, refresh the page, choose “live piano” from menu, re-start your PC, all the good old known tips.

One thing useful I learned from all these pre-announcements discussions, and it was also wrote under the same though (probably):  “as we are currently waiting anyway, does anyone know when and where is the next international piano competition?” and thanks to some knowledgeable followers I now can prepare myself for September when the International Liszt piano competition will take place in Budapest :)


Enjoy!




Thursday, June 30, 2011

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - results - Final

And the winners are: (piano)

1st - Daniil Trifonov
2nd - Yeol Eum Son
3rd - Seong jin cho
4th - Alexander Romanovsky
5th - Alexi Chernov

Congrats to all!

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - results No.2

still waiting @ 19:06 (CET)  

And more delays. Ceremony hasn't started yet... 18:38

View results online

If you need the link to the webcast: starts now

http://pitch.paraclassics.com/#/live/piano

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - results

20 Min delay. It is now 18:03 and people are roaming on FB....

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - And the winner is...


Not just yet...

Alexi Chernov played his last piece for this competition, Brahms concerto No.1, and I am left with the amazing archive of all these performances that should stay online until the next competition in 4 years, at least that is what was posted by the organisers. 

I think the orchestra was a bit tired after this long week of rehearsals and performances and without air-condition. They didn’t play that good today, in my view, or maybe they played Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky so many times that they were not as ready with Chopin and Brahms. Or the fact that the orchestra is not used to this conductor…

And the winner is…. For me it doesn’t really matter. My vote goes to Daniil Trifonov. But, he doesn’t need to win this competition to get concerts booked; he already has a respectable schedule, at least for the next year. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that he shouldn’t win because of that, I think he should win but for another reason. In my view he was the only competitor that played every piece from his repertoire perfect, and I like consistency :)

So who is the winner? We’ll have to wait until 6pm (CET) this evening and of course I will publish them when available.

The award ceremony will be on the usual webcast as well as the 2 gala concerts.


Enjoy!

Yeol Eum Son - last performance in XIV Tchaikovsky competition

Yeol Eum Son with a very strong, aggressive, use to the fullest, sound and interpretation of Tchaikovsky concerto No.1. Well done! I certainly learned to enjoy her style. Only took me 3 rounds to get there....:)



Daniil Trifonov - last performance in XIV Tchaikovsky competition

Daniil Trifonov just played his last piece for this competition, Chopin concerto No.1. Another routine performance for him...? Bravissimo!!!







Next playing, Yeol Eum Son with Tchaikovsky concerto No.1 and Alexi Chernov will close this final round with Brahms concerto No.1


Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

XIV Tchaikovsky competition & XIII Arthur Rubinstein competition

Mrs Idith Zvi, Artistic managing Director of the Arthur Rubinstein international competition arrived in Moscow 3 days ago for the final rounds.

Mrs Idith Zvi has hosted both Daniil Trifonov and Yeol Eum Son in her competitions, last month Daniil won 1st prize and 6 years ago Yeol won 3rd prize. Idith said she felt very proud to see these two in this stage in this competition.

Mrs Idith Zvi was asked to compare between the two competitions, the requirements, participant’s age, repertoire, number of rounds, and number of participants. There were 173 applicants for the last Rubinstein competition, 32 were selected to start the 1st round. According to the press there were nearly 600 applicants for the Tchaikovsky competition in total which also includes cello, violin and vocal. There were over 160 applicants for piano. The age range at Rubinstein is 18-32. The average in the last competition was 26, 27. With that said, the winner is 20 years old. Tchaikovsky competition age range is 16-30 years old. So in general, including the rounds and repertoire they are very similar but with slight difference.

At the end of today’s performance Alexander Dimitriev, the conductor of the Russian National Orchestra was saying that this is his first time conducting on this orchestra! While I’m watching the rehearsals I’m wondering how much does he actually listen to the pianists when they have a different view on some parts of the orchestra? He was asked this question during the interview on which he replied in Russian and I didn’t get the translation of it… but I expect the interview to be on the webcast archive soon as was posted on Facebook by the competition’s organisation. 

Enjoy!

XIV Tchaikovsky competition - my interview

And with this last performance of Alexander Romanovsky (also his last for this competition) we say good-bye to Rachmaninoff and I think everyone in the audience, I know I am, is looking forward to Chopin and Brahms tomorrow. We will hear one more time tomorrow the Tchaikovsky concerto played by Yeol Eum Son.

I enjoyed today’s performances very much, I think Seong Jin Cho played the Tchaikovsky concerto better than his performance of Rachmaninoff, but that’s just my opinion.

I was trying to explain to someone why I picked my favourite. In my view:  

Except for Daniil Trifonov, the other competitors plays absolutely beautiful and with interesting interpretations of the pieces, they all play the poetic, sweet, soft scenarios so emotional with a perfect clear sound that you are tempted to sing along (but then you miss the piano, of course…:). BUT, here and there, at some point they seem to loose the plot a bit and it shows; the fingers looks stiffer and the whole body changes. They get back into it and continue as perfect as before but there was still a disruption. As if the piece was taking control over the pianist and not the other way around. 

And then I listen and watch Daniil plays. Not only that it is so clear to me from his body movements, his face, the way his fingers touches the piano and from the sound, that he is the one in control here, and this does not change between the scenarios. In his way of playing, it doesn’t matter if it is a virtuosic scenario, angry, sweet, naughty, wicked, joyful, sad, poetic, charming, bombastic, or in between, no, it just doesn’t matter. They all seem to be played from the same source and with the same scale of emotions, in kind of calmness (if possible), differentiating the levels of each of these emotions according to the position and the progress of the theme, building it up slowly but surely to high picks of stormy emotions... and now I start to make myself sick from all this gushi mushi emotions propaganda but what can I say, this is what Daniil Trifonov’s performances make me feel. And I loved his Tchaikovsky’s interpretation completely! 

Beautiful colors, beautiful story. Bravissimo!!!

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Coming up next, a short cover of two interviews from this morning's webcast with Ms Idith Zvi, Artistic & managing director of the Arthur Rubinstein competition and Mr Alexander Dimitriev, Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra during the final stage of this competition.

Enjoy!

Tchaikovsky Onweer (Thunder storm)

As if someone is listening up there to the final stage and replying back with bombastic performance of thunders and lightnings all night long. It was one of the most beautiful storms I've seen in NL.


Taken from GeenStijl.nl







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