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I didn't "find out," and I didn't say I knew. I was speculating.


Reasonable question, and at least for Slava, I'm quite sure the answers are ones that we all would admire. He jokes in the film that he entered this competition to show his wife (a professional pianist) that he can still play but whatever....from having been around him at two events, he truly seems to be there mostly for the performing opportunity and the camaraderie.

In no way will he lose his musical knowledge, he may be rusty. My teacher went to military service for 2 years while he attended Moscow Conservatory, and he could not practice. He was afraid that he will never gain back his ability. After he is done with military service, he was able to go back to the previous condition within 2 weeks of constant practice. Therefore, Slave can return to say 60 percent of his young age ability, and this will still be 10x better than most normal people since he graduated with Doctorate degree from one of the best conservatories in the world. But it is ok to have him in a competition, kind of fun and make normal people be more inspired....otherwise, competing against normal people , AARP members, is not challenging.

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I agree somewhat with what you say about professionally-trained pianists, but again I think you put it stronger than it deserves.

Saw this thread yesterday and my husband and I watched this on Netflix last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was especially happy that one of my personal favorites -- Schubert's Wanderer - was played. (One of the many pieces that break my heart because my hands are too small.)

I was curious though - the show did not say anything (or if it did, I missed it) about whether the competitors take lessons. If so, I would have enjoyed seeing something about that.

Some of the players seem to be basically concert pianists who chose not to go pro. And the repertoire requirements are very stiff: 10-12 min. program in prelim. rd., 16-20 min. in semi-finals, and 25-30 min. in finals. Which raises a question in my mind: do all 75 contestants in the prelims actually have the complete repertoire ready to go, or do most of them expect to be eliminated in the prelims and therefore don't actually have even the semi-final repertoire prepared? That is, most of the 75 are just in it for the experience and couldn't participate in the semi-finals if them somehow made the cut.

Also, the VC Youtube competition winner gets into the prelims, but do the Youtube contestants actually have the complete repertoire ready to go if they were to win?

I think the thing to take away from this is that most of these competitors are very successful people in their professions that would have been good in almost anything they tried.

Most people prepare all of the pieces, but they know their ability. If they think that they are going to be a first rounder only, they just practice hard for the first round, and practice enough to not embarrass themselves in case they get into semifinal. People who foresee that they have a big chance to be a contender in the final, they practice all of the pieces very hard.

Sorry to revive such an old thread, but...I just finished watching this film for, oh, the third or fourth time, and am seeking a small bit of information from someone who might know (Mark C?).

After Mark Fuller's full performance of a Prokofiev sonata (in the bonus features), while he is talking backstage you can hear someone playing Schubert's B flat sonata, D960. I am just really curious to know which competitor that was. It is one of my favorite pieces, and I wondered too whether any video of that competitor playing it is online anywhere (if so, I can't locate it).

Thanks in advance if anyone can help!

Wait a minute, Mark C was in this?? Now I want to watch it!




EDIT: "no, we're real doctors..."

I saw the preview like two years ago (way before I joined PianoWorld) and I distinctly remember that line. Only now that I go back and watch it again do I realize it's Mark. Small world I guess!

One of my faves too!
I suspect that the only person who would know is the person him/herself, because I'm pretty sure it was a non-programmed piece that someone was just using to try out the piano. (I think nobody played any movements of the piece in the competition nor had it scheduled for any round that they didn't reach. If I have a chance I'll go back and look through the program book of the event to make sure.)

To Joel: Yes, with the help of my wife being "straight man," I had the first laugh line of the film.

Mark,
Thanks for the info! It didn't occur to me that someone was warming up with the Schubert. Does that mean that you're allowed warm-up time on stage before you perform? I assumed that folks had to warm up in a practice room or something, then go out on stage and jump right in to his/her piece.

I wish they'd included even more bonus material on the disc. Heck, I'd like to see a full performance from every competitor. Guess I'll have to go to Fort Worth some day for that!

First of all, I was wrong about nobody having programmed the piece -- and I think I know who this was. I started looking through the program book, and it didn't take me very long going through the alphabetical order to get to someone who did list the piece (1st mvt only), and who probably did succeed in getting to the round where he would have played it.

Once I found that, I was able to find a video of him playing the movement, perhaps of the performance at that competition.
It's the first video on this page.

His name is Michael Brounoff and I actually know him a bit, so I'm extra surprised that I had no recollection of the piece having been part of that event. We've been together at several of the Cliburn amateur competitions, we played some 4-hand music together at an evening party during one of them, and sat together in a group at the same table for the post-competition dinner at the last one.

About the last part of what you said up there: Yes, you get to try the piano, not during "warm up" but earlier in the day or on the previous day. Everyone gets 7 minutes, which might not sound like a lot, but as these things go, that's real good. And besides that, there's plenty of actual "warm-up" before your performance. You get 45 minutes on a good practice piano in the building next door, then they pick you up and walk you to the green room in the auditorium, where (if memory serves -- I can't believe I don't remember this for sure after having been in that competition about a trillion times!) I think there's another piano that you warm up on some more for a few minutes before going on stage.

They treat you very nicely there.

Thank you so much for the info and the link! I love hearing details about the competition so I can live vicariously. I will likely never make it there as a competitor, but I do really want to go some day as an audience member. Maybe in 2015 (which I'm guessing is when the next one would be).

That's how I got started in this whole thing!

I went to the first amateur Cliburn as an audience member, out of curiosity, especially because some friends were in it. And I caught the bug.

I think having pianists with a doctorate from the Moscow Conservatory competing in an amateur competition is like having Roger Federer compete in the local amateur tennis tournament 10 years after he retires from professional tennis.

I think this topic has come up before at PW but this situation seem particularly outrageous. I don't think many would consider him an amateur even if he pursued another career after graduation.

Why would anyone with training like that want to compete in an "amateur" competition? I realize that the Cliburn isn't the only competition that allows this kind of situation, but I find it outrageous and almost pathetic. What is he trying to prove?

He himself said in the documentary that he wanted to show that "he can still do it" which he said (perhaps jokingly) his wife doubted. He was working in IT after arriving in the US, because he needed the money.
Still, i get your point, he had a slightly unfair advantage of long professional training. That he still didn't sweep the competition of passionate amateurs speaks for itself.

If that is his reason, I don't consider it particularly good. He doesn't have to enter a competition to see if he can still do it. He should just give a free concert at some local venue.

this post

No

Yes.

I know the guy. You don't.

And BTW I'm pretty honest.