Scott Cantrell’s thoughts on the first cut.
You might enjoy Scott Cantrell’s thoughts on the choice of semifinalists:
“All 29 Cliburn contestants this time were well-equipped technically, but Ran Dank, Di Wu, Mariangela Vacatello, Evgeni Bozhanov, Andrea Lam and Haochen Zhang also had probing and sophisticated things to say about the music.
I could also understand the jury’s choices of Michail Lifits (well-bred, if not especially distinctive), Kyu Yeon Kim and Yeol Eum Son (both very expressive, at times too self-consciously so). And I wasn’t all that surprised that Nobuyuki Tsujii, the blind pianist from Japan, advanced. His Chopin Etudes were a bit crude, but the rest of his playing made one curious to hear more….”
And Carol Leone has been contributing, with Scott, at the Dallas News blog site:
http://artsblog.guidelive.com/archives/van-cliburn/
It’s easy and entertaining to get swept up in bickering about who made the cut and who didn’t. Maybe worth remembering that each of the performers has something special to offer — but an audience (or a jury) is an averaging phenomenon, so outliers and unusualness isn’t always rewarded. In the end, more than anything, jurors vote strongly for people who move them — for performances about which one feels “Gee, I’d like to hear more…” Call it an “average gut” response.
Enjoy!
— Mike
May 28th, 2009 at 8:55 am
I wasn’t excited by Tsujii’s etudes, but even I wouldn’t call them crude! Sheesh.
May 28th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I note that most critics except for SC listed their picks prior to the semi announcement whether they attended in the Bass or not. Putting themselves out there since they are “experts” is what it is about.
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