Live rehearsals streaming…!
I hope you have tuned into the Cliburn live performance site. They’ve been streaming the chamber music rehearsals. Just now, Ken and I are watching Tsujii work through the Schumann quintet. Wonderful to have this window into the practicing. Oh — the webcast stream is in stereo with strong separation, and the handheld camera moves around…
— Mike
May 27th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Congratutalions for this webcast - great production team - and great opportunity to watch the musicians at work - the sting quartet is doing a great work, being very helpfull, specially in this last movement, choosing the right articulation for the kind of piano playing.
Great fun!
May 27th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
It’s fandamntastic!
May 27th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
It’s really, really interesting to watch them work with him, and vice versa
May 27th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
The Schumann Quintet is one of my favorite chamber works. I cannot wait to hear young Tsujii play it. I fell in love with him the first time I heard him play at this competition.
I’ve enjoyed the fine music coming from this competition from my favorite composers like Brahams, Liszt and Schumann.
We are down to the semi-finals. The excitement continues…
May 27th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
That’s a wonderful support team Nobu has. I’d really like to know more about them. I hung on every note and word of the rehearsal. Fascinating would be an understatement. I also like Michael Hawley’s description.
May 27th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
I waited all day to see this rehearsal. They did quite well and blindness showned them what to do (listen to the competitor ideas and just follow). They almoast needed 40 min to prepare the all thing. With Kunz they needed about more 4 hours to do everithing hie is trying to do (sometimes too manered for my taste but very beautiful in color). Artists like kunz need a little more time to have the interpretation set but i gess it can be unfotgetabel after some more hours of rehearsal.
Dank was a revelation. He wasn`t in my favourites but after showing the professionalism and well structured interpretation (and making everything sound great after 1st playing) made me think that he is really prepared for the “market”. And did it at 9h30 am …
May 27th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Are the rehearsals going to be in the archive? I couldn’t find them.
May 28th, 2009 at 8:58 am
The rehearsalcasts are amazing additions to the Cliburn distribution of this event. I’m so grateful for them. I missed Tusjii, but I watched Kunz. He was quite deferential to the quartet — in the parts I saw he didn’t have much interpretive vision to contribute, but the quartet players were stopping every few measures to tweak and adjust his approach.
May 28th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
I add my kudos to all involved in bringing these rehearsal’s to us on the web and thanks for the muscians putting up with the intrusion of the cameras moving all around them to bring us so completely into the experience. Note Di Wu saying “the camera doesn’t help” when expressing a bit of nervousness about adjusting to the situation. She was utterly charming throughout and I loved it when two of the quartet were kidding each other, with the one “slapping” the other on the leg with the bow and Di remineded them that this was being broadcast. Great stuff.
But the absolute revelation of all was the rehearsal with Tusjii. That WAS beyond fascinating and I was completely absorbed in it. And it gives new meaning to the pianist truly having to listen to the string players in a Quintet. Watching his assistant serving as a go between while different concerns were worked through, her playing various phrases on the piano for reference and her interaction with Nobu was in my mind truly top classical youtube material. In fact this was one of the most fascinating and intriguing classical videos I have seen all year long.
The obvious fact that Nobu goes all the rest of the competitors one better having the entire score memorized, made me think of some sighted contestant chosing to perform in the Quintet round by memory alone. Does anyone have any recent memory of someone daring to do that in a piano competition?
Finally kudos to this fine quartet and all the hours they put in for these contestants while staying engaged in the process with such attention to detail through endless repetitions of the same works.