… is now in full swing. This is the ninth such competition, and I well remember the first in 1977 since my mother organised and I hosted a ‘rehearsal’ concert in Sydney for three of the Australian competitors.
I had a conversation with a musical friend of mine a day or so ago and he took pains to complain about the competition since he became so engrossed in listening to it that he wasn’t getting any other work done. His view was that the standard of the competition was very high, and that I can well believe.
I was sitting in my car this afternoon waiting to pick up my son from his participation in the 500,000 or so strong Mass celebrated by the Pope at Randwick Racecourse. Whilst I was waiting I took the opportunity to tune in, as it were, to the live broadcast of the competition. I must admit my thoughts were somewhat mixed.
I heard two pianists, both technically excellent as you would expect. The first, an American, played La Cathédrale Engloutie, to me a very dull and emotionally bereft performance which displayed none of the grandeur and power of the piece. He then played two mazurkas by Symanovski (a bit weird my taste but good nonetheless) and then Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espanole, for which he was in total command. The second pianist, from South Korea, played another Debussy Prelude, the Brahms A major Intermezzo and G minor Rhapsodie from Op118, and then finished off with Balakirev’s Islamey – an enormously difficult piece technically which seemed to lose its way a bit structurally towards the end – even though the notes were pretty much spot on.
But what really concerned me was the sound of the piano. Both played a Yamaha (interestingly with a Steinway stool) rather than the available Steinway and Kawai (what happened to the Stuart I wonder?) but the sound to me was thin and very sharp – there didn’t appear to be much warmth, particularly with the Brahms Intermezzo, although the more bravura pieces came over much better.
Not I may be biased and am certainly used to the sound of my Stuart (indeed I’ve told Wayne that the sound of my piano is at least as good as and in many cases better than the other Stuart pianos I’ve tried) but having played both La Cathédrale Engloutie and the Brahms Intermezzo on my piano the sound to me is much better and certainly more musically sensitive.
Now I know that the broadcast sound may not be as good as the auditorium sound, but even taking that into account I really felt that the Yamaha as played by these pianists did not come up to scratch. It was certainly bright enough for the pyrotechnics, but the attack sounded very harsh and it seemed as though the sustain was very short.
I’m certainly nowhere near these pianists in terms of technique, but there is no doubt in my mind that the Stuart piano in their hands (and allowing for their need to play the Stuart the way it should be played, as I’ve noted before) would produce much better results both tone wise and emotionally.