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I can't argue with those going into the final, I enjoyed what I saw of each of them. In particular, Yulianna, Wunder and, above all, Geniusas. His 25/12 was a great end to his programme.

For the finals Chopin PC #1 will be performed eight times and Chopin PC #2 will be played twice.

I'm glad Tysman made it in... and of course I thought Bozhanov would. I'm actually somewhat disappointed by the verdict - very few of the pianists that I REALLY liked made it in - but I guess I'll have to make do. I can't afford a plane ticket so that I can gripe at the judges in person.

50% are Russians.
There are actually many outstanding Russian pianists.
Is their education stricter? Are they more determined to reach the goal?

It is a shame by the way that the finals always start when it is 3am here...

Agreed.

What the heck are you talking about????

just saw a blog page, which is quite interesting. he's pretty much covered most of pianists in the competition. he's right or wrong it doesn't matter, because a lot of what he wrote was much felt by many people observing the competition. he might be a reporter of the competition, since his blog was on the competition newsletters as well.

see here:
http://www.michael-moran.com/2010_10_01_archive.html

The latest copy of Chopin Express has some very interesting short articles, including some takes by Stephen Hough and Ingrid Fliter, among others, about Chopin's music. More interestingly, one of the writers thinks that Bozhanov and Wunder are as "almost guaranteed" to be the winners, may be split the first prize.. I don't know if the English translation makes the statement sound even more assertive than it is meant to be. But I was surprised that the official organization of the competition would allow such a strong opinion.. I think it is rather refreshing..


That is an interesting blog, signa. Thanks. What scandal does he mean exactly? (I have not read through the whole thing yet)

Bozhanov is unbelievable!

I think it is very inappropriate to make such strong statements about the outcome of the competition even before the finals. In case that comes from the organization , that is.

Watching Kultyshev right now - wow!

I saw Trifonov, he was excellent. I was hoping for better from Wakarecy, but his first movement of F-minor was falling apart at places.

Do you mean his playing or his eyebrow moves?

Unfortunately, I was only able to catch the last 5 minutes of Bozhanov's performance and missed all the earlier ones. I enjoyed what I saw very much. A few minor mistakes didn't detract at all and he appeared to me to be very much at ease and completely in synch with the orchestra. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the performance (and the others I missed) once they hit the archives.

Bozhanov had a 2 second meltdown near the end of the last movement, I think. I don't know how important that will be to the results.

I think you're right about the mistake. Since I didn't see the rest of his performance (nor any of the others) it's hard to say how much it will affect him. I thought he recovered well.

That edition of the newsletter is here.

The Polish is:

W przesłuchaniach trzeciego etapu na czoło wysunęli się dwaj fenomenalni pianiści, o zupełnie różnym podejściu do muzyki Chopina: Evgeni Bozhanov oraz Ingolf Wunder. Nikt chyba nie ma już wątpliwości, że jeden z nich zwycięży; może nawet razem staną na najwyższym podium?

My translation without reading the English:

In listening to the third round, two phenomenal pianists, each with completely different approaches to the music of Chopin, emerged in the lead: Evgeni Bozhanov and Ingolf Wunder. Perhaps no one has doubts any more that one of them will win; perhaps they will even stand together on the highest podium?

The newsletter's English translation:
Two phenomenal pianists moved to the forefront during the third stage: Evgeni Bozhanov and Ingolf Wunder, each with a completely different approach to Chopin’s music. I don’t think anyone doubts that one of these two will be the winner; perhaps they will even share first place?

Of course, the article is titled "Two and the Rest", so I guess the opinion of the author is pretty settled!

What do you mean? I've seen/heard him many times in various competitions and HE is usually the reason he doesn't fare better. I really wish I'd had more time lately to watch some of the performances!

I can't remember exactly what happened because it was all so fast. I think he hit an obvious wrong note and then seemed to blank out for few seconds...he just stopped playing before he recovered and continued. The whole thing lasted like three seconds and occured about a minute before the end of the third movement.