Sure thing...look for Brendan and me after the evening concerts.

Have fun everyone who's going!

Update: Row CCC Left Section Seat 5.

I won't get to practice for several days ... but I'm excited about this event!!

Dinner, anyone? So far my dinner plans consist of stopping by the local Subway, but I would love to have the opportunity to savor a Texas steak!

Whats the deal with the stream?

Nevermind, it's good

Is it just me or is the video/audio terrible? The piano sounds like it's being played underwater. :p

Envy you guys to be able to go there in person.

But does anyone care to tell me if there is any live TV coverage on any part of the competition?

I watched the documentatory tape of the last competition and found it very interesting.

Thanks, JHD

The only live tv I can remember of Cliburns in the past has been tiny sound bites on local Dallas-Ft Worth news. I've followed all the news of the competition here in Ft. Worth for the past three months and haven't seen any mention of tv coverage.

I agree with you, Deux et Pianoforte - I've been trying to follow the competition and, depending on the player, get cruddy sound and decent video, or good sound and out-of-sync video. My cable modem and computer are to blame for part of this, but that doesn't account for the muddy sound.

Mamriev just finished off the afternoon prelim session -out of the 4 pianists so far, Davide Cabassi looks good to me.

poulencfan, what media players gave you those specific results?

Windows Media Player gave good sound with out-of--sync or still video. Toward the end of the 4th contestant, the video got in sync with the sound.

The sound on Real Player resembled something from a swamp.

The sound on my Windows Media Player was ok - but is there any way to make the picture take up the whole screen, or do we have to squint at a small portion of the screen. Also, it's very dark, so it's hard to even see the pianist. Anyway - we are anxiously awaiting any commentary from you lucky guys who are attending... it must be very exciting! Please share your impressions.

why is cliburn.org down?

opus119, right click on the video, select "view full screen."

My windows media player keeps signing off the network every few minutes. Is anyone else having that problem? Also the Realplayer sounds awful.

k, try to run it using internet explorer for your browser, and instead of running it with (ahem piece of sh*t) realplayer, use windows media player instead and make sure you have it set to max kbps.

thanks. I was using mozilla firefox before--I'll see if explorer runs better

Go ahead and use firefox, it shouldn't make a difference.

Click Preferences at the bottom, and choose Win media player, and 300kbps connection.

thats where you're wrong, at least for me. on firefox, it kept canceling the stream window entirely every few minutes. internet explorer gave me no such hassle

Mine cancelled it once, but it's been fine for a while.

no i was using firefox and it kept cancelling it as well

Yeah once I switched to Explorer I didn't have that problem, the only thing that still was a problem was the sound kept muting a lot. It eventually came back but made it impossible to enjoy the performances.

http://reflectweb.reflectsystems.com/med...ID=88&MediaID=1


Try pasting this into - file < open url in Windows Media player tomorrow.

My 5-minute review before I hope on today's bus to the competition:

Russian girl #1: Decent, but I couldn't get over the fact that she was playing the piano (meaning that she is a very good pianist, but that's about it).

Davide Cabassi: Lovely Debussy, but his Pretrushka needed much more bite. Way too nice for that piece!

Russian girl #2: The first semifinalist so far. Very solid playing, fairly middle of the road, but you can't poke any holes in it.

Mamriev: It was pretty amazing that he could sit down and play Chopin 10/1, but the rest of his program was fairly superficial IMO. I think that he was simply trying too hard.

Sodi Brade: He probably won't pass to the semifinals, but it was great to hear this individual and innovative pianist who had a great sound.

Grace: I felt so bad for her, she's such a nice person but it's a pity that she was so uncomfortable onstage. Hell, give props to anyone who steps onstage for this event. It's at least a 30-step walk to the piano from the stage entrance. Hardest walk one will ever take.

Francheschetti: By far the best of the day. The man is confidence personified.

I'll have too disagree with you about Mamriev; his Liszt Polonaise had to be some of the most colorfull Liszt of the day. But I agree with the rest of your thumbnail reviews, especially Francheschetti.

What happened with Grace ?

Dear me. The sound on this webcast is a bit ropey.

Quite enjoying this bird's playing, though.

Well, I think she's going to the next round.


Is it just me, or does every time the piano goes < piano, the sound drops out?

Hepcat, Do you have a link to the lowest quality stream? Your url works but it buffers too often on my slower connection.