Every four years, several dozen of the world’s best young pianists
gather in Fort Worth, Texas, for the Van Cliburn International
Piano Competition. This documentary shows the 2009 competition,
going behind the scenes, lets us see the pianists as they prepare,
perform in the three rounds, and as the best are selected. One
sees the dedication of those pianists who are good enough to
be selected for this competition, and the stress they undergo
as they face one of the biggest challenges of their musical
lives.
At the beginning, there are 29 pianists, all excellent, but
the competition is tough, and in the second round 12 are chosen,
and only 6 make it to the final. Competitions like this are
held around the world, and in most cases, the winners don’t
go on to make any major mark in classical music. The only well-known
winner of the Van Cliburn competition is Radu Lupu, who won
in 1966. Such competitions do help many pianists make steps
and get more concert options. The Van Cliburn also sponsors
concert tours and CDs by the winners.
The 2009 competition had two winners, Nobuyuki Tsujii and Haochen
Zhang, the former a blind pianist who became quite popular because
of this competition. Yeol Eum Son was awarded second prize,
and no third prize was given. A number of additional cash prizes
were given, and interestingly, the Internet Voter Award went
to Mariangela Vacatello, who won no official prizes. Performances
from the competition were streamed on the web.
This is a very moving film, which has hints of a reality show,
and which shows the trials and tribulations of these excellent
young musicians as they face the public and their judges. It’s
a shame that you know who won when you watch – their three photos
are on the cover of the DVD. It would have been more interesting
to have the same suspense as the musicians and the audience
at the time of the contest. Nevertheless, I found myself rooting
for different musicians, and not only those who won, because
there were so many good pianists.
The bonus feature included with the documentary is 48 minutes
of solo performances by the medal winners. Given that during
the documentary only short bits are shown, it is nice to see
and hear these performers at greater length.
Kirk McElhearn
Director: Peter Rosen 
Sound
format: PCM stereo (documentary); Dolby Digital 5.1; DTS 5.1 