On Sunday June 4th I arrived in Fort Worth Texas to take part in the second Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs. Here is my review of the competition and my experiences there.
Arrival in Fort Worth: I arrived on Sunday afternoon June 4th at Dallas Fort Worth airport and had about a 45 minute drive to my hotel, the Marriott Courtyard, very near the Texas Christian University where the competition took place. On the way there, I drove past the downtown area and could see the severe damage to the skyscrapers caused by the tornado last month. Most of the windows were boarded up.
After I arrived in my hotel, I went straight to the TCU to register and receive my welcome package, and then went to a welcoming party at a home in Westover Hills. (As with last year, the welcome package contained some wonderful gifts including a tee shirt, clock, books, table mats, things to eat, absolutely marvellous! Everyone is literally showered with gifts whether they win the competition or not!) At the welcoming party there was a sumptuous buffet dinner waiting for us in the garden around the swimming pool. I met many of the contestants (including some from last year and in Paris) and some of the jurors there. There were flower arrangements on the table and everyone received a gift from Neiman Marcus, a silver cup with a candle, on leaving. They hadn't missed a single detail to make the party as enjoyable as possible. I thought the gift was a really nice touch, and I was very impressed with the kindness, hospitality and generosity of the hosts and the Van Cliburn Foundation for arranging this.
Competition Day 1: Monday June 5th: My performance had been scheduled for 7:45 pm that night. I wasn't able to sleep very well during the night because I woke up around 3 am and heard all the music going around my mind. I was wondering whether I should play one phrase this way or that way. I wasn't able to get back to sleep. In the morning I went to the TCU campus to practice in the Waits Hall. The volunteers were very helpful and friendly, directing us to all the practice rooms.
At 10 am I had 7 minutes to try out the piano in the auditorium. It was a magnificent 9 ft Steinway concert grand with a wonderful tone, tremendous power, and with a pleasant action. The acoustics in the Ed Landreth Hall were superb. I played through most of the three pieces by Faure, Grieg and Liszt. I then went to lunch, did a little more practice, and then tried to sleep for a couple of hours before changing into my suit. Before the competition started, I met a friend and gave him a Sony Minidisk recorder so that I could hear my performance later. (Unfortunately there was a fault with the recorder and all I heard was silence).
When my performance time grew closer, I became more nervous and started to pace about the room. I changed into a nice lounge suit. I did some final practice in the Waits Hall building, and then was taken by an usher to the warm up room next to the Ed Landreth hall 15 minutes before my recital. The final moment came, and I went on stage to begin my performance. My nervousness seemed to disappear and I was thinking about enjoying the music and the lovely sounds I would be making. I forgot about the audience being there.
This year I scheduled three contrasting pieces instead of one. I chose the most melodic and singing pieces in my repertoire. I thought I would stand a better chance of progressing in the competition by playing several pieces.
I put everything I could into making my recital musical, expressive and dramatic. I was feeling very sad when I left for Fort Worth because my cat Debbie became seriously ill with kidney failure the following week and died the day before I left. Debbie was quite a musical cat. She loved to roll over on top of the piano when I played, sat next to me on the piano bench, and sometimes even got inside the piano to be closer to the music. I visited her in hospital every day and saw her deteriorate rapidly. It upset me very much. I think that my sadness and love for her might have come out in the music and made my performance more expressive. There was some applause in between the Faure Nocturne, Grieg "To Spring" and Liszt "Waldesrauschen" etude. I nodded to the audience but didn't get up to bow.
I went back into the auditorium and was able to relax a little now. Numerous people came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed my performance. I was so glad about that.
Day 2: The next morning I had excellent reviews in the Fort Worth and Dallas newspapers. They said I gave a "heart on the sleeve" performance and "played with a refined balance of expressiveness and forward motion". I was still unable to sleep properly as all the music was still circulating around my head. I spent the next day listening the preliminary round recitals.
One of the highlights of the week was to listen to a concerto competition for young people taking place in the Pepsico recital Hall next door. I hear a 17 year old boy playing the Prokofiev 1st concerto with such musicianship, power, accuracy and imagination that I was absolutely spellbound. The accompaniment was provided on a second piano. I then heard a 13 year old boy playing the Grieg Piano Concerto with such expression and maturity that it was unbelievable. I spoke to him afterwards to congratulate him, and he said that he learnt the concerto in one week, and the Grieg was an old piece that he played two years ago at the age of 11!! I could have listened to these young people the whole day long.
During the evening, concert pianist and juror Frederic Chiu hosted a late night (11 pm) Prokofiev "jam session" and discussion at someone's house in the Westover Hills. Several contestants played some of his music. Prokofiev composed music which is rhythmical and percussive, but also impressionistic and very romantic music. I asked about the origins of the Overture on Hebrew Themes, a chamber work for piano, clarinet and string quartet that I have played several times. This is really beautiful work, and great fun to listen to and play. It starts with a kind of "dirge" with an "um pah-pah um pah" rhythm, rather like something from Klezmer or "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof"in a minor key, and then the most beautiful chanting and moving melody on the cello is heard, reminiscent of a cantor singing in a synagogue. One can imagine orthodox rabbis dancing round and round in a Yeshiva, carried on the shoulders of their students. Frederic Chiu said that Prokofiev was interested in religions and may have commissioned this work for some special occasion. Apparently the cello tune is derived from a Yiddish song. Frederic concluded the evening with a performance of the Toccata that was so electrifyingly exciting that we thought the piano would explode. The audience cheered him!
Day 3 I listened to some more of the preliminary round recitals including the one given by my friend and fellow electrical engineer Professor Stephen Hubbard. He played the Liszt "Un Sospiro" and Rachmaninoff Prelude Op 32 No 12 so beautifully and gave a truly magnificent performance of Chopin's Etude Op 10 in C sharp minor (The "Torrent"), one of the most powerful and exciting I'd every heard by anyone. There were some exceptionally good performances during the preliminary round. Ronald Robert's Rachmaninoff Etude Tableau was outstanding, and David Earl's Mendelssohn Rondo Capriccioso was really first class. Dr. Henri Robert Delbeau's Rachmaninoff Prelude in G major and Scriabin Etude were very musical and expressive. Greg Fisher always chooses heart-wrenching music. He played some Chopin preludes so well that the newspaper critic compared his performance with Alfred Cortot's. Dr. Mark Cannon gave an impressive performance of Seymour Bernstein's "New Pictures at an Exhibition"and did his teacher proud. Professor Michael Hawley's beautiful performance of Bach-Busoni Chorale Prelude, a Scriabin Etude and the Kreisler-Rachmaninoff "Liebeslied" proved that is he a very sensitive musician. There were many other excellent performances too numerous to mention.
One of the highlights was hearing Debra Saylor, a voice instructor from Iowa and totally blind from birth. She didn't tell the Van Cliburn Foundation that she was blind on her application form, and found her way to Fort Worth and to the piano on stage completely on her own. She played the Schubert Moment Musical in F minor beautifully with an intended hesitation between certain notes that gave it a lilt. She drew a lovely singing tone from the piano in Debussy's "Clair De Lune" and the Chopin "Fantasy Impromptu". They were wonderfully expressive performances.
In the early evening we had the Mexican Dinner at Garcia's restaurant. It was much better organized than last year with our own private area and a buffet table. The food was better too. Garcias has a lovely garden with a swimming pool. It is a nice venue for dinner, especially if you like Mexican food. After the dinner I returned to TCU to hear the remainder of the preliminary round.
Announcement of Semifinalists: After the last of the preliminary recitals, we all went up on stage to receive our gifts and certificates from the President of the Van Cliburn Foundation, Alann Sampson. We then sat down in the auditorium to wait for the results which came around 11:30 pm. Even though I played as well as I could and received excellent comments from the audience and good press reviews, I was expecting to be disappointed yet again as I was last year and in Paris. When they announced my name I felt ecstatic. All the semifinalists were invited on stage. I had a hard time preventing myself from bursting into tears, especially when people told me I gave a wonderful performance. I was so overcome I hardly knew what I was doing or where I was going! We all went backstage to have a group photo taken. We also drew lots to determine the order of playing. My number was 17 out of 18, and this meant that I would have to play very late at night, at 10:20 pm. Some of us then went out for ice cream and desserts. I arrived back in my hotel room at 3 am.
Day 4 I spent most of Thursday practicing my semifinal round recital pieces. There was an interesting symposium on medicine and music, dealing with memory lapses, stage fright, performance injuries etc, but I was too tired for that and felt I had to stay and practice.
Day 5 I spent an hour in the morning practicing in Waits Hall and then had my "dress rehearsal" in the auditorium on the concert grand at midday, this time 15 minutes long. I played a little of all three pieces. The Ondine by Ravel went very well. When the semifinals started at 1 pm I didn't hear any of the performances because I wanted to avoid even more nerves and needed to rest since I hardly slept the night before. I tried to sleep in the afternoon, but ten minutes after I put my head on the pillow the phone rang and a newspaper reporter from Massachusetts wanted to speak with me. I spent the rest of the afternoon outside walking, talking to the receptionists in the hotel, and some more practice in Waits Hall. The lady on the front desk of the hotel told me she nearly drove right into the tornado which was 2 miles wide at one time! I had a problem killing all that time and trying to remain cool and relaxed.
When the time of my performance approached, I dressed in my new tuxedo and went to Waits Hall for some final practice. I was beginning to get tired. I was also becoming concerned because when I rehearsed the Brahms Intermezzo I had a memory lapse and couldn't remember the harmony and chords in the beginning, so I practiced the relevant section over and over again. (Fortunately I didn't have a memory slip during my recital and it went fine) The performances were delayed by about 20 minutes, and by the time I went on stage it was 10:50 pm. I had never played that late before.
I went on stage and took a glass of water with me in case my throat went dry. The Chopin Barcarolle went quite well. It is a good piece to start with and relax into. I was expecting applause between that and the Brahms as there had been during the preliminary round. I turned towards the audience and half got up to bow, but this time there was dead silence, so I sat back down again and said quietly "OK then". Due to the good acoustics in the hall the audience might have heard that! I felt rather embarassed and a bit of a fool. Jon Aaron, one of the jurors, told me later that he thought I was very funny. This is not the first time that music has made a fool of of me. About 25 years ago I went to hear British pianist Peter Katin playing the Rachmaninoff 3rd piano concerto in the Royal Albert Hall in London. It was such a wonderful performance, more like a Russian pianist playing, that during the interval I was in a daze and wasn't aware where I was going, and instead of going out through the exit I walked straight into the Ladies Room, and was chased out by an army of umbrella and hand bag-wielding women, a la Benny Hill Show!
The Brahms Intermezzo went well also and I tried to make the piano sing as much as possible (I hope I wasn't humming too loud as I sometimes do when I am playing!). Then came the Ravel "Ondine", a most beautiful piece but very technically demanding. By that time I was feeling really drained. In the middle of the piece something went wrong and I couldn't get the right notes in a couple of measures. My fingers had gone to sleep! Thank goodness I got through the piece, but I know it was not a good performance. I had lost concentration and was thinking during playing that I wanted to get it over and done with. I wish I could have played it several hours earlier because it went well during rehearsal at midday. I didn't do myself justice in the Ravel.
Announcement of Finalists They announced the six finalists close to 1 am. The six finalists were Christopher Basso, Steve Ryan, Debra Saylor, Michael Hawley, Michael Moore and Charles Chien. Debra Saylor was so excited and overcome when she heard her name called that she shouted "Oh My God!" I was somewhat disappointed not to get into the finals, but it did not bother me that much as I was so delighted to get into the semifinals. It also meant that I could relax a bit more, attend the social functions and listen to all of the final round performances.
Day 6: In the morning a discussion session and breakfast was arranged in the Van Cliburn Suite of the Worthington Hotel in downtown Fort Worth. The purpose was to discuss our thoughts on the competition and how some things might be improved. This was chaired by Richard Rodzinski and Jon Aaron. I made the first comment that the scheduling of the semifinals should be changed a little to avoid people having to play so late. Either sessions on two days could be arranged, or they could start in the morning. Jon Aaron gave a very interesting description how the performances are judged and scored and what he looked for in deciding whether a contestant would progress to the next round or not. A computer program is used to compute the scores, to prevent skewing of the vote and to ensure fairness. As well as determining whether a person gave a good and musical performance or not, he looks at that person's program for the next round to see what he has programmed, and decides whether it would be worthwhile hearing those pieces. Richard Rodzinski made the good point that the jury is expecting high quality music, played from the heart, whether it is the simplest Mozart or a thundering piece by Liszt. A person should play what he loves best and should not program impressive virtuoso music just for the sake of impressing the jury, especially if that is not what the person loves to play or usually plays. I thought that was excellent advice. I believe that before the next competition they are considering issuing prospective contestants with a booklet containing some guidelines for choosing good repertoire.
After the discussion I spoke with a few jurors to obtain feedback on how my semifinal performance came across. Each person had a different opinion. One juror said I should not be so conscious of bar lines. Another (contestant) said that maybe I need a little more left hand. Another juror said that the Brahms was a little "impatient" (whatever that meant). This shows how subjective music can be. One of them asked me if I hadn't played much Ravel. I was a little frustrated about that because I do play a lot of Ravel, and love his music, and I didn't do myself justice by playing so late at night.
Final Round Performances: I listened to the final round performances in the afternoon. Michael Hawley played the Liszt Sonata. This was entirely different from the performances I am used to. There were some really beautiful things in it, but somehow parts of it sounded more like Debussy than Liszt. Christopher Basso gave a wonderfully exciting performance of Prokofiev's 8th Sonata. He got a standing ovation. Michael Moore played one of my Liszt "party pieces": the Liszt-Gounod "Faust Waltz". It was quite an impressive performance, but I was disappointed that he didn't include the ossia version with some beautiful cadenzas (sounding like nightingales) in the middle section. Debra Saylor's performance of Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess, a Chopin Nocturne and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata was very musical and well shaped as in the previous rounds. She had plenty of the required technique for the last movement of the Beethoven! Steve Ryan proved himself to be an excellent interpreter of Brahms. His Ravel "Ondine" was wonderful as were the Liszt and Bach pieces. I felt that Charles Chien's performance of the Liszt Sonata was somewhat more like Liszt than Michael Hawley's, but he had trouble with memory lapses which was a pity.
Before the winners were announced, there were several speeches including one by Van Cliburn in which he congratulated everyone for participating. The prizewinners were then announced: Christopher Basso 1st prize, Steven Ryan 2nd place, and Debra Saylor 3rd place. Christopher was overloaded with gifts and needed a truck to take them home!
Final Party: After the competition all contestants and guests went over to the City Club in downtown Fort Worth for a wonderful buffet dinner. We had some difficulty finding it as the directions were not clear. We met up with other contestants who were wandering around the downtown area and eventually found it. Van Cliburn and Alann Sampson greeted all the guests as they arrived. There was a band playing, and the food (roast turkey, seafood, pasta, squash, salads, desserts etc) and wine were great. Debra Saylor went up to the piano and sang "Climb Every Mountain" from the Sound of Music, accompanying herself. It was quite moving. I met Paul Pollei, the founder of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in Salt Lake City. I told him that I had seen Gina several times when I lived in London playing the Brahms 2nd and Rachmaninoff 3rd concertos, that my teacher Norma Fisher studied with her, and that I was at that famous charity concert for the International Piano Library at London's Festival Hall when Gina Bachauer and Alicia Delarocha dressed up as little schoolgirls with plaited hair and frilly dresses, and Garrick Ohlssohn was dressed up as J.S. Bach, their teacher, and they played something for six hands on one piano, with the "teacher" scolding them for making mistakes. Everyone was in hysterics over this!
I had a most enjoyable week and was sorry it all had to
end. Getting into the semifinals was one of the best things that has ever
happened to me. I am encouraged to improve my playing to an even higher
level. I'm very grateful to my teacher Gabriel Chodos for his help and
encouragement, and my former teacher Norma Fisher for her suggestions
to improve my performance. I made some wonderful friends. I am thinking
about arranging a regional competition for outstanding amateurs in the
North East area for next year. I can hardly wait for the next Van Cliburn
competition in 2002 and the competition in Paris next year!