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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 6,567
6000 Post Club Member
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Posts: 6,567 |
...but it is in no way a serious consideration of piano performance... Yes, this year's entries were better compared to previous years. But still, there were few real performances (one of them is your performance) that I truly enjoyed listening to, and that was a serious consideration of piano performance.
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,656
2000 Post Club Member
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2000 Post Club Member
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Feel like I've found a new home here - everyone seems to be so much on the same wavelength. Great to be involved in something meaningful!
SRF
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 24,601
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....everyone seems to be so much on the same wavelength.... As you look at other threads, you will find that to be not always necessarily so. It's great to have you with us.
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 113
Full Member
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Full Member
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 113 |
I know several of you guys have been through this personally before - in fact I feel like the totally naïve one here. Anyway, thanks for the kind words. I don't even know if there's an "official" winner yet, at least I haven't heard anything. I don't even know my own final score. And although I bear the Cliburn no ill will, I do feel like there's a lot that needs tweaking if this CONTEST is ever going to be taken seriously. I kind of lost interest after the whole raffle farce. The one valuable thing I take away from this is having to discipline myself to get some music to concert standard (espec. the Beethoven) and to get it recorded. I'm sure Mark, Hakki, and others would agree that that's worthwhile in itself. Definitely gong to go for it in 2016! Mybe see some of your there!
FYI, the Cliburn just announced the winner, Alfredo Garcia, Jr. He was leading throughout the contest, after discarding Calvin Lee's votes, and received over 1600 of the 11041 votes. I do not expect them to release any further vote totals. Here's the full announcement. I concur with pretty much everything Simon said. I'm not sure whether I will record anything for next year's contest, regardless of changes, but I am at least keeping in mind repertoire for the 2016 Cliburn, and perhaps some of the 2015 competitions.
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,811
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I have just listened to his Winter Wind. I think it is really under tempo, or is it just my perception?
Congratulation anyway.
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,656
2000 Post Club Member
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2000 Post Club Member
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I have just listened to his Winter Wind. I think it is really under tempo, or is it just my perception?
Congratulation anyway. Agree, congratulations to Mr. Garcia. I think his last performance, Lecuona - La Comparsa, was far and away the best of his entry. Your perception is correct on Op. 25, No. 11, which was quite a bit slower than most people take it (not such a bad thing in itself).
SRF
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 529
500 Post Club Member
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500 Post Club Member
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Well congratulations to Mr.Garcia. His entry was really OK! How on earth would one accumulate that number of votes? Beats me.!! Next year I'll watch everyone else I think!!
Last edited by musica71; 08/19/14 10:10 PM.
Musica 71
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How on earth would one accumulate that number of votes? Beats me.!! Apparently, he has tons of friends!!!!
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 6,567
6000 Post Club Member
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6000 Post Club Member
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After reading Mr.Garcia's bio, I was more surprised about his performance. Really I wasn't expecting such a bio. If I knew, I would have expected a much higher level of playing.
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Joined: Mar 2008
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1000 Post Club Member
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After reading Mr.Garcia's bio, I was more surprised about his performance. Really I wasn't expecting such a bio. If I knew, I would have expected a much higher level of playing. He got his first piano at the age of 17. Therefore, he could not be a serious pianist. The word conservatories that he used, I think misleading. How could somebody could get into a serious conservatory without even having a piano to practice on. I believe he is just a regular piano enthusiast, not a prodigy. Therefore, his playing quality makes sense. There were other Van Cliburn participants who have much more confusing background.
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 6,567
6000 Post Club Member
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6000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 6,567 |
After reading Mr.Garcia's bio, I was more surprised about his performance. Really I wasn't expecting such a bio. If I knew, I would have expected a much higher level of playing. He got his first piano at the age of 17. Therefore, he could not be a serious pianist. The word conservatories that he used, I think misleading. How could somebody could get into a serious conservatory without even having a piano to practice on. I believe he is just a regular piano enthusiast, not a prodigy. Therefore, his playing quality makes sense. There were other Van Cliburn participants who have much more confusing background. I don't know. Here is an excerpt from his bio: ..began studying piano when he was 8 years old, after pleading with his parents for lessons. He attended music conservatories in his hometown of Havana, Cuba and was preparing to enter the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory at the age of 14, when his family was granted leave from Cuba and relocated to Madrid, Spain. There he studied at the Conservatorio Real de Madrid before moving to New York City in 1970, when he was 17. His parents bought him his first piano, and he continued his music education at various institutions, including the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He was seeking his Master in Musicology at Queens College, New York, in 1977, when his father’s illness drew him out of school and eventually into a profession as a financial analyst...
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 13,956
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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After reading Mr.Garcia's bio, I was more surprised about his performance. Really I wasn't expecting such a bio. If I knew, I would have expected a much higher level of playing. I had the same reaction upon reading the bio.
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,811
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I agree, if we omit the sentence stating that he got his the first piano at 17, he has an impressive piano background, and it will make his performance not comparable to his background. However, that sentence really cast a doubt, whether all of those backgrounds were true or not. To me, I sensed that he was not that serious of a pianist (he was just exaggerating his piano background), that is why the quality of his performance is more aligned to that of non serious pianists.
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 6,567
6000 Post Club Member
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6000 Post Club Member
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Posts: 6,567 |
I agree, if we omit the sentence stating that he got his the first piano at 17, he has an impressive piano background, and it will make his performance not comparable to his background. However, that sentence really cast a doubt, whether all of those backgrounds were true or not. To me, I sensed that he was not that serious of a pianist (he was just exaggerating his piano background), that is why the quality of his performance is more aligned to that of non serious pianists. Yes, certainly the background and performances do not align. They align more with MarkC's 3 seconds criterion.
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,811
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MarkC's 3 seconds criterion. What is MarkC's 3 second criterion? Is it like after listening for 3 seconds, we make the decision?
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Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 529
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500 Post Club Member
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It means you can pretty well tell in the first few seconds what you are going to hear! It is the truth really, a Pianist has to "grab " you right off the bat. I have trouble picturing the network that went into 1600 votes. Tons of people mindlessly voting daily. They should go back to the one vote per person rule! That would cut out some of the ridiculousness.
Musica 71
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Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,656
2000 Post Club Member
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2000 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,656 |
It means you can pretty well tell in the first few seconds what you are going to hear! It is the truth really, a Pianist has to "grab " you right off the bat. I have trouble picturing the network that went into 1600 votes. Tons of people mindlessly voting daily. They should go back to the one vote per person rule! That would cut out some of the ridiculousness. If I may (now that this is over), I completely agree with Mark C and musica71 about the 3 second rule, though it clearly applies much more to amateurs than to professionals and to be fair I usually allow 30 seconds. (However, the additional 27 seconds usually only confirm the first three!) Second, multiple voting encourages the worst kind of vote scrounging and is furthermore counterintuitive. I have a friend who's a professor at UMD and who got virtually everyone on his faculty to vote for me, but he didn't know or tell them that they could do it multiple times - what does that tell you about the performance as distinct from the person? - and so they all only voted once instead of 15 times! Once per person per contestant makes obvious sense, encourages people to actually listen critically to the performances and make an informed decision, and discourages "blind" voting, where you select, click, and move on with your daily business. Finally, and I hope no-one is interpreting this as sour grapes, I thought the web portal pretty much sucked. Most people I spoke to said they had problems actually recording their votes and EVERYONE objected to the inconvenience/unpredictability/invasiveness of the registration process. Let's hope Cliburn can find a better IT contractor next time around.
SRF
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
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