the author of the article defends his opinion here:

http://jessicamusic.blogspot.com/2009/06/van-cliburn-competition-delivers-odd.html

i think it's good that we hear different opinions on the competition outcome, and the debates about the competition or competitions in general will benefit the future judging process of all competitions.

btw, if you had read the blogs at the Cliburn, you probably will recognize the name of a bloger: Brad Hill. here is an interview with him on the subject:

http://www.cassandrapages.com/the_cassandra_pages/2009/06/discussing-the-cliburn-with-brad-hill.html

(check the part 2 & 3 on left navigation bar)

What a foolish person...he says he "stands by his reporting"...which includes posting blatantly false statements and attributing a shy/deferential behavior to some nonexistant mental deficiency / "idiot savant " syndrome.

Nubo's not autistic is he?

Nope.

The thought that Tsujii might be autistic certainly started going through my head (and others') many times while watching him play (in person at Bass Hall) and on the webcasts. He was carefully insulated from the press by his entourage during the entire competition. When asked even the simplest of questions, his translator(s) would whisper furiously to him and there would be lots of verbal prodding and a long, long wait before he would give even a brief answer. For the most part, he displayed a flat emotional aspect that was weird.

The more I saw of Tsujii, the more I was reminded of the Peter Sellers movie, "Being There." That Tsujii might be autistic or have some other problem is not out of the question. He's got quite a buffer zone of handlers around him who can easily obscure anything they want to.

There were also backstage post-performance interviews/performer portraits where you can see him speaking with his translators in a non-rehearsal setting, and which (if you understand Japanese) does not sound like conversations with an autistic person.

Well autistic is not a bad word (or rather it should not be), nor is it a diagnosis for us to bandy about lightly.
But I will admit sharing some of poulencfan's impressions.
Pf, it sounds like you saw him live. Does he maintain the same stereotypical head rotations when he is not playing? Or is there some acoustic need for the constant head turning?
Oh and what's a "professional teenage herder"??

Don't have the answer to the teenage herder question, Andromaque. But I saw two of Tsujii's recitals and his concerto performances live, the rest (including the awards) on the webcast. He did the same odd head movement routine over and over even when he was sitting in the audience. It was the same group of moves over and over, which strongly reminded me of three people I know (one kid, one teenager, one adult) who are moderately to severely autistic.

I wouldn't write a review calling Tsujii autistic based on those observations alone. But after watching him a few times, and then watching those anxious, hovering handlers of his, it kept crossing my mind how easy it would be for them to cover for Tsujii by claiming he didn't speak English and answering for him.

Conspiracy!

pf, the teenage herder reference comes from your own profile!!care to explain??

Egads, what a doof I am - I completely forgot about that phrase in my profile. A teen herder is exactly what it sounds like. I've got 2 teenagers here - the oldest has been launched (and I hope, continues to stay that way).

Herding involves constantly checking (through visual exam or word of mouth) that your teens: 1) are generally where they say they are; 2) haven't been arrested; 3) haven't pierced or tattooed yet another body part; 4) aren't stoned or inebriated; 5) aren't (oi!) pregnant. This is in addition to the everyday herding that includes chauffering and general nagging.

This sounds all too familiar....

I would say just because he is blind he is not better. In alot of ways after watching his performances. It seems he relied much more on other people following what he did.

I do disagree with learning things by ear. I think it takes away from what the individual can bring to the music. He is learning someone else's interpretation not his own. When I first saw him play, I did not know he was blind at all. I remember finding his playing rather dull despite his program of the Chopin etudes.

I don't think anyone ever claimed this.



I think it depends on whether or not he just learns the notes from the recordings or he copies the interpretation also. As long as his teacher tells him about all the other markings in the core besides the notes, so he knows what the composer wrote, he would be at least theoretically free to use his own interpretation.

I think some performers have heard or listen to other recordings before or while learning a work, some listen to a recording after learning a work, and others almost never listen to another recording of the work.

Some competitors may not listen to a lot of recordings, but they've participated in enough masterclasses, festivals, and attended enough recitals that they are VERY familiar with other people's interpretations of the literature.

If anyone feels that Tsujii is copying someone else, then I'd ask them to provide some kind of evidence that his interpretations are more derivative than Son/Vacatello/Zhang/etc...

And if it's so obvious that Tsujii is simply copying someone else's interpretations, then why haven't we seen a single post that names the subject of his plagiarism? If it's so obvious that he's copying people, then compared to the other performers, it should be relatively easy to say who he's copying. Yet nobody has...

This is very interesting because I believe there are some pianists on this forum who have claimed to never listen to anyone else's recording(or I assume master class performance etc.). I never really believed that this was the case for 99% of them.

Yeah, and for the Cliburn competitors, all of whom have attended some kind of music school or conservatory, a good bit of their formal training has included studio class, masterclass, and recital attendance.

Besides, listening to somebody doesn't necessarily mean you're going to copy them. Sometimes the most interesting interpretations come from making the decision to be different from what you've heard.

Remember, one of the most original pianists in the 20th century, Glenn Gould, admitted to being influenced by his teacher and Rosalyn Tureck's playing.

I'm reading the very psychologically oriented bio of Gould called Bravo Fortissimo. It also mentions that Gould studied Schnabel's Beethoven playing a lot, especially the Concerto #4.

Speaking of influence, according to my google search Zhang said last year his favorite pianist was Schnabel, and his favorite performance was Ricter's Schubert b-flat Sonata 2nd movement. (He was playing Beethoven and Schubert and he's a YouTube fanatic. :))

For those who have access to the Naxos online music library, the prelims are all available to listen to.

Just received my DVD order.

They are barely audible. No where near the quality of the on-line webcast. Nor are they any better than those videos posted on YouTube. I don't mind the no-frill packaging. But the below professional level audio quality is more than I can take. I am hugely disappointed.

I was going to order...now I need to find ways to save the streaming...

Thanks for telling us!

I would definitely contact them. Perhaps there were some technical problems in copying the DVDs. If they can't replace them with something of a better quality I would return them for a refund.

I still hope the CD's I haven't received yet will be of a better quality.



I wrote them a letter to complain but not sure I am prepared to give them any more hard time (unless they offer to). I am sure they are frustrated about what happened as well.

Already got a reply (3 hours after I sent them the email):

Feel free to mail it back and we will refund the cost of the DVDs . These are sold as unedited recordings; they were never intended to be or advertised as professional, studio-engineered products. In the fall, harmonia mundi will release CDs of all three medalists using selections that were performed at the competition but “cleaned up” to have the professional sound quality you are seeking.

Marcia Garoon
Van Cliburn Foundation
Director of Finance/Business Manager

If I understand the problem correctly, the issue has nothing to do with the editing, but simply that the recording level was set way too low. The probable reason for that is that most professional equipment is operating at a different level than consumer equipment, and somebody forgot to make the adjustment when producing the DVDs.

Ironically, the one and only commercial CD I ever bought that had this problem came from harmonia mundi, back in the early days of CDs.

Which performances/performers did you get?

Daniel

i got some DVDs from them too but only watched one so far, which wasn't too bad and is audible for sure. but i agree the quality of picture and sound aren't exceptionally good. i surely will check the others to see if they're acceptable.

Here's what's currently available in the Naxos Music Library, to which I subscribe:
http://www.rcblue.com/Misc/VanCliburnCompetition.png

I've listened to a few of these--they are all high-quality recordings.

BTW I can highly recommend the NML. I paid 225 USD for one year. I couldn't be more pleased.
http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com

I bought the Zhang DVDs and a whole bunch of other CDs.