Lisztomania...

It's Cliburn time in Texas. Over on the Art and Seek blog Olin Chism reviews the contestants' repertoire choices and points out that there are no fewer than 36 potential performances of Liszt (not surprisingly, Chopin and Beethoven are tied for second with 34 potential performances each). For more on repertoire, read this post. Other Cliburn news/schedules are here.

I have mixed feelings about the Cliburn competition and piano competitions in general. Judging at this level is subjective (as is the nature of judging in the arts) and the outcome of the Cliburn competition is rarely a true measure or predictor of future success. Scott Cantrell of the Dallas Morning News wrote a great piece on this topic. Read it here. To add to my mistrust of the Van Cliburn in particular, I was really surprised by the selections made for this year's competition. After watching the screening auditions in Fort Worth earlier this semester, I felt the judges chose personality and celebrity over musicality and technical ability. I was pretty shocked by the selection of performers who I felt gave clearly sub-par performances. It seemed apparent that judges had favorites going in, and did not judge solely on the audition.

That said, it seems appropriate to listen to this today:


(Van Cliburn playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12)

And in related news, I can't help but love this song. I tried to resist, but it gets stuck in your head and it really isn't half bad. I'd say this is one of only a handful (if not the only) musicologically-themed music videos around. It's a band (black skinny jeans, shaggy hair and all) playing on the steps of Bayreuth and visiting the Liszt museum. Now THAT is a music video...