Between July 16 and 29, I attended the IKIF piano festival at Mannes and heard:

1.recitals by Savitski,Ponochevny, Entremont, Filjak, Dubal(lecture), Achucarro, Swann, Mndoyants, Paik, Yakushev, Golka and a faculty artists recital(Chang, Rachmanov, Levy, Morozova, Braginsky and Mayer each played around 20 minutes)

2.the semifinals of the competition yesterday(12 contestants played 20 minutes each) and the finals today(I heard the first three pianists play one hour each and left)

3.about 20 hours of master classes(almost all terrific)

So that's why I'm piano'd out.

I'm very curious if anyone has heard any of the pianists who gave the recitals and what your impression was of him or her. Although some might not be "household names", they've virtually all won a prize(usually first) some major competition.

posted twice

I'd like to hear more about Dmitry Rachmanov's recital.

Elise B:
I'm afraid the Entremont was IMHO by far the worst of all the concerts I saw. Even from the first few measures of Mozart's K.331 I was thinking his tone was ugly. Usually I feel exactly the opposite and wish I could somehow have the beautiful tone I hear in these recitals. I also thought he lacked technique(as did the NY Times), overpedalled the Moazrt and had poor articulation. My guess is he does mainly conducting now and doesn't practice much.

I don't know who won the competition. It may be posted on the Mannes website by next week.

You are right in saying that some very advanced pianists may still have a lot to learn at least according to those giving the master classes. Last year I heard Morozova give a master calss to a student who had an advanced degree from Julliard. Morozova found tons of things wrong about the performance (although she said them in a very constructive and positive way).

Rachmanov played in the recital where 6 pianists played around 20 minutes each. He played the Beethoven Op.34 Variations and I thought he had some technical problems although they were relatively minor. It was obviously a very carefully thought out performance and musically convincing at least to this amateur. I heard him play Scriabin's Op.28 Fantasy last year and enjoyed it much more. I think he just moved last year to some teaching post in California.

I've heard at least four of his master classes between this year and last year. I enjoy his teaching very much in the sense that everything he says makes sense to me and he always makes his criticism sound positive(except the one time where a student has misread around 15 notes).

I'd be very interested in your opinions of any other of the performers I mentioned. Or is it not appropriate for one professional to discuss another on the internet?

By the way, the audience went crazy again after the 19 year old Ukrainian pianist I had mentioned in an earlier post played the 10th piece of Regards for the Infant Jesus in the finals today. This was after playing Beethoven Op.101 and both books of the Pagannini Variaitons. I think he could win the competition but a fairly bad memory slip in the 4th movement of the Beethoven might be his undoing.

Yes the first part was not so brilliant, but it is kind of strange that he would play a selection of "pops" isn't it? appassionata and k331!!! But the second part was quite good I thought..
Did you go to Hamelin or to jerome rose's concert or MC? I have only watched him on DVD, never live.. Can you comment?

Braginsky is the husband of my former cello teacher. He's very good, but I would be hard pressed to place him among virtuosos because I have not heard him play in probably 20 years. He teaches at the University of Minnesota.

I have heard Rose play many times and unfortunately he is on my very short list of pianists whose playing I don't like. He has received some very good reviews in International Piano Magazine but so-so review in the NY Times. Personally, he is very nice and amiable and he seems to have a lot friends in the music world.

I have seen Hamelin 4 or 5 times. I had a ticket to the sold out concert at Mannes yesterday, but I didn't go because I had already heard so many recitals, masterclasses etc. The ticket was easy to sell because many had been turned away since the concert hall only holds around 350.

Also, I don't like his programmed Ives' Concord Sonata although I know that many think it is a complete masterpiece. I think it is beyond the comprehension of most people with the exception of music professionals. I have enjoyed Hamelin's recitals much more than Rose. Apparently Hamelin played two of his new compositions as encores.

I did not see him in the recital mentioned above, but I did see him perform the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with the CSUN (where he now teaches) Symphony in concert a few months back. I thought while he was a remarkably clean player, he was also very cold and clinical. He had a very small sound and did not project at all but was very "stagebound." Absolutely no feeling at all...not even during the great 18th Variation.