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Breaking news:

I hear from well-informed sources that Gorden has advanced! Way to go!!!

But apparently the selection was for "quarter finals", which is a Paris specialty: an intermediate round for candidates that the jury liked but wants to hear again before selecting some of them for the semifinals. Candidates can also be selected directly from first round to semifinals.

Having heard Gorden before, I would have expected him to move directly to semifinals. So it seems to me there must be lots of very good amateur pianists in Paris this year??

I hope everyone is having fun there!

P.S. Nigel, best wishes for the premiere of your Oboe sonata!

Yes -- as you know, the "quarter-finals" is sort of a purgatory.

When the results of the 1st round are announced, they say the quarter-finalists first, before the ones who are going directly to the semi-finals. So, it's odd because you don't really want to hear your name announced, even if not being in the 1/4-finals means you won't be advancing at all. This result could mean what you said, or that Gorden had an off-day, or just that his style and approach weren't to the liking of one or more of the judges. But it's worth remembering that people from the quarter-finals have often wound up advancing to the finals and sometimes even won. I was there one time when the eventual winner almost didn't even make the quarter-finals. He had made what I thought was for him a poor repertoire choice for the 1st round (last mvt of Prokofiev 7th), played it aggressively and without much regard to the small room (and also got sort of lost for a while), and wasn't even on the initial list of people who advanced at all, but the judges thought for a few seconds more and figured what the heck. He wound up winning -- probably because they sort of wouldn't let him play the Prokofiev sonata in the finals even though he really really wanted to.

Gorden's not being put directly in the semi-finals could also be partly because of some issues of his first time in that event (when he did make the finals), things that weren't directly about how he played. He disagreed that it was any issue for anything, but I thought it probably was, and it might still be. That competition has its quirks. The issue (as I saw it) was mainly about that thing of deciding the repertoire for the finals. If he advances to the finals, look for them to try to be very strong to him about what he 'should' play, and he may well not like it. I sure wouldn't have in my 'younger days.'

It makes much more sense I think for any competition to lay out the repertoire requirements for each round in advance and then leave the rest to the competitors. It's somewhat arrogant for the judges to decide anything about which pieces a contestant should play for any reason.

Does any other competition, professional or amateur, do this?

Certainly no other amateur competition, and none at all that I know of.

Last year the winner Piers-Smith advanced to the quarter finals...then with his showy style ended up winning!

Paris Semi Finalists...Bach, Bedon, Carpentier, Jubin, Maulide, Matzener, Prat. 2 openings that will be filled by Qtr Finalists. Courtesy of Peter Bishpam.

Thanks, musica!!



Oh what a lucky person to be born in such a family!!!

I hope he or she will not choose to play "Bach-hyphenated" in the semifinals --something which is allowed instead of "pure" Bach in Paris, which I don't really consider a good thing because the romantic transcriptions require such different skills...

I'm pretty sure the "2 openings to be filled" by quarter-finalists is just a guess. Judging from my past experience there, it could be some other number, and usually is MORE.

Do we know if the 'Bach' person really is from that family?

BTW, I happen to know someone who is, and she says that most of the other family members that she knows don't think it's much of a big deal because they're more into rock and rap and stuff like that.

Well, at least I'm from the same species as Bach, which, at a cosmic level, is pretty significant.

-J

I don't think I am.

BTW, in college I invented a mnemonic for remembering the categories of living things. I should copyright it some time.

Probably the inspiration was the condition of the house I shared with a bunch of other guys.

K(ingdom)ITCHEN
P(hylum)ESTS
C(lass)AN
O(rder)OZE
F(amily)ROM
G(enus)OOKY
S(pecies)TOVES

To this day, it's the only way I can remember them. Not that I need it for anything, but what the hey.

Ok, from the many interesting ways we can be related with Bach -> back to Paris for a moment

Gorden is in semifinals; congrats!

Just heard Gorden did not make the Finals. Don't know the names of those that did, 2 Frenchmen and an Italian I believe.

Finalists...Maulide,Carpentier, Gilardi, Matzener, Bach. Courtesy Peter Bispham.

However I'm not looking at this competition, but I would like to participate... maybe in 10 years time, when I will have my own grand

But what I don't like about COMPETITIONS FOR OUTSTANDING AMATEURS, is that many people taking part in these competitions are fully trained pianists with diplomas, after master courses etc.

Sorry, but the are not amateurs (in my opinion). Amateur for me as a person who has SOME (because you need to have some) musical experience, but if anybody has piano diploma so he is prepared to do this professionaly...

It is funny that nobody will say that he or she went to an engineering school for fun, or got nursing diploma for fun. Only people with piano degree who joined amateur competitions will not consider their degree as a proof that they can make money off of it, or has the potential to make money. They consider their four year degree is nothing, just about like the knowledge of a real real amateur who took piano lesson once a week and no need to study music theory, music history, harmony, etc.

+1

Thanks, pianovirus. It went really well. I've just put the recording of that concert performance on my webpage here Oboe Sonata (unedited but chopped into the three movements). Thanks to the duo for letting me do that. It was an assured and well in-control performance, as I expected it would be having been to a couple of rehearsals, but I still felt a bit on edge sitting there in the audience, wondering how the audience was receiving it. Normal I suppose, for a new piece - I'm usually performing them myself...