By Bill Zeeble, KERA reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-594116.mp3
Fort Worth, TX – Bill Zeeble, KERA 90.1 reporter:
The last time anything like this happened was 1989, when Cliburn Gold Medalists Vladimir Viardo, Jose Feghali, Stephen deGroote and Ralph Votapek played for a fundraiser. Van Cliburn Foundation president Richard Rodzinski remembers an obstacle in the way.
Richard Rodzinski, president Van Cliburn Foundation: We wrote the Ian Fleming estate to use the term Gold Fingers and got permission & we had a wonderful concert.
Zeeble: This time the 4 players included, again, Jose Feghali who won the Cliburn in 1985. Then there was 1997 winner Jon Nakamatsu, and co- medalists from 2001, Olga Kern and Stanislav Ioudenitch. They were all here judging the week long, 5th International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, which ended yesterday. That's when these 4 judges sat at two pianos to play music by Gounod, then Sousa. Four strong musical personalities negotiating parts, pace, & punch, can raise tensions, especially among perfectionists, according to Stanislav Ioudenitch.
Stanislav Ioudenitch, pianist: In the beginning we almost fight. But we never played together, 8 hands & different temperament, different sound. In the beginning kind of tension, but it was great, because we wanted to achieve some good results.
Zeeble: Eventually, they worked well together. Kern and Feghali gave their explanation of how they resolved differences.
Olga Kern, Jose Feghali, pianists: With 3 men and only one woman, it works well.
Feghali: Yes you do whatever the woman says. That's the best way.
Seriously. See playing the piano together is one of the hardest forms of chamber music because the attack is so precise that if you're off a split second, then it's off.There's always a time of adjustment.
Zeeble: Sunday's performance was an audience surprise after the Amateur Competition. Initially, Jon Nakamatsu wasn't sure late night rehearsals were a great idea after spending all day judging competitive playing.
Jon Nakamatsu, pianist: You think oh gosh, I have a rehearsal this evening, I can't possibly do anything else. But once it gets going and you're with people you like, it's fun and is a release and that's the best part of it all.
Zeeble: The other best part, was playing. Again Richard Rodzinski.
Rodzinski: Here we are listening to these wonderful gifts that the amateurs have to offer us. And Now it's the judges who are saying thank you and here's our gift back to you .
Zeeble: For KERA 90.1 I'm Bill Zeeble.
Email address - bzeeble@kera.org