Janos's brief reporting of the Cliburn winners really doesn't convey what a compellingand pioneering event it was. The webcast of the competition sets a new technical and content standard for events of this sort. While the Cliburn, and Cleveland, and I suppose other competitions have been doing live radio broadcasting and audio webcasting of the events for some time, this year the Cliburn took it up a notch with high-quality live audio and video webcasting of all the recitals, chamber and concerto performances, and rehearsals with the Takacs Quartet & Forth Worth Symphony as well. I was glued to the computer for two weeks following all this. If you missed a performance, it was archived and available for viewing the next day. In addition to this the website established a verylively blogging community of piano aficionados commenting on the action. Much of the blogging was trivial blow-by-blow commentary of the "OMG, she muffed that arpeggio!" variety, but there was some substantive discussion as well. There was a particularly lively debate regarding Maestro James Conlon's handling of the concerto rehearsals. He would begin by telling the soloists that he was there to facilitate their interpretations, then for the rest of the session would lecture them on how he thought the piece should go! Also, it was a lot of fun following the shifting opinions and handicapping of the contestants as the horserace progressed, particularly the fall of Evgeni Bozhanov, who dazzled in his semifinal recital and chamber performances, but crashed and burned in his final recital and concertos with weird interpretative notions, rushed tempos, and flurries of missed notes. I suspect this Cliburn will also be a harbinger of piano competitions to come. Four of the six finalists were Asian, with the Medalists from Japan, China and Korea. Happily, none of these contestants seem to have been infected with the Lang Lang Syndrome. Their playing was consistently fine, free of overwrought interpretation or showbiz taint. The performances are still available at www.cliburn.tv (though, interestingly,the rehearsals are not, maybe because of the Conlon controversy). Lots of great stuff -- a few standouts: Tsujii's (blind from birth) Hammerklavier, Zhang's Brahms Handel Variations, Di Wu's Gaspard de la Nuit, Bozhanov's Schubert & Beethoven. Art Scott Livermore, Cal. *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html