The contest so far

[Billy R]

A 23 year old Chinese kid took the stage first Jianing Kong - pronounced Kung (no, not King). That was on BBC4 last night. He played Beethoven's Fifth (the Emperor). Three contestants have selected this piece this year. It must be boring for the audience especially if all three come on one night.
Cristina Ortiz (WHAT A PIANIST SHE IS) was giving critical comment - so was Lucy Parham.
Cristina didn't like the performance at all, gave it thumbs down. I must say that I noticed some nervousness leading to wrong notes being hit at the beginning. It's easier to be critical when you know the piece and I do know this one very well. Cristina was more critical of the second movement though. I'm not sure about that personally, I'll have to play it through again, but at first hearing, it sounded OK to me, but I'm not Cristina Ortiz. Beethoven is what she's really good at. I've got a boxed set of CDs by her playing all five Beethoven Concerti, so she must know what's she's talking about.
OK, I'll be back next week with the next one.

[Billy R]

The second contestant was a 17-year-old girl called Rachel Cheung, also from China. She played Rachy Two, a popular choice in the history of the contest. I remember a Russian guy called Dennis came third in the contest three years ago playing Rach 2.
I thought this girl did extremely well with the piece; it’s not the easiest thing on the planet to play, especially the third movement. I remember wondering, as she neared the end of the slow dreamy second movement, as I noticed the sweat pouring down her face, and remembering that there's hardly a break between the second and third, would she be able to get her fingers into gear for this. Thee speed at the beginning of the third is unbelievable. It's hardly conceivable that human fingers can move so quickly and accurately over those keys. But, she did it, brilliantly I thought. I know this piece quite well, so at any stage of it, I know what's coming next, as, no doubt, Cristina Ortiz does.

When the girl had finished playing, the crowd went sky high with their applause - Marc Elder, the conductor of the Halle Orchestra told her that she'd played very well. I have a lot of respect for his comments, and now, more than I do for Cristina Ortiz's and Lucy Parham’s views.
Likewise with the previous contestant, they repeated themselves almost word for word. "This wasn't the right choice of concerto for this contestant, she should have chosen maybe a Chopin or Mozart."

If she had chosen a Mozart, I do know her chances of winning would have been almost zero. It's only been done once in the history of the contest.

I'm beginning to wonder if Ortiz and Parham have any critique credibility now. They have found nothing good to say about the performances so far. The judges must have held them in high regard because they are in the final six out of 83 initial contestants. I suspect these two compare the performances of the contestants with their own abilities. Can they remember this girl (Rachel) is only 17 years old? Can they take on board that until she gave the live performance off it on this occasion, she had never played the concerto with an orchestra. That must have been un-nerving to say the least. Although Ortiz and Parham can play it better now, how would they have done at 17 years old? I think I'll wait for the judges’ verdicts, but no matter what, these two Chinese kids ARE in the top six, and this contest is in the top three in the world, so they must be well up there.

[Billy R]

The contestant was a 23 year old from France This was the second performance of Beethoven's Fifth, The Emporer. Amazingly, Cristina Ortiz and Lucy Parham both gave this performance the thumbs UP, can you believe? In fact, they couldn't find a single word of critcism. I recant my comments of last week; I'd assumed that they had a pre-determined plan to disparage all of the contestants. One thing they did say about tonight's artist was that he was performing, rather than competing, which led to a better presentation. Maybe they don't like Chinese pianists. Lang Lang won't be a hit with them if that's true.

Personally, I expected them to criticise his rendition of the second movement. I thought he hammered this very gentle movement too fiercely. I'm used to it being lowered onto my ears very graciously, like a servant might deliver a drink to the queen. But, they didn't pick up on that, so again, what do I know?

It was interesting to be allowed a couple of minutes with Ulrich Gerhartz, commonly known as the most powerful man in music (I think Roy, my piano tuner, said he'd met him). He's the chief technician at Steinway who tweaks up pianos like a personal recipe for the top pianists in the world. Amazingly, he just pulled out the action from this Model D as casually and easily as the rest of us would pull out a drawer in the kitchen. Then he started to probe and prod with tools that look like those that a dentist would use (speaking of which, yes, next Monday, Aaarrgghh!!!).

Lucy Parham, it has to be said, is quite a looker. Yes, I fancy her, she can take me home at any time she wishes. Cristina isn't bad either, albeit somewhat older. Anyway, we're going off topic. I need to behave myself, if that's possible.

I think the French kid played well, despite my little gripe about the second movement. He's still growing, just like the others. We saw him practising with the orchestra before the concert. He was dressed in casual clothing. I remember thinking, "I hope he dresses like that on the night, it'll make my day. Even more so if he wins."

I heard one time that Martha Argerich, who was on the jury of a piano competition, walked out in protest because one of the contestants was rejected by the other judges, not for his piano playing ability, but for what he was wearing. I wonder if the contestant was Ivo Pogorelich, the Croatian pianist. I know she did walk out of that one because she claimed he was a genius, but he was rejected at the third round. That was at the Frederick Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1980. Oh well, we'll see what next week brings.

[Billy R]

The fourth contestant is a 25 year old Italian called Alessandro Taverna. He played Chopin's No 1. My own observations (what do I know? I'm only a novice from Barnsley!!) indicate that he did extremely well, but I'm not an expert as such.

But, that aside, what convinced me that I was right was when the TV camera caught a quick shot of Dame Fanny at the end of the performance. Noww, I have to say that in all the years I've been following this competition, I have never seen Dame Fanny looking any more cheerful than the queen. What do they find to be so miserable about in their circumstances? On this occasion, she was absolutely beaming and she pointed both of her thumbs towards the ceiling. I've never seen that before.

So, unless anyone better comes along, I guess we haved awinner tonight. Even Cristina Ortiz and Lucy Parham praised it to the hilt. Huw Edwards said to them, "Before you say anything, I want to say that was brilliant, Lucy, what do you say?"
She replied, "It was spellbinding, absolutely marvellous; I thought it was the best performance of Chopin's First Piano Concerto that I have ever heard. It was as if pearls were falling from his fingertips. The slow movement was just like a velvet cushion. I think he's a prince of the piano.

Cristina Ortiz said, " It was pure poetry; he had me in tears actually."
Huw then asked, "Do we have the makings of a winner?"
Cristina: "No problem."
Lucy: "Absolutely."

So, it has to be said by me that no woman has ever won this competition despite the whole thing having been started by two women back in 1963. It looks like the trend isn't about to change this year.
I'll have to check the details on this because I forget things, but I do believe that Cristina Ortiz herself was due to participate in the contest back in her youth, but had to drop out for some reason, illness I think. It might be reasonable to believe that she would have won had she taken part as planned.
Where is Yuja Wang? Why doesn't she enter this? She'd definitely be in with a chance of taking it to the female gender.