Another opportunity to watch live performances from a piano competition. The Tchaikovsky Competition will be streaming everything this year.

Piano Competition
Webcast schedule

Unlike the Cliburn amateur that some of us watched a couple of weeks ago, these are young professionals. So they probably will make no obvious errors and there won't be any memory slips - too bad, the amateur competition definitely had drama. But the Tchaikovsky competition is very difficult. Round one is a fifty minute recital. Round two phase one is a sixty minute recital. Round two phase two is a Mozart Concerto. Round three is two concertos, including, of course, one by Tchaikovsky.

So I plan to listen in when I can - the webcast times are in Moscow, so convert to your time zone. For Georgia USA that's minus 8 hours- ack! I don't think I will get up at 4 am to watch, but late evening in Moscow is early afternoon here. It goes on for almost two weeks...

Sam

Thanks for the link. This competition is fascinating.

Does anyone have a favorite competitor?.

I don't know them, so I have only watched the videos on the web site. My favorite pianist is Yeol Eum Son. I've liked her performance on the Paganini capriche.

Nevertheless all of them are really good.

Thanks for sharing.

I listened to the competitors' recordings. These are my favorites:

Seong Jin Cho
Alexander Romanovsky
Sara Daneshpour

I also really enjoyed these:
Ed Kunz
Daniil Trifonov
Yunjie Chen
Alex Lubyantsev
Arseniy Aristov
I also liked Yeol Eum Son

What piece is this that Dubov is playing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAqIk4DJuAY&feature=player_embedded

It's hard for me to tell who is good and who is elite.

It's a piano version of Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, although I don't know the name of the arranger

It's not easy to figure out the livestreaming. Got this from a post over on the pianists corner. Go to

http://pitch.paraclassics.com/

and register. You'll need silverlight on your computer. Not as user friendly as the Cliburn, which just worked and didn't require that you register.

The female competitors are all very attractive - I will be unable to judge their performances unless I wear a blindfold!

Sam

Well, the webcast doesn't seem to be working this morning. I get a few seconds of video and then it freezes. Always the same few seconds, of some guy in a tux and bowtie with sweaty hair playing something horrendously difficult - in HD. Could be the stuff of nightmares...

Sam

Oh, my computer doesn't support silverlight program. Maybe it's too old. It's a pity!.

Looks like it's working now, 12:30 eastern US time. HD with excellent camera angles. Wow. Gorgeous hall. Now if I only knew who the performer was and what they were playing - no titles or scrolling info.

Sam

If you've been frustrated by the sometimes-on, sometimes-off webcast, they have now released the archive for part of 6/15, so you can go and play back the performances from 2 days ago. At least some of them. It's not indexed by performer, but a replay of the day - but you can fast forward past performers you have already heard.

Sam

The organization could upload the videos to Youtube. It'd be easier for everybody.

The semifinalists have been announced:
Alexei Chernov (Russia)
Seong Jin Cho (South Korea)
Sara Daneshpour (USA)
Pavel Kolesnikov (Russia)
Filipp Kopachevskiy (Russia)
Eduard Kunz (Russia)
Alexander Lubyantsev (Russia)
François-Xavier Poizat (Switzerland)
Alexander Romanovsky (Ukraine)
Alexander Sinchuk (Russia)
Yeol Eum Son (South Korea)
Daniil Trifonov (Russia)

I still have not heard most of these because the webcasting is still not working well. There are only limited archives available. And the audio/video is out of sync this morning - very disconcerting to watch.

So far I would have to give the Tchaikovsky a big fail for their webcasting. They are not even in the same league as the Van Cliburn Amateur Competition. It's hard to generate any enthusiasm when I can't listen to the performances.

Anyway, this phase of round 2 is more solo recital performances. After this they move to phase 2 of round 2, which is Mozart Concertos. Those would be fun to watch - maybe things will improve...

Sam

Hey, I picked 7/9 (of the ones I liked), and 3/3 of my favorites! Maybe I have an ear after all! I could be an ABF competition judge (lol)!

I wish the webcast worked better. Someone please tell them about LiveStream!

Still not working for me.

Eight remain:

Alexei Chernov (Russia)
Seong Jin Cho (South Korea)
Sara Daneshpour (USA)
Filipp Kopachevskiy (Russia)
Alexander Lubyantsev (Russia)
Alexander Romanovsky (Ukraine)
Yeol Eum Son (South Korea)
Daniil Trifonov (Russia)

I managed to listen to Yeol Eum Son's semifinal recital. She startled the judges (and the audience) by playing Kapustin Variations op. 41. He's a Russian composer, which satisfied the spirit of the competition to play Russian music, but it was jazz. Could have been Gershwin it was so authentic. Quite a change and shock from what everyone else was playing. Maybe it helped her advance...

Sam

How annoying!. I cannot watch anything. At least I can follow the competition by Sam.

Of course I'm very happy seeing that my favorite pianist has got the semifinals.

The Mozart Concerto round starts Thursday afternoon Georgia USA time. So does the Boston Amateur webcast. Which should I watch? Maye I'll take a lesson from Charles Ives (my avatar) and listen to both at once!

Sam

The Boston Amateur Competition seems interesting as well.

Watching Boston Amateur Competition is easier than watching Tchaikovsky International Competition. As we say in Spain: "The thing has eggs".

Seong Jin Cho gettin' ready to drop some WAM on ya azzz. With the VC in the house. I really hope this kid wins, he's my favorite.

The Mozart concerto round is over and the finalists and some awards have been announced:

The following competitors will advance to Round III:

Alexei Chernov (Russia)
Seong Jin Cho (South Korea)
Alexander Romanovsky (Ukraine)
Yeol Eum Son (South Korea)
Daniil Trifonov (Russia)

Best performance of the work written specially for the Competition:

Yeol Eum Son (South Korea)

Best chamber concerto performance:

Daniil Trifonov (Russia)
Yeol Eum Son (South Korea)

Jury Discretionary Awards:

François-Xavier Poizat (France)
Pavel Kolesnikov (Russia)

I listened to a few of the Mozart Concertos and they almost seemed too easy for these expert players. It all seemed so effortless.

In the final round they play two concertos, one by Tchaikovsky (everyone is playing the same one!) and one of their own choosing.

The finals begin June 27th and take four days to complete...

The webcast is showing rehearsals right now, but it looks like they have expanded the archives so you can go back and watch performances from the other rounds.

Sam

Thanks for the update, Sam.

My favorite pianist has already won a prize. How good!.

Hurray for Yeol Eum Son!

5th - Chernov
4th - Romanovsky
Bronze - Cho
Silver - Son
Gold - Trifunov

The performance of Yeol Eum Son on Rakhmaninov's third concerto is uploaded to Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwZylsB1f6U&feature=related

How is possible to play this gigantic concert by a human?. I'll never understand it. As George Bolet said one time: "It's not an easy piece."