Chopin Competition: PR Commentary 23:00: Oct 13, 2010: Part 1

Here’s a summary of the evening commentary on PR2 on October 13, 2010:

Comments regarding the participants who performed on October 13:

Large spread of qualities, from superb Wunder to frankly scandalous Xin Tong; and a lot of “average”. (Mainstream?)

Marek Bracha

A: Bracha; surprised me with the beautiful quality of his sound. Rondo C-minor was very clear, good time accents, mazurka E-minor very well differentiated, and mazurka A-minor interesting differentiation of mood between variations: what Romans called varietas. B: I disagree, I don’t think the quality of the sound was all that sophisticated. Moreover, I think mostly it was not terribly interesting. This is a typical problem with Polish pianists: pretty sound, but not much interpretation; but I liked the B-minor scherzo which scared us at some places and played the Christmas carol slowly, like a child. And – and – a soft cry before the reprise – most performers usually make that very dramatic, but he made it soft, almost resigned. A good conception. C: Not enough variety of articulation, imho. D: For me, there was a lack of a dry, un-pedalled sound. Why are the young players afraid of this?

[A quote from Bracha in which he pronounces himself happy with audience response].

Commentator: Do not pay too much attention to the warm reception by the Warsaw audience. The audience means to be supportive and almost everyone gets a good ovation. It means very little.
Btw, why are Polish pianists refusing to talk to the press?

[Bracha says it’s because Blecharz didn’t.]

Ingolf Wunder

A: For me, this was the most even performance of the whole day. B: Saying this not enough. He has developed very greatly since last time he was here. C: He showed a different aspect of his person in each piece. In scherzo E-major all kinds of colors. Also, great ability to play slowly – what Italians call pienezza del suono: fullness of sound: mastery of speaking slowly (when an actor speaks slowly, he automatically compels the audience to listen to him more carefully). How he establishes a hierarchy of grounds: there is the main thought, then the parenthetical thought, then some interjections. And the way he trails of in mazurka e-minor trails off into silence and all you can here is the Mickiewicz phrase only the echo rang. One could write a book about his Andante Spianato, super-colored, fable-like fioriture, as if one ran his fingertips along the tops of the strings, not the keys. And note his brilliance in the polonaise: unlike him, most pianists fall into loudness immediately and from then on it is heavy. D: No one has played andante spianato the way he did; he was in no hurry at all! C: Garcia wrote about it in the 1830s; this is full, quiet, well-breathing legato like a perfect Bellini voice. D: He closed his small phrases brilliantly and built the big phrases out of these blocks. And his pause in the waltz during which everyone smiled! And the phenomenal unisono of left and right in the B-minor Mazura – a single perfect tone! B: Scherzo E-major: there is an idea to perform it by creating a kind of seraphic mood; but that’s not enough: that piece has a great depth; and he managed to go out into that great depth!

[Wunder]: Five years ago I was a different man.

Lucas Geniusas

A: He studies with a wonderful teacher, and commands a superb range of tools, but there is a great distance between his range of tools and the content of his interpretation. He seemed to have nothing to tell us. Also: there was a kind of overuse of tempo variations and a certain carelessness about the articulation of details; the F-minor fantasia seemed to lack a spiritual depth, it struck one as musically primitive: his consciousness seems insufficient for the technical tools he commands. B: He seemed to play differently in the beginning and at the end.  His mazurkas sounded promising, in a kind of Soviet school of the 1950’s, but his fantasia lacked grace, it lacked simplicity — probably because he lacked a conception of how to play it.  The forte in his waltzes was completely unnecessary, well, vulgar, really, a kind of axe-whacking.  C:  He began his waltzes originally, in a soft, slow, quiet leggero, very promising, but then suddenly he went straight into forte, very thick and muddy, and from then on went on banging away.  D:  A kind of thudding sound.  A:  Also, note his program:  in the middle, three big pieces in the F, one after another.  Who can handle that?  B:  Conservatory ought to teach program composition.  It’s an art sui generis.

[part 2 will follow soon]