Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner I am not a rock star

Well, I'm not, but that's beside the point. I saw the above-titled documentary on the BBC (apologies to non-UK people, perhaps other countries have screened it too?), and was wondering if anyone else had caught it too? Documentary following a child prodigy pianist for ~ 10 years, in a nutshell.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b046psxj/the-story-of-a-child-prodigy-i-am-not-a-rock-star

What did you think? To my limited ears, there wasn't much to set this girl apart from the (seemingly endless) supply of young, extraordinarily talented, pianists out there. Apart from her attitude, which for me wasn't the most endearing. But perhaps that's what you get in a warts-and-all-style documentary.

But still, she can dash off pieces I will only ever dream to play, so why am I being so snarky...

Pam

I watched this on BBC4 too.

I have to say that her talent doesn't compare with that of her compatriot Jan Lisiecki, who is about the same age.

Still, it was interesting to follow a talented teenage pianist from age 12 to 20. But for a documentary film of a truly prodigious talent, BBC's "Imagine being a Concert Pianist" is the one (and there are no teenage tantrums here ):

http://youtu.be/Sl3Mtq99fio

Thank you for posting this! I really enjoyed it. In spite of (or perhaps even because of) her occasional sassy attitude, I found her kind of endearing. It was, as you say, "warts and all" and with a 16-year-old girl with those kinds of pressures put on her, there will likely be a fair share of warty behavior.

I was really moved by her interaction with the children at the end. I felt bad for her when she was crying about having been so affected by the Schumann, yet when she called to tell her dad all he could talk about was YCA. It seemed like her passion had gotten swallowed by the business end of things, which is perhaps inevitable. I suppose some young people handle that better than others. But I don't doubt her passion for music. I hope she hangs on to that amid all the career pressure.

I also don't doubt her passion at all, I just felt that she seemed so, well, angry at it all the time! Equally, that's more likely to be an effect of the bits they chose to put together - I mean, a kid playing her heart out flawlessly for an hour does not a documentary make. That's what YouTube is for, right?

I wonder what happened with the YCA thing - I'm inferring she either didn't go to the audition, or bombed it horribly. It generally seemed like the wrong thing for her to be doing it that point in time in terms of the pressure involved. It wasn't super clear, but perhaps her parents were in the middle of their divorce at the same time? Gotta be hard for anyone to deal with all that in one go.

Bennevis, thanks for the link - indeed no temper tantrums in sight! A very different view of some very different talents. Maybe less parental pressure there?

Pam