SIPCA 5 (Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia) - The first cut

Sunday afternoon with D to the afternoon and final session of Stage II.

In the morning I heard a bit of the playing, and in particular a pretty exciting Petruschka by Tatiana Kolesova. P, who was there, told me that it was gripping stuff, so for once the radio did not lie.

I wondered if someone had had a word to Gerard Willems about his radio commentary, because he was now describing the appearance of the male contestants as well as the female, though not to the extent of describing their clothes.

Of those I heard this afternoon, in the first half:I enjoyed particularly Sean Chen’s Rachmaninov Etudes Tableaux; I wasn’t crazy about Sergei Saratovsky’s Bach C# minor (Book II) though he was obviously a strong player - if neither as dark or as handsome as his PR picture; I was unimpressed by Ryan McEvoy McCullough’s Schubert Impromptu (and take back some of my criticism of Emmanuel Ax’s, which I know is rather an unfair comparison) but liked his Magin studies. Chun-Chieh Yen bravely took on 6 Chopin Etudes in a row, but not always, I thought, entirely idiomatically. And that’s not because I didn’t want him to do well, because - how shall I put it delicately? - neither D nor I felt he could be accused of being “str8-acting.”

In the second half, Eric Zuber made the strongest impression, especially in his Liszt Spanish Rhapsody. But I also liked, in different ways, both Yekwon Sunwoo (at 19, one of the younger competitors: maybe not yet up to a really brilliant Islamey) and Xun Wang (best in the Chopin Waltzes, which I really enjoyed, not so convincing in the Hungarian Rhapsody).

The thing is, by the end I was wearying of critical assessment. And now that the decision as to who is to progress to the next stage has been announced, I have lost the stomach for it.

Since the link doesn’t go straight to the list, here is the playing order for stage III:

Mon 21 July

09:30 - Hao Zhu
10.10 - Hoang Pham

INTERVAL

11:10 - Alexey Yemtsov
11:50 - Tomoki Kitamura

14:00 - David Fung
14:40 - Fernando Altamura

INTERVAL

15:40 - Mariangela Vacatello
16:20 - Jose Menor

19:15 - Christopher Devine
19:55 - Takashi Sato

INTERVAL

20:55 - Miyeon Lee
21:35 - Yoonsoo Rhee

Tuesday 22nd July

09:30 - Konstantin Shamray
10:10 - Tatiana Kolesova

INTERVAL

11:10 - Daniil Tsvetkov
11:50 - Ran Dank

14:00 - Charlie Albright
14:40 - Sean Chen

INTERVAL

15:40 - Sergei Saratovsky
16:20 - Eric Zuber

D went home, but I hung around at the Seymour Centre for the announcement of the jury’s decision as to who should go ahead to the next round. I was one of the tragic 100 or so. After about an hour, the announcement was made. This is the nasty bit about competitions - if there are winners, there must also be not-winners (OK: losers, if you must). I am soft hearted about this bit. I took the bus home (rain was now falling: cf James Joyce, Dubliners) feeling rather sad.

Because I didn’t hear everybody, I’m not really qualified to give a firm opinion on the 20 selected. All of the obvious people (from either report or my own hearing) did get through, none of the ones who I thought would definitely not go through progressed, but of course there is room for some surprise or disappointment in the middle ranks - particularly because the voting system is a kind of modified first-past-the-post system. This is the point of the road not taken. As I look at the repertoire of those eliminated and realise that we won’t now be hearing it, I’m feeling just a bit regretful.

When the announcement was made, I was sitting with the Steinway gang. Of course, they have their own agenda and focus of interest. Apparently the score for the next round is Steinway 8; Yamaha 8; Kawai 4.

Missa Solemnis

On Saturday night to hear the SSO play its World Youth Day leftovers, with Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. This followed a performance on Friday night which was strictly a Pilgrims Only event.

My neighbours had also availed themselves of the $39 special, and apparently the orchestra was also advertising $50 tickets in this morning’s paper. The stalls and the front circle were pretty well full but there were still a few seats going at the sides.

The orchestra was set up on risers in a fashion which was, at one stage, being advertised as “the Sydney sound.” This is just the latest of many attempts to improve the acoustic in the Concert Hall. The more often I go there, I am afraid the less satisfactory it seems, though this may in part just be a result of the human striving for perfection and envy of anything unattained or unattainable.

Maybe I have been listening to too much piano music, or maybe I am just becoming too estranged from religion, but it took me a while to warm to this performance. It could also have been a knee-jerk reaction to the program note, prepared obviously for the previous night, which quoted the pope appropriating Beethoven to his cause. (On the other hand, I am sure that Benedict XVI’s love of music is genuine. I am prepared to take that into account as a redeeming feature - even though he is the one who claims to have influence in that department.)

One thing that struck me, as the Credo followed the Gloria, is just how much stuff there is to believe.

Things looked up once the shorter movements began. Musically they are more agreeable.

On the way home, I met Lx. He has been following the piano competition from afar. He is always so well informed about these things and asked me about Tomoki Kitamura. He is going to some sessions next week. With him was Px, deputising for Lx’s mother, who had very much wanted to go but ultimately felt (at 91) not quite up to it. Lx asked me if I remembered the time when Sir Charles Mackerras conducted the Missa Solemnis and indeed I did. This was on the completion of the last restoration of the Sydney Town Hall (could that have been 1988?), and we both remembered it as better than Gelmetti’s version. Maybe we were just younger and more impressionable.

I left Lx and P at Town Hall as they were going to Petersham and I to Sydenham. I took my next train in an end compartment with one local and 5 Indian (or at least sub-continental) nuns. The local nun and the four older Indians were engaged in a lively conversation - obviously very excited by the week’s events. The youngest nun, who sat opposite me, said not a word. Perhaps she was sick - she did cough a few times; clearly she was tired, as her eyes almost closed in sleep; but I also wondered (based on my own experience of the sometimes trying nature of group travel experiences) if she was just getting a little bit over it all.

Like that nun (on my hypothesis, that is) I am looking forward to the end of World Youth Day. As with the “do not annoy” regulations, the entire occasion has been marked by the most monumental overkill in governmental and regulatory reaction. Special crowd barriers had been constructed around Circular Quay station. At both Circular Quay and Sydenham, squads of black-clad “Transit officers” lounged around with nothing at all to do in particular. Praise the Lord and pass the overtime!

In Newtown, for some reason, the entirety of King Street and City Road had been declared a clearway for practically all of Saturday. From 6 am to 7 pm. Why? In particular, why for all of that time? The answer is probably just because they can. When I rode past on the way to the piano competition, there was no obvious need for it. I sometimes wonder whether our governmental bossiness is a result of our state’s origins as a convict settlement. In the end I expect there is a simpler explanation in the disposition of the sorts of people who get themselves into the position where they are making these sorts of rules.

SIPCA 4 (Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia)

On Saturday afternoon, to the Seymour Centre for another instalment of Stage II of this competition.

Thankfully, today the endess loop of the Brandenburg concerto movement piped through the foyer had been switched off.

I was just a little late, so I stood at the back for the first of Alexey Yemtsov’s pieces, which was “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” - his choice of the (obligatory) Debussy Prelude (any prelude except for Book I No 7 - my guess is that they just got sick of hearing this one by competitors eager to impress). Alexey is one of a bunch of boys who came to Australia in 1998 or thenabouts from the Ukraine. He now officially studies with Gerard Willems, though other pianists have rather unkindly suggested to me that Alexey could teach Gerard a thing or two.

I finally heard Tomoki Kitamura.

My former teacher, P, told me that sitting behind her was a “young whippersnapper” who has come from Adelaide to take in a bit of the competition and also to have a couple of trial lessons with Gerard Willems and Natalia Sheludikova - to decide which he [could be a she but I suspect "whippersnapper" is a male term] wants to learn from when he comes to Sydney. His comments, she said, were driving her mad. Apparently this young Adelaideian said of Kitamura, “of course, everyone just wants him to do well because he looks so cute.” And it’s true, he does look cutish - in a way to which I, for one, confess a susceptibility. But it certainly isn’t just that. It is Kitamura’s poise and intensity which is attractive - and which bears fruit in his playing. He opened with a Sonnet by Sibelius, and then played a very assured Rondo Op 51 by Beethoven. The telling thing about this was the way that he sustained the ornamental and quasi-cadenzal moments in a way which simultaneously maintained the momentum but also suspended time. This boy has charisma.

Backtracking, P didn’t like Aiko Yajima’s Prokofiev Sarcasms and crossed her off her list on account of them. I didn’t have much of a view, though the one Sarcasm which I knew (having played it myself for an exam at the age of 16) was pretty unrecognizable to me. Later though, when I heard Fernando Altamura’s to me preferable version of these on the radio, I began to see what P meant. I also felt Yajima had missed the point of the big moments in the Liszt transcription of Schubert’s Auf dem Wasser zu singen. It is meant to be expansive but the heart should open without the volume knob twisting round too far.

I had heard that Miya Kazaoka’s first round was disastrous, so it was kind of a relief that she got through this round unscathed. She is one of the older entrants, and she is an attractive player (see further comments on Gerard’s view below). However, I did feel that La cathédrale engloutie and the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde were a bit too much of the same thing. (In addition, from all reports and from my radio listening, Konstantin Shamray overshadowed her in the Liebestod department.)

As the above foreshadows, I had to leave before Fernando Altamura played, in order to have a nap and turn around for the Missa Solemnis. Of the two I heard after interval, I wish I could be more enthusiastic about David Fung, but I just couldn’t get carried away by his Chopin Ballade No 4. That’s a high mountain to climb and it is also a piece where any perfomance must surpass or overcome all sorts of preconceptions. Balasz Fulei played “Footsteps in the Snow” as his Debussy Prelude. This would have been better without the very persistent cougher who finally left the hall. What I enjoyed more was his very lively Scarlatti sonata. Gerard liked Fuleis Bartok “Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs” (also assayed in Stage I by Daniil Tsevkov). I have to confess that I have a limited enthusiasm for Bartok’s solo piano works (forgive me, shade of Nancy Salas!). Fulei’s may have been the real McCoy but if so I preferred Tsevkov’s.

Speaking of Gerard, his commentaries are developing a kind of trope about the women in the competition. We are always hearing what gown they are wearing, or how attractive they are. Gerard should take a bit of a look at himself and check this line of commentary before it goes too far.

Alternately, I’d like to see a few more of the cuter male competitors come out in a strapless number or even (since decency certainly permits it) topless. Unfortunately, given the (unflattering to the abs) stance which pianists have to adopt towards their instrument and their general physical development, I doubt if such an idea would be quite as attractive in practice as I am prepared to imagine it might be in theory.

SIPCA 3 - (Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia)

So, shoot me! I still can’t drag myself to a 9.30 session, and so I only heard another 3 players today in the flesh.

The word at the York Theatre of the Seymour Centre is that the arrival of the North American and European players en masse has changed the picture considerably. The standard is rising.

Daniil Tsvetkov, from Kazakhstan but studying in Moscow and probably ethnically Russian, topped off an impressive bracket with a seemingly-nonchalantly tossed off Chopin – Etude Op.10 No.2 in A minor. He should surely progress on the strength of that alone. The fact that Ran Dank studies with Emmanuel Ax came through particularly, I thought, in the articulation of his Chopin Etude Op 10 No 1. But the wunderkind that everybody was struck by was the 19-year-old Charlie Albright, who in addition to count-them 4 finger-flashing etudes, played a stunning (and I think new to practically everyone) Ricercare and Toccata on a theme from The Old Maid and the Thief by Menotti (of Amahl and the Night Visitors fame).

This time I sat further back in the hall. This gives a clearer sense of proportion, though it did mean that I was subjected to a terrible whistle of hearing-aid feed-back. Mercifully, this could be minimised by cupping my hand behind my right ear or even cocking my head at a judicious if apparently quizzical angle.

More inanely, in the foyer of the Seymour Centre, the same movement from a Brandenburg Concerto is played in an endless loop. How can they stand it? Why don’t they take the opportunity of piping the actual broadcast sound of the program inside?

SIPCA 2 - Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia, 2

On Wednesday night to the opening recital by John Chen, the 2004 first prize winner. He is an impressive player. As another has rightly said, his playing is immaculate, but he is if anything too neat. He never really got wild, though it is true that it was a tough audience to get wild in front of.

What the recital mostly indicated to me is just how high pianistic Parnassus is, because though definitely far ascended, he is still at the lower heights. In a way he still gives the impression of playing like somebody’s pupil, which he of course still is. The two other aspects of his playing which I thought worthy of remark are that he is not really crazy about imitation in lower registers, and that he favours pretty uniformly the soprano register. Perhaps this was where we were sitting, though I can’t see why that should be. He pedalled very sparingly, and I thought the piano sounded nicer when he pedalled more: the acoustic at the Seymour Centre is pretty dry.

There is a choice of pianos in the competition. Although Chen is not a competitor, presumably the same choice was available to him. He chose the Kawai, as he did when he competed in 2004. This led to a funny moment at interval. A friend of mine had been sitting at the side and didn’t note the make of the piano. He simply assumed it would be the Steinway. When greeted at interval by Ara Vartoukian, the Steinway rep and tuner, m friend said chipperly, “Piano’s sounding good!” Ara didn’t respond at all apart from, or so I fancied, a very microscopic double-take. My friend was mortified when I drew him aside and put him right. In fact my friend wasn’t really keen on the piano sound at all and was just engaging in a little plastic or phatic flattery.

Today I slept in because of a failure to “save” the alarm on my mobile phone. As a result, I missed the first half of the morning session, though I heard some on the way on the radio. Of those I heard in the second half, Zhu Hao (or, as the program has it, Hao Zhu) impressed me the most. He played with composure and I liked the way he listened to what he was doing. Some thought his first piece, Turina – Fantasie Dance - rather too mild for competition purposes.

In the afternoon I went to work.

In the evening, I went with D. We sat, as chance would have it, next to my old teacher, P. P intends to come to all of the first two stages; after that, term begins again and she is back at work. Previously, the stages I-IV, or at least I-III, have been completed in the school holidays.

One of the funny aspects of the competition, a bit reminiscent of the Leunig cartoon where, instead of looking out the sun at the sunrise, a man and a child look at the same sunrise on the television, is how in between the sessions a lot of people put in their earphones and listen to Gerard Willems’ commentary on ABCFM on the players who have just played. There is a certain sport in this and indeed I listened in for some of it. This was almost not necessary since, as I changed into my bike gear in the handicapped toilet in the Gents’ (cycling was necessitated by the papal gridlock in town this afternoon) after one session, Gerard’s commentary provided conversational material for a couple of gents who were, I presume, attending to their business in the standing-room-only department outside my not-sound-proof booth. Likewise, one could catch the gist of Gerard’s commentary indirectly in the foyer buzz at interval.

For me, the best player of the evening and of those I have heard so far was Takashi Sato. He came out and launched boldly into Chopin’s study Op 25 No 1, and he could really play it. The Bach-Busoni Chaconne is a piece I rather dread as it can be a bit of a bore. Not so in his hands. The Poulenc Presto in B flat major with which he finished was like a cold shower after a sauna - and also a kind of built-in contrasting but highly effective quasi encore which rounded off things nicely. Apparently Gerard didn’t think Sato made a spiritual connection with the Busoni.

P annotates her program methodically, correcting program changes or misdescriptions, noting which piano is played (Sato played the Kawai) and also making a judgment - P, F, G, VG or O. She gave Sato “O.” She also liked Tomoki Kitamura, whom I didn’t hear, though she wondered if he was strong enough to last the distance (he is only 17, and rather slight). “Needs a good feed,” said P. I think she may have given him an “O(?).”

Of the others this evening, Mariangella Vacatello (who was described as a Neapolitan, on which basis she ought surely to come sixth) was strong. I also liked Yoon Soo Rhee. She had a terrible running nose (I think they often catch colds on the plane) and there was one particularly poignant bit where she paused to wipe a drip from it.

One thing which has emerged so far is that it is very difficult to play anything other than an ordinary version of Chopin’s Winter Wind study. This is one reason why I liked Rhee’s choice of the less showy but refreshing Op 25 No 4. She also played Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz (I think this was where the nose drip came in).

Gerard didn’t think this was devilish enough. He went on about how it was about Goethe’s Mephisto, who (and here I necessarily paraphrase but only a very little) “seduces Marguerite and all sorts of other terrible things which cannot be talked about on a respectable station like ABCFM.” He was joking of course, and maybe I misheard him, but if that is what he said then he cannot be very familiar with Goethe’s Faust or even its operatic or symphonic avatars.

Fourteen-month review

This blog is now two months into its second year.

I have included the first year review figures in parentheses for comparison.

Total Views 24,027 (18,542)

Best Day Ever: 200 — Tuesday, June 10, 2008 (174 — Sunday, March 9, 2008 )

Geoffrey Leonard has streaked ahead of all competitors as a subject of interest. 

As my dashboard tells me:

Top Posts

Pedophile “monster” knee-jerk reaction, 2,287 views (1,220)

Pussy porn, 901 views (813)

Never fall in love with a prostitute, 887 views (712)

Top Searches

geoffrey leonard, Operation Centurion, icarus

(geoffrey leonard, Geoff Leonard, kim walker plagiarism)

Operation Centurion’s topicality is a further indication of the perennial obsession with sex (or as he puts it, “sexuality”)  which Jim Belshaw has regretted, though I think this is hardly limited to Australia. I expect it is common at least to all developed countries.

There is always a trickle of searches for “Icarus” and similar terms, mostly related to Auden’s poem which touches on that subject, to which I refer in my post on the movie, The Paper will be Blue.

Total views for months 13 and 14 are therefore 5,485, compared with  4,145 for months 11 and 12, 2,967 for months 9 and 10, 2,666 in months 7 and 8 and about 3,500 in months 5 and 6. This time my census point is a little early compared to the last point, so the result is a little understated.  Most of these views occurred in month 13 (my months awkwardly don’t coincide with calendar months). The figure for the calendar month of June was 3,000.  The monthly average over the 14 months as a whole now stands at about 1700 (1500).  This doesn’t include “syndicated views.”  I’ve never been too clear what they are, but I like them because they feel like a bonus.

Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia (SIPCA)

This competition, held every four years, begins on Thursday.

I have attended a reasonable portion of all of these competitions, except for the 2000 competition, when I was living elsewhere.

I am ambivalent about competitions, but they do at least provide an opportunity (and here I am repeating myself) to hear a lot more piano music than one otherwise gets to hear live. There is also a kind of fascinating dive down the tunnel of time as I see the Sydney pianistas en masse.

I am going on Wednesday with my friend, Dx, to the opening recital, given this year by last time’s first prize winner, John Chen.

The competition is in stages. In the first two stages, held from Thursday to Sunday, all 35 (should be 36 but there seems to be one no-show) of the competitors play twice, in 10 sessions over all. The third and fourth stages are quarter finals and semi-finals, where the number of competitors reduces to 20 and 12 in 5 and 6 sessions respectively. Stage IV includes a piano trio. The finals are “Stage V,” and are made up of first a Mozart concerto and then a 19th or 20th century concerto by each of 6 finalists, held over 4 concerts at the Opera House.

I booked a while ago for the 19th and 20th century concerto finals. Today I went to the Seymour Centre to book for the preliminary rounds which are held there. I would like to go to all of them, but I do have a job, and a life (not to mention a blog) to attend to. Instead I have had to be selective. I have decided to hear all of the pianists in one stage I or stage II session. After that, I may buy more tickets depending on who is playing when, but have presently restricted myself to the evenings when I am free. That still adds up to 8 sessions.

The tradition in this competition is that the order of playing is determined by a starting point in the alphabetical order of the players. This is chosen by lot - though I’m not sure how transparently this is done. Apparently owing to industrial action by Qantas engineers, Qantas flights from Europe and North America have been delayed for 24 hours. Some players were not arriving until 6 am on the morning they were first due to play. Consequently, the playing order has had to be re-arranged at the last minute to put those who are already here (mostly those from Australia or Asia) first.

It is likely that I will write a few more posts about what I see and hear.

Tent-man update

In a comment on a previous post, John has asked for more pictures and expressed his concern about “tent-man,” who sleeps rough next to the overpass over Parramatta Road on the southern side at the foot of Taverner’s Hill.

I’m niggardly with photos because they are such a big fuss to upload.  However, I can provide a pictorial update on “tent-man,” which, John will probably be glad to see, suggests some signs of life.

Above is the latest photo, taken about 10 days ago.

Below, for ease of comparison, is the photo from the previous post.

Though “tent-man” is clearly a creature of habit, the changed disposition of hat, left boot and tent (even allowing for the altered vantage point) indicates that he is (or was at the time of the photo) still there and is still alive and kicking.

Missa Solemnis revisited

See the comment to my previous post on this subject. Tickets seem to be generally available for $39 to Saturday’s performance provided only you quote the promotional code 1382.

I don’t know when the end date is, but I hope some of you are able to take the offer up.

English Boys

For various reasons I have been thinking about the members of my year 12 3-unit English class.

I have written before about En, our teacher.

Our year was the second year of the “best 10 units out of 500” HSC. At the school I attended, the additional classes for 3-unit Economics and 3-unit English were timetabled at the same time. The school had a strong Economics push (and probably a strong commercial ethos generally amongst its intake), and most boys with the choice chose Economics. There were only seven of us who chose 3-unit English. Indeed, I had thought it was only six, which would mean that one of the people mentioned below cannot have been in the class.

And where are we now?

En died suddenly last year a couple of years after retiring from the same school.

A now lives in Germany and works in IT. Although he came to Australia as a one-year-old and lived here until the age of 21 or 22 and his family all still live here, he lost his Australian residency after a few years living in Germany. There he lived that kind of extended student life that Germans are capable of, first in West Berlin and then studying languages in order to become a translator, during which time he also worked as a tour guide. I spent some time with him in Germany and also saw him when he returned to Australia for intervals of various length. At the age of almost 40, he married for the third or possibly even fourth time (he had been the first of us to marry when he married his childhood sweetheart straight out of school, thereby qualifying for a student allowance), had two children and settled down working for a big IT multinational. We still keep in touch.

B lives in Sydney. He is a rock journalist and quite well-known and widely published. He is the only one of us to have become a professional writer. I don’t know anything about his personal life.

Bx lives in another city in Australia. He received the university medal in Chinese at Sydney Uni and studied first at Cambridge (which he hated, but where he met his now wife, who also hated it) and then in the other Australian city in question. A few years ago he finally secured a permanent position there. Having originally studied Song dynasty Buddhism he is now an expert on the Falun Gong. I last spoke to him about 10 years ago, and I can’t quite work out why we finally fell out of contact with each other then. I tend to think it is children and marriage which sever the umbilical chords to school and university friends, though geography may also be a contributing factor here.

D is an anaesthetist somewhere in Sydney. I am sure he is married with children. I last saw him in 1997 at a school twenty-year reunion.

Rather shockingly, another of us, G, is also dead. After school he went to law school (these were the days when you could still do straight law) and afterwards practised as a solicitor. I used to see him at court from time to time, mostly, at Downing Centre Local Court, and we would always have a friendly (but hardly profound) chat. He practised at a firm at the city. One evening at a party he apparently suffered a heart attack and dropped dead. He was only 45 or 46. He didn’t look unhealthy at all and I have sometimes wondered if there was a secret hidden wild side or cocktail of drugs involved. He left a widow and children. I very occasionally see his elder brother or his elder brother’s wife, who is a pianist I know from my youthful Eisteddfod days.

Gx also lives in Sydney, though for some years he lived in Japan. He also has two children by a lesbian couple who have now split up. He shares parenting of the children – who presumably now have 3 parental households. I quite frequently run into his elder brother who is also (or so I judge) gay and goes to quite a few concerts. I hardly ever run into Gx. He works as a trainer for a large government department.

I have already said more than enough about myself in these pages.