1st place, Gold Medal - Stanislav Ioudenitch and Olga Kern

2nd place, Silver Medal - Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Maxim Phillipov

3rd place, Bronze medal - not awarded

Why would you award two gold and two silver medals????????????? That totally cheapens it, especially at the level this competition operates at. Generally, I am very disapointed. In a way, I kind of suspected that this would happen once the announcement was made that the jury could "award more than one gold medal if they decided that the numeric distincition between two contestants is insignificant." This shows nothing other than a deadlocked, indecisive jury who refuses to distinguish between the audience favorite (Kern) and the triumphant overcomer (Ioudenitch), IMHO.

BAH!!!!!!!



[ June 10, 2001: Message edited by: Brendan ]

Brenden, it is a bit of a letdown, isn't it.

My man (Antonio Pompa-Baldi) didn't win--darn.

The only thing I can think of is, if they had given a bronze, that would have left only one finalist with nothing---is that politically (classically) impolite?

What did you think of Kern's performance? I'm relistening now to see what I might have missed the first time. Usually my first impressions are correct ( I wasn't blown away by Kern on first listening), but then, I'm not on the jury.

Mat D.

[ June 10, 2001: Message edited by: Mat D. ]

The only finalists I heard were Pompa-Baldi and Phillipov, and I was not really that impressed with either. I They played fine, but I just didn't like their interpretations.

I think the medal issue must have arisen from the last Van Cliburn where the top three could have arguably all been awarded gold. Not to take anything away from Nakamatsu, but I felt that the performances of Kasman and Reichert were just as good. And if Gamba had not had a mishap in the Brahms Bb, he would have been a legitimate choice for gold as well.

So, four years ago I would have been glad to see multiple golds awarded. This year I am not so sure. I need to listen to all of the archives, but so far I don't have the same strong feeling that I did for the last Van Cliburn. I think awarding multiple golds and silvers is fine, when appropriate. But, I really, really don't understand this awarding. Now, I haven't listened to all of the performances yet, and may change my mind later, but I honestly did not think that the concerti performances by Pompa-Baldi and Phillipov would earn them more than a bronze. However, the judges seem to be saying that there was a huge disparity between the top four and the other two, which is something I have trouble believing. Did Koltakov and Xiaohan totally fall apart in their concerti performances?

I could understand two golds/one silver/one bronze, but two golds/two silver/no bronze doesn't make any sense to me.

Here are a couple of articles from the local papers.
http://web.star-telegram.com/content/fortworth/2001/06/11/topstory/cliburn11.htm

http://www.dallasnews.com/cliburn/390797_cliburnwinners_11ove.html

What frustrates me is that there are only archives for 2 of the finalist concerto performances.

This may tell the story for me, who knows.

Has anyone heard all the concerto performances---is that possible?

Mat D.

This is a bit off topic, but I am still listening through the preliminary round and I have to wonder, how in the heck did Oxana Mikhailoff not make the second round??? Is it just me, or didn't she have a fantastic 50 min recital?

Ryan