Five Questions… For Our Music Critic Wayne Lee Gay
—from the Onstage NTX staff
Busy Onstage NTX music critic Wayne Lee Gay had some well-earned time off in the break between the first two rounds of the 16th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (at TCU), and the semifinal round that begins tonight (June 8) in Bass Performance Hall.
So of course, we did our best to fill up his off-hours—with a few questions we’d been wondering about. Thanks, Wayne!
ONE: What, if any, stylistic changes have you seen over the years in "how" these young pianists play the music?
One of the more interesting stylistic changes in recent years is increased use of pedal--soft, damper, and sostenuto (middle)--for color possibilities. There's no "right" or "wrong" way to pedal anymore--some want more, some want less. The biggest drawback of the increased use of pedal for color and resonance is careless overuse, muddling sound and destroying clarity--which we have heard with depressing regularity this year.
The most intriguing trend of this year's Cliburn has been the predominance and success of competitors from tiny South Korea, sweeping past the usually formidable national groups from Russia and the United States, while outstripping the recent rising trend of Chinese pianists. The usual strong entries from Italy have declined noticeably this time around.
TWO: Which composers seem to be "hot picks" this year--and can you say why? (As a corollary, are there some composers who seem to be fading away as concert choices?)
Liszt is clearly the favorite composer this year. Forty years ago, his lavish, opulent compositions were regarded as somewhat less than top drawer, and appeared primarily as showcases for technique. Now, there's a realization that his wide range of compositional styles is significant and often profound.
There is definitely less music by Liszt's friend Chopin than usual at this competition: not because his reputation as a composer is in eclipse (indeed, quite the opposite), but because his relatively small output has been performed almost to the point of over-familiarity. Any pianist on the jury will intimately know all of Chopin's major works, and have distinctive ideas that may not match the opinions of the competitor. Interestingly, Mendelssohn was virtually absent from the Cliburn forty years ago, when I started attending; now he shows up almost as frequently as Scriabin, a competition standard.
At virtually every Cliburn, living and recent composers get short shrift outside of the required commissioned work. We've heard one work by Australian Carl Vine, and one by 90-year-old Soviet-born Sofia Gubaidulina, and we'll hear a works by contemporary Americans John Adams and Lowell Liebermann in the semi-final round. One competitor programed a set by the late Ukrainian-born Russian Nikolai Kapustin, but he didn't make it the semi-final round, so we won't hear any music by the man who was arguably the most significant (and appealing) composer of piano music in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
THREE: Does the atmosphere of the Van Cliburn change much from one competition to another, or is the "young and hopeful" theme eternal? How would you describe the feel of this year's competition?
There are always thirty different viewpoints from the competitors, ranging from the coldly ambitious to the idealistic. This year, idealism and the desire to make great music is as strong as ever, tempered by a palpable desire to win.
FOUR: Having spent nearly a week in the new concert hall at TCU, what would you say about it as a performance space?
The new Van Cliburn Concert Hall on the TCU campus is an ideal room for a piano recital: not too small, not too large, and with acoustic qualities designed to allow a good pianist to be heard to best advantage. It is a gem for the region, the state, and for the country. The larger Bass Performance Hall, where the semifinal and final rounds will take place is, of course, a great testing ground for a pianist with ambitions to make the circuit in recitals, and it's an excellent room for concertos as well.
This year, the Cliburn has at last found its two perfect venues.
FIVE: What are you looking forward to in the next rounds--specific music pieces, or...?
As far as repertoire in the semifinal round, I'm particularly interested to hear what Masay Kamei will do with Balakirev's Islamey, just because it seems like a particularly good match for him. Two performances of Rachmaninoff's Corelli Variations (Uladzislau Khandohi and Marcel Tadokoro) are not too much for this fan of that composer's late exile period. Ginastera's First Sonata, which will be performed by Dmyrti Choni, is always potentially a refreshing ear-pleaser. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that in the final round we get to hear Clayton Stephenson perform that masterpiece of American music, Gershwin's Concerto in F, an excellent competition piece that has never appeared at the Cliburn.
[The semifinal round of the competition runs from June 8-12. Finalists will be announced on the night of June 12. For information on the Van Cliburn and/or to watch performances streamed live, go to: cliburn.org ]
