Van Cliburn International Piano Competition; No. 3; Part 6

<v Speaker>[Philippe Bianconi and orchestra play piano concerto number 1 Opus 15 by Brahms]. <v Steve Allen>The conductor gives the artist a congratulatory hug, and understandably so.

<v Steve Allen>You've just heard the piano concerto number 1 in D minor, Opus 15 by Brahms. <v Steve Allen>The soloist: Philippe Bianconi of France playing at the Fort <v Steve Allen>Worth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stanisław Skrowaczewski. <v Paul Hume>Amazing pianist, Steve, at the age of 25, that's one of the big testing concertos. <v Paul Hume>And I thought he stood right up to it and brought it off beautifully. <v Steve Allen>Indeed. <v Steve Allen>The applause as you can hear is still continuing, very vigorous cheering. <v Steve Allen>Now the orchestra rises to pay its respects. <v Steve Allen>Bianconi must be very happy with his performance. <v Steve Allen>And that is the concluding performance on this the third night of the final round in the <v Steve Allen>1985 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. <v Speaker>[applause continues] <v Steve Allen>The conductor and player leave the stage. <v Steve Allen>So we now have behind us, Paul, all 3 nights in finals competition.

<v Steve Allen>It's all over now but the voting. The jury will deliberate late tonight and again <v Steve Allen>tomorrow morning and they bring Bianconi back for another vigorous <v Steve Allen>round of applause in which the orchestra joins. <v Steve Allen>And then finally at the awards ceremony, we'll find out who it is that <v Steve Allen>will be the gold medalist. <v Steve Allen>The top award, as we mentioned earlier in this competition, is valued at more than 200000 <v Steve Allen>dollars and includes a 12000 dollar cash prize, concert engagements for 2 and <v Steve Allen>a half years, a Carnegie Hall recital, and a debut recording. <v Steve Allen>There's a great deal at stake. And once again, Philippe Bianconi is back <v Steve Allen>on stage with Mr. Skrowaczewski. <v Steve Allen>The orchestra rises and all 3 contributors to a very exciting <v Steve Allen>performance acknowledge the response of the audience. <v Steve Allen>Well, Paul, we're just observing, we've now heard performances by all of the 6 finalists. <v Steve Allen>If you don't mind, may I put you on the spot?

<v Steve Allen>What are your predictions? <v Paul Hume>Well, first of all, let me I urge the audience, as I <v Paul Hume>did 2 nights ago, to be their own judges, to do their own rating. <v Paul Hume>You've heard the 6 semifinalists and the 6 finalists as we have. <v Paul Hume>Remember, of course, the judges are working from their hearing them in their solo <v Paul Hume>performances, in their chamber music, and then in their concertos with the orchestra. <v Paul Hume>I'm willing to go out on a limb, which I think is a fairly strong limb, and <v Paul Hume>give you the names of the top 4 as I see them. <v Paul Hume>First, I'm going to give them to you in purely alphabetical order. <v Paul Hume>I think Philippe Bianconi, Barry Douglas José Feghali, <v Paul Hume>and Hans-Christian Wille are the top 4 players in these <v Paul Hume>final competitions and indeed in the entire Cliburn competition. <v Paul Hume>I've been doing some handicapping as we've been listening and I am now willing <v Paul Hume>to say the order in which I think the judges ought to name <v Paul Hume>them winners tomorrow night.

<v Paul Hume>And I find that they come out exactly the same in my <v Paul Hume>estimation, as they did alphabetically. <v Paul Hume>I would give the gold medal to Philippe Bianconi. <v Paul Hume>I would give the silver medal to Barry Douglas. <v Paul Hume>I would give the third prize to José Feghali and the fourth to Hans-Christian <v Paul Hume>Wille. But there have been 3 ties in past <v Paul Hume>Cliburn competitions. <v Paul Hume>And I can see a real possibility in my own scoring and in my estimation, <v Paul Hume>in a tie for second place between Douglas and Feghali. <v Steve Allen>Hm. <v Paul Hume>That is up to the decision of the judges. <v Paul Hume>But of course, they are, by the way, doing their judging purely by numbers. <v Paul Hume>They turn in a total of numbers. <v Paul Hume>The booklet states quite clearly in the rules that in case of a tie is a tie-breaking <v Paul Hume>mechanism can be invoked. <v Paul Hume>Well, I think it works here exactly as it does in the United States Senate, where the <v Paul Hume>vice president, Mr. Bush, who has a certain standing in Texas, casts the tie-breaking <v Paul Hume>vote. That is the role that John Giordano, who's been our chairman throughout

<v Paul Hume>this and is called a non-voting member of the jury, can step up <v Paul Hume>and vote. We'll see, of course, whether or not there is a tie. <v Paul Hume>As I say, it would not be unprecedented. There have been 3. <v Paul Hume>I would not have a tie. I would give the first prize to Bianconi, the second to Douglas, <v Paul Hume>the third to Feghali, and the fourth to Wille. <v Steve Allen>Very forthright answer. A question, Paul, to employ the analogy with <v Steve Allen>sports again: a prizefighter can lose, let's say, <v Steve Allen>8 rounds in a row and not being battered out of the ring, but losing nevertheless, <v Steve Allen>and then by coming on strong in the last couple of rounds, let's say still save <v Steve Allen>the day or the night. Can anything of that sort happen here? <v Paul Hume>Well, you're talking about a knockout in the ring, of course, which ends the fight and <v Paul Hume>awards the prize to the man who delivered the knockout blow. <v Steve Allen>Well, even if he just doesn't, knock the opponent out, but is much better in the last two <v Steve Allen>rounds. <v Paul Hume>Sure. <v Steve Allen>Yeah. <v Paul Hume>Well, we've had rounds here. Again, I don't know how if the judges <v Paul Hume>are going to devote more weight on the concertos

<v Paul Hume>or more on the chamber music or more, say, on the playing of the Mozart <v Paul Hume>concerto than the later concerto or vise versa and how much consideration they <v Paul Hume>will give in the overall picture to the early rounds solo and also <v Paul Hume>in the semifinals. In addition to the chamber music, each pianist played an hour-long <v Paul Hume>solo recital, all of which, of course, is now in the judges' thinking. <v Paul Hume>We know without question. We don't have to know what the judge is doing. <v Paul Hume>We know that all of these things are now in their minds. <v Paul Hume>They have heard these pianists for 4 hours- 4 and a half hours with the concertos <v Paul Hume>just about a total. And out of all of that. <v Paul Hume>I suspect some of them have as I've- as I have done, already put down their numbers <v Paul Hume>and they're not going to worry about it. One judge said to me yesterday, I knew <v Paul Hume>after the first 15 minutes of each pianist, now that's- that's some going, uh in <v Paul Hume>the first 15 minutes, he hadn't heard the concerto. <v Paul Hume>But maybe he meant the first 15 minutes or the first 10 minutes of their solo recital, <v Paul Hume>the first 10 of their chamber music and the first 10 of their Brahms.

<v Steve Allen>Showed him at least what they were capable of. <v Paul Hume>My feeling is that I heard Bianconi play the most beautiful Mozart <v Paul Hume>that I've heard in these concertos and the only pianist who played a Mozart concerto, <v Paul Hume>which I found satisfying in every respect. <v Paul Hume>Then he came back with the big Brahms, and I heard him again playing the finest big <v Paul Hume>later concerto that I heard. <v Paul Hume>So I had no trouble at all putting him at the top. <v Paul Hume>I found that in my numerical system, Douglas and <v Paul Hume>Feghali are very close together. <v Paul Hume>What the judges would have a matter of points. <v Paul Hume>So we'll see. <v Steve Allen>Yes. And tomorrow is the- when the scene will happen. <v Steve Allen>We'll be bringing you that all-important winners ceremony. <v Steve Allen>In addition, we'll have a chance to recap the competition as a whole. <v Steve Allen>Naturally, no one listening to us was able to hear the entire proceedings. <v Steve Allen>But now, in a sense, you will. <v Steve Allen>We'll bring you a performance of the commissioned piece by John Corigliano, <v Steve Allen>as well as highlights from the chamber music performances with the Tokyo Quartet <v Steve Allen>and at the end of the program will have a chance to speak with Malcolm Frager, one of the

<v Steve Allen>judges here, and he should be able to tell us the details as to <v Steve Allen>how the jury reached its decision. <v Steve Allen>So do be sure to join us again tomorrow night at the same time for our concluding <v Steve Allen>program of this group. The seventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is <v Steve Allen>presented by the Van Cliburn Foundation, Fort Worth, Texas, Andrew <v Steve Allen>Raeburn, executive director. If you'd like more information about the Van Cliburn <v Steve Allen>International Piano Competition, the 160-page official souvenir program <v Steve Allen>is available or you have to do to get one to send three dollars to cover postage and <v Steve Allen>handling to Van Cliburn Competition, Box 32 <v Steve Allen>0 7, Fort Worth, Texas 76 1 0 2. <v Steve Allen>Address again. Van Cliburn Competition, Box 3 2 0 7, <v Steve Allen>Fort Worth, Texas 76 1 0 2. <v Steve Allen>Now for KERA Dallas Fort Worth, the technical director has been <v Steve Allen>John Allison. Our broadcast engineer, Mark Lambert.

<v Steve Allen>Remote audio facilities are provided by MidCom Incorporated. <v Steve Allen>Mike Simpson and Jim Fitzgerald engineers. <v Steve Allen>Portable satellite uplink facilities provided by IDB Incorporated. <v Steve Allen>Audio coordinator for the Van Cliburn competition is John Moran. <v Steve Allen>The audio producer is Andrew Raeburn with music feeds <v Steve Allen>provided by digital services. <v Steve Allen>Trent Burns, chief engineer and John Lehman mixer. <v Steve Allen>Steve Proffitt's our features producers- the producer, rather, with reports contributed <v Steve Allen>by Craig Allen, Nancy Lamb, and Chris Douritas US. <v Steve Allen>The assistant director is Jacqueline Cumming and Patricia Silverman is <v Steve Allen>associate producer. And we thank Patricia, Paul and I do for her particular <v Steve Allen>help here in our studio. This program was produced and directed by Ara Guzelimian, <v Steve Allen>the executive producer is Michael Nitka, and this has been a production of <v Steve Allen>KERA Dallas Fort Worth. <v Steve Allen>Paul Hume, once again, it's been a great pleasure for me to have your company for these <v Steve Allen>broadcasts, and I thank you for enlightening me to such a great extent.

<v Steve Allen>Tomorrow, we'll have a chance to compare your predictions, of course, with the jury's <v Steve Allen>decisions. <v Paul Hume>One further word about the required piece by John Corigliano, Steve, not only will <v Paul Hume>we hear that work, which is called "A Fantasia on an Ostinato" and a fascinating piece, <v Paul Hume>but also John Corigliano will tell us which pianist he thinks played it best. <v Paul Hume>And the jury, of course, will give a special prize to the person they think played it <v Paul Hume>best. I can't wait till tomorrow night. <v Paul Hume>Steve, I'll see you then. And then we'll see how smart the jury is. <v Steve Allen>[laughs] All right. That's "Fantasia on an Ostinato," you say? <v Paul Hume>That's right. <v Steve Allen>That'll interest me because I used to drive on ostinato years ago and it finally broke <v Steve Allen>down. <v Paul Hume>They were good cars. <v Steve Allen>[laughs] Nice to end such a dignified program on a silly note, but it's been a rough 3 <v Steve Allen>nights. This is Steve Allen. Thanks for joining us. <v Steve Allen>And please plan to be with us tomorrow night when we resume with coverage of the 1985 <v Steve Allen>Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. <v Steve Allen>Until then, good night from Fort Worth. <v Radio Host>This program was made possible by grants from the Mobil Oil Corporation

<v Radio Host>and Tandy Corporation, RadioShack. <v Radio Host>This is the American Public Radio Network.