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Who's? There was a Humoreske is the Rubinstein, but the competitor had a lackluster sense of rhythm and direction making for a baffling romp through what seemed to be an interesting piece as I read along.

Is that Sara Daneshpour banging through the Prokofiev 7th? She seems to have some block-like approach to the piece - the sound is either loud, in-your-face and ugly, or it is much softer and lacking any depth.

Ugh!!

Unrecognizable Brahms variations from Artem Yasynskyy, Ukraine, 25.

Why on earth did he program this music?

This performance was by Luca Buratto, who I don't think was a competitor at the Rubinstein.

So I was paging though the competitor list, to see if there was any repertoire I wanted to make sure to hear in Round 2, and found myself wondering why the competitor's country was listed next to their name (and a number of them are apparently from more than one place - I'm not sure how that works). I mean, who cares? I don't. Do you? To me, it has no bearing on how they play, so what's the point?

But, back to the repertoire...I was completely amazed to see that Artem Yasynskyy had programmed some of Jehan Alain's piano pieces. Many (probably most) pianists won't even know the composer's name, even though he was a big influence on Messiaen. What a treat!

Another unusual bit of programming in Round 2 is Busoni's Toccata - I have to backtrack to find out who played it and when. I have to say, it would be great if all this was in a more user-friendly format. You'd think in this day and age, it would all be click-though stuff. I mean, I should be able to look at a competitor's repertoire list, and if they had already performed the piece, I should just be able to click on the title to take me to the video of the performance. It's no longer rocket science to make that kind of stuff happen. And likewise, they should have a list of pieces played, also with links to the performances if they have already happened.

Listening to it right now and am finding it a good deal more interesting than most performances of this music.

It was Oxana who played that. She studied a lot for the Busoni competition, even winning the prize for best interpretation of Busoni's works, and since than has programed many of his pieces on competitions.

The Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation announces the 2014 Semi-finalists:

#3 Miao Huang, China/Germany, 29
#7 Sara Daneshpour, USA, 27
#9 KaJeng Wong, Hong Kong, 23
#19 Artem Yasynskyy, Ukraine, 25
#20 Chi Ho Han, Korea, 22
#26 Marcin Koziak, Poland, 25
#27 Alexander Gadjiev, Italy, 19
#28 Dominic Cheli, USA, 20
#29 Alexey Chernov, Russia, 31
#32 EunAe Lee, Korea, 26
#33 Daniil Sayamov, Russia, 30
#36 Andrey Gugnin, Russia, 28

The three finalists, and their concertos this evening, are:


Artem Yasynskyy - Prokofiev Concerto No. 3
Chi Ho Han - Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Andrey Gugnin - Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 in D minor, op. 30

Is anyone else having problems with live streaming of the final concerto performances? I went to the website and there is no link to the live stream!

I couldn't find any link or notice about it, so I assume the finals aren't being streamed.

So far, I've found the competition to be rather underwhelming. Lots of machine-gun playing. Everybody sounds like they're trying to win a competition...

Probably there is nothing in the orchestra's contract that allows for it.

At any rate, the final results are:

Gugnin - gold, and audience fave
Han - silver
Yasynskyy - bronze

It's a funny coincidence that the two I'd noted earlier in the thread for their Alkan and Alain performances actually placed in the end. Good for them!!

Same happened at the Cliburn too.

What is wrong with these little town orchestras?

Or what is right with Warsaw, St.Petersburg, Moscow, Israel, Belgium etc. Symphony/Philharmonic orchestras throughout the World that play at incomparably great competitions?

Fort Worth and Salt Lake are "little towns?"

Yes, they are little town orchestras unheard of at the other side of the water.
I doubt most US citizens are aware of their existence either.
Comparable orchestras to the ones above would be The New York Philharmonic or equivalent.

That's a ridiculous definition of "little town."

The Fort Worth Symphony has an operating budget of $12 million.

The Utah Symphony has an operating budget of about $18 million.

Both provide salaried positions to their musicians and, as such, recruit from some of the top conservatories in the world.

There isn't a single top-tier orchestra in the United States willing to host a major piano competition, so maybe we should cut these two a little slack.

Besides, they did stream 90% of the competition for free. Sorry that's not enough for you.

It is ridiculous not to broadcast the finals of any competition.

All the piano competitions I mentioned above broadcasts ALL of the stages including the orchestra finals (and the rehearsals too at the Tchaikovsky).

All of the orchestras mentioned above are more reputable orchestras then these two town orchestras.

If they can do it somehow, why these two competitions can not manage to do it.

What is this big nose, snobbish behavior with these two town orchestras?

Biting the hand that feeds? They did provide you with hours of free content after all.

I think it's ridiculous to feel entitled to the labor of others for free.

Anyway, my argument is based on comparisons with major competitions.

Maybe this can be discussed in a separate thread.