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The "unofficial" results are in: Mei Ting Sun has been awarded first, second, and third prizes and everyone else has been sent home. He will play the entire works of Chopin in his concert for the prize winners. Many jury members have begged him for lessons.

LOL! You made my day Hilarious

By the way, yesterday I had a surprise opportunity to meet Daniil Trifonov in person. I had an hour left till the performances, so I ended up in new Kawai & Fazioli dealership to play some more on the Kawai (I'm on my journey to buy a new piano). Unfortunately, I was able to tinke only for a bit, because Daniil Trifonov showed up to practice on a showroom Fazioli. Listening to him so close, seeing his hands from a standing distance, was a very enriching experience. What a great pianist he is!


M.

Have you been going to the all the recitals on a given day? That would be close to eight hours right?

No, only to the evening ones and only this single time - Sun, Avdeeva, Koziak and Wunder. We got tickets with my friend by accident, because two of our colleagues couldn't come after all.

THE RESULTS!

Avdeeva, Bozhanov, Dumont, Geniusas, Khozyainov, Kultyshev, Trifonov, Tysman, Wakarecy, Wunder

They said that results were concluded easily. The system of voting does not allow discussion, unless the 10th and 11th place would have the same amount of YES votes. They said that results were clear without additional discussion.

It seems like this round pretty much went to those participants who displayed the least amount of nerves.

I wonder what's the probability that jury members are somehow partial to the fact, that Wakarecy's teacher is one of the members. Theoretically the voting system is perhaps the best possible to avoid that kind of decisions, but I somehow have the feeling that being fully objective and voting against friend in such a case is not an easy thing, even if one tries.

Have the MTS fans been gathering outside the hall to protest? The judges just don't like loud ties or Art Tatum, I guess. I know for a fact Argerich is jealous of MTS's octaves.

You sure are a shameless fanboy!!

Marek Bracha studied with Kevin Kenner in London; Wunder studied with Harasiewicz.. etc..

If anything, the Russian trained pianists seem to have been at significant advantage and the Asians, regardless of where they were trained, had the least rate of success.. The US trainees did well earlier on but none made it to the last stage. The French did very well, maintaining a 50% retention rate into the finals, but they started with a n of 4.. After the Russians and the French, the Poles did best with a 14% retention rate into the finals..
Obviously I did not count the "rare" Bulgarian and Austrian..

The worse were the Japanese who started with the largest number of contestants in the 1st stage (n=17), cut by 60% into the 2nd stage and then completely eliminated..



P.S> Yeah.. I am a bit weird.. But I need a break on saturdays and I have already practiced..

I think Bozhanov will win - provided he continues to be solid in the finals. I was listening to his Polonaise-Fantasie, Mazurkas, and 3rd sonata yesterday and this is playing far more imaginative, unique, and effective than anyone else I've heard. (Tyson was similar, but sometimes I found his sound to be limited and his eccentricities out of context). Then again, I thought Bozhanov stood a good chance of placing in the Cliburn, which he didn't, but he also started going downhill in the finals.

As for Mei-Ting Sun, I don't doubt that he probably has the greatest technique on the planet (literally), as well as tons of sensitivity to match it up - but - something about him just irritates me, I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's that his digital facility is so great, that no matter how musically he plays, there will just be too much clarity in this music that is ideally supposed to be a balance of clarity and haze. Sometimes he plays runs and trills SO cleanly that they take on an almost midi-sound effect that ruins their context in the rest of the music. And as someone mentioned earlier, he looks the most confident and assured onstage, precisely because he has NOTHING to worry about and that in itself may rob him of a certain edge - a certain fear of failure that helps to make a performance come alive.

I think he will will if he gets a lot of Botox injections(they prevent excessive movement) especially in the eyebrows region before the finals. It's really not fair...his eyebrows are like having an extra finger.

AWESOME!!!

I think Nicolay Khozyainov will win first prize and the best Polonaise prize.

heart is broken, MTS didn't make it o(>______<)o

Finalists ranked by age :

Khozyainov : 18 (17 July, 1992)
Trifonov : 19 (5 March, 1991)
Geniusas : 20 (1 July, 1990)
Wakarecy : 23 (14 October, 1987)
Dumont : 25 (19 October, 1985)
Wunder : 25 (8 September, 1985)
Kultyshev : 25 (21 August, 1985)
Avdeeva : 25 (3 July, 1985)
Bozhanov : 26 (10 March, 1984)
Tysman : 28 : (30 December, 1982)

So, for some of them it is the last time to compete in this particular competition.

Excellent posts!