Cliburn Competition

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2013 Cliburn Competition

Basic information on the competition  

Preliminary Round schedule

 




Final Round, Day 2

Friday June 7, 2013

19-year-old Tomoki Sakata is the youngest of the finalists in the Cliburn, but he plays like a seasoned veteran of the world's great stages. He performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 as the first of his two concerti, and I was struck by his gorgeous tone and the lucid clarity of his articulation. Certain pianists make you aware of a whole spectrum of subtle gradations in touch and color that usually goes unnoticed. Sakata gives the impression that nuanced and specific intentions guide even his slightest musical gestures. He seems to set each note he plays with the care of a jeweler placing a shard of colored glass in a mosaic.

Sean Chen gave an enthralling account of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, "The Emperor." He was particularly effective in creating a hushed, reverential tone during the quietest moments of the first movement, and he was always sensitive to the interplay between piano and orchestra. The slow movement is one of Beethoven's greatest melodic creations. Its songlike quality inspired Leonard Bernstein to write There's a Place for Us in West Side Story as an homage. Chen conveyed the almost vocal beauties of the melody admirably, and he imbued the rousing rhythms of the last movement with all the militant swagger they demand.

Vadym Kholodenko closed the evening with an absolutely riveting performance of Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto. Kholodenko has an intangible magnetism that thrills audiences. He is the only performer who generates genuine whooping from the crowd. What's striking is that he captivates by musical means. He's not an especially restrained player, but he certainly avoids the hyperbolic writhing favored by some famed pianists. His movements seem completely appropriate to the music. The percussive and rhythmic qualities of Prokofiev ripple through his neck and shoulders and head as he plays, and I saw audience members moving to the music as well. It was quite a change from some of the somnolent semifinal performances, during one of which loud snoring echoed through the hall. Kholodenko seems to have no technical limits, but what is more exciting than his virtuosity is the quality of his musicality. He understands the power of pianissimos, and the sudden contrasts in the moods he creates are often breathtaking.

Written by Nick Romeo at 00:00
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FInal Round, Day 1

Thursday June 6, 2013

Fei -Fei Dong 2 (2)

When Beethoven premiered his Third Piano Concerto in 1803, he hadn't had time to write down much of the score. His page-turner later reported that he saw mostly empty pages, plus a few illegible scribbles here and there. The anecdote reflects a broader tendency in Beethoven to care less about particular notes than the broad sweep of a piece. He famously missed notes in performances, and yet I imagine the ragged pathos of his playing would have been more moving than most of the subsequent perfect renditions of his works. Beatrice Rana began the first night of the Cliburn Finals tonight with a considered performance of Beethoven's third concerto. It's hardly a criticism to say that she played the right notes or that she seemed to have considered the shape of each phrase and practiced it thousands of times. But the current musical culture of technical perfection and rehearsed, polished musicality seems somehow in tension with the example of Beethoven and the exuberant, spontaneous and sometimes inaccurate playing his contemporaries described. Rana gave a nuanced and competent performance, but I found myself wishing at times that she would do something wild. Maybe her Prokofiev will be a bit more primal.  

It's virtually impossible to give a tame performance of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2. The ferocious, desolate music ranges from bereft lyricism to savage percussive outbursts. It's one of the hardest concertos in the repertoire, and just attempting it requires a level of sustained musical energy that is nearly unparalleled. Nikita Mndoyants gave an exhilarating performance of the work, which commemorates a friend of Prokofiev's who committed suicide in 1913. I marveled at his capacity to imbue even the most technically demanding passages with small swells and considered contours. Shaping phrases in the midst of the thickets of arpeggios and smashing chords is a minor triumph, and Mndoyants was able to control and organize the dense musical materials into a moving narrative.

Fei-Fei Dong (pictured) ended the evening with Rachmaninov's third concerto, a warhorse of the repertoire mythologized by Hollywood as the perilous pinnacle of pianistic difficulty, a dangerous peak that might make any musician attempting to scale it to go mad. Of course these days the piece is regularly performed by gifted teenagers around the world.  It's hard to do something that feels fresh or unusual with a piece so familiar. Dong collaborated sensitively with the orchestra and tossed off the technical fireworks with seeming ease. Still, I'd have trouble pointing to anything about her performance and saying, "Ah, yes, that's what is singular about her vision of the piece."

 

Written by Nick Romeo at 00:00
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The life of a host family

Thursday June 6, 2013

Greg and Sandi Wilson are hosting Sean Chen throughout the competition. I chatted with them as they had drinks in the lobby of Bass Hall before Sean's last performance in the semifinals.

How did you become involved with the Cliburn?
I've always loved music, and when I retired I wanted to volunteer. Someone at Greg's company was on the board, and we asked how we could get involved.
So what all do you do as a host family?
This is our second time to host. It's been incredibly easy. We get 'em where they need to be. And we give 'em food, transportation, and encouragement. Sean is so laid-back and easy-going. What you see on stage when he's smiling, that's him. So friendly. He's always chatting backstage with people and he's like that at home too. One day, we did this impromptu science experiment. We got to talking, and we couldn't remember what happens when you put ice in water and then the ice melts. Ice cubes raise the level of the water, but when they melt, will that raise the level again? So we did an experiment to find out.
What do you like about hosting competitors?
It's almost like you fall in love with them. And that's strange. We've only known him a few weeks. But you bond really quickly. I think it's because you act like a parent. You just care so much and you want them to do well. The Cliburn matches us very well. We're both night owls, and Sean like to practice late. We also eat out all the time, and Sean likes that too.
Do you get nervous watching him perform?
It's very high anxiety just sitting there. I think we're more nervous than he is. We say a little prayer at the house before we come over. I don't know that he realizes we're so stressed out. He has such a great attitude, I think he would be fine if he didn't advance. But we would be so disappointed and sad. 

 

Written by Nick Romeo at 00:00
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