In a little over a month, it's baaaaaack!

Here is a link to the piano competitors list. Kenneth Broberg jumps out (Silver in the last Cliburn). I remember Shishkin from the last Tchaikovsky.

https://tchaikovskycompetition.com/en/contestants/

Who are the people to really watch out for? I haven't been keeping up with recent competitions very much.

Oh my gosh! Already?! I could've swore we just did this. Oh, that was the Cliburn. Times flies.

It is an interesting list.

There's the aforementioned Broberg, but then there's Sara Daneshpour who accomplished the same feat at the last Arthur Rubinstein and then we have yet another 2nd prize winner ,Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev the grandson of the great Tatiana Nikolaeva, who won 2nd prize in the Cleveland International which is working hard to move into the neighborhood of the prestige of the former two competitions. So that's 3 2nd prize winners in major competitions that stick out to me.

We have the advancing wunderkind, Alexander Malofeev who I'm plenty interested to see what and how he plays. In a similar vein in my mind, we have George Harliono who's excellent playing but unconventional physical approach to the instrument made quite the impression on this forum sometime ago.

Of course we have the aforementioned Shishkin and hiding behind a mispelling, I believe we have the Canadian, Tony Yike Yang who was one of if not the youngest competitor in the Cliburn who also won a Jury Discretionary Award.

So 7 out of the 25 are familiar to me and many already seasoned vets. I'm excited to see what all the diverse and distinct personalities bring to the table!

Edit: I'm also very excited to see what people choose within the comparatively restrictive 1st round repertoire requirements that I associate with this competition. What other competition requires a Chopin Etude, a Liszt Etude and a Rachmaninoff etude?

I heard Arsenii Mun perform Tchaikovsky's 1st concerto in my town in the fall, he was pretty amazing.

I'm very surprised no one here on this site has mentioned the Chinese International Piano Competition going on right now. Top prise I believe is $150,000. Alexander Malofeev and Tony Yang are competing in that as well. I've been watching Malofeev for several years and he is certainly remarkable. I'm on my iPad but when I get on my computer I'll put the YouTube site up.

I’ve been watching and thoroughly enjoying it! No spoilers please because I have four concertos still to watch!

Almost time. Bumping the thread. 😁 Brendan usually makes an official one.

I was remiss not to thank everybody for the listening suggestions.

https://tch16.medici.tv/en/

Is it on now? I thought it was about to start at 12:30 EST but when I went to the site it said the next performance was in 17 hours??

Should be. They did sections of Nutcracker and Trifonov is playing Tch. Conc. No. 1 (as if we won't get enough). 🤣

They are on Central European Summer Time.

You may have to create a "guest" Medici account or sign in with Facebook.

The link for the opening gala concert

https://www.medici.tv/en/concerts/16-international-tchaikovsky-competition-opening-concert/

seems a little different than the one for the competition, which does indeed start tomorrow morning (Tuesday, 6/18) at 5am here in the central US time zone.
https://tch16.medici.tv/en/piano/

I think I'm mistaken about CEST, but that was on Fazioli's FB page.

What I saw of Trifonov was brilliant (with a few tiny ensemble issues at the end of Tchaik. No. 1--let's blame Gergiev). Much rhythmic applause. Much perspiration. 😁

Thanks WhoDwaldi and ElaineAllegro. I thought the competition started Monday which explains why I couldn't see it haha.

Stickying this thread for now.

There are a lot of competition winners in this edition, and it looks like it's going to be a bloodbath - we've got Cliburn medalists (both the junior and big versions), Sydney, Chopin, and many others. My own prediction is that Kenny Broberg will definitely get something, as will Tarasevich-Nikolayev, hopefully Andrei Gugnin (Tchaikovsky concerti 1 AND 2 in the finals, not sure if that's ever been offered), Dmitri Shishkin, and Beisembayev.

Of course, that's even before we start talking about Alex Malofeev...this is probably going to be one of the most exciting Tchaikovsky competitions given this astronomical level.

Brendan, Thanks for sticky-ing the thread and sharing your predictions.

Curious question re % female in various competitions:

As an example, the recent Cliburn Junior had 8 girls out of 24 participants (33%). At the upcoming adult amateur Piano Bridges 2019, an estimated 43% are female (based on names as photos are not available). The 2017 (non-amateur) Cliburn started with 9 female participants out of 30 total (30%). It might be helpful for context to know the M/F %s at leading conservatories.

The 2019 Tchaikovsky (piano) starts off with 2 women (Anna Geniushene and Sara Daneshpour) out of a total of of 25 participants (8%). (Have I missed any?) Other Tchaik competition instruments (violin, cello, etc.) appear to have higher percentages of female participants; don't have time to do the math now, but I can look at these and other competitions while listening to the nth rendition of Tchaik #1 over the next week or so.

Any thoughts about the reasons for the low percentage of female participants in this particular piano competition? (Just curious, not pushing an agenda...)

Thank you for reading this far!

I don't think it's a mystery - big paws. Or lack of them.

Winners in the Tchaik (and also Cliburn) tend to play Rachmaninov concertos (esp. No.3) and lots of heavyweight Russian rep. Even Ashkenazy admitted that he doesn't play all the notes in Rach concertos, especially No.3.

That's not the case for some other competitions, like the Leeds or Queen Elisabeth or Chopin (obviously), where it's a more even ratio.

Is Wu Yuchong playing a Yangtze River piano? That's what it says in big letters on the side of the piano.

I noticed that, also! I wonder how many others will choose that piano?

Oh, I just started following the livestream and was wondering where the competition megathread was...and here we are. Good. I know a bunch of the guys participating here and will perhaps refrain on commenting on them too much. These rigidly structured first rounds - Bach P&F, Classical sonata, a handful of etudes - have become such a bore for me, but of course some people pull off creating a beautiful whole with those constraints. Konstantin Emelyanov is playing now and impressed me a great deal with the Bach C# minor P&F from Book 2, and is demonstrating what a sensitive musician he is in the Haydn sonata performed now, as well. I'm a bit partial to anyone that selects that particular prelude and fugue - easily one of my favorites out of the 48, but devilishly difficult to pull of in performance. Incidentally, as I was taking a Bach masterclass last year with Robert Levin, it seemed like this was one of his favourites, too.

Keep geeting this error. Reloading page does not help. Impossible to watch.

Yemelyanov is clearly the best so far, he absolutely slayed those etudes.

Yep.

It's nerves and spotlights, but somebody PLEEZ turn on more AC in that hall! 🤣

I saw this in the comments, "The pianists have the choice between Fazoli, Steinway & Sons, Yamaha, and Yangtze River pianos." So, no Kawai?



It seems to help to click on "piano" on the main page and to go specifically to that competition (instead of trying to watch the live stream on the main page).