Van Cliburn piano wars

[Don Mannino]

Tom,

Thanks for your posting regarding the competition. I listened to much of it on the Internet, but the sound quality wasn't quite good enough to judge the tone of the instruments (sorta like AM radio, better during soft passages). I could tell, though, that the caliber of the pianists was truly amazing. My wife and I enjoyed many hours of the competition, especially during the first round.

It is a shame that the pianists were not allowed a wide choice of instruments as in past years. Kawai was very dissapointed, of course, to be "locked out" in this way, as many competition contestants have enjoyed  playing the EX piano at other competitions. But we chose to not make a fuss over it - the competition management stated that it didn't want it to be a competition between pianos.  Liz Stevens of the Star Telegram called and spoke to us about the matter, and it seemed that she was looking to dig up a little controversy, but we decided to stay cool and not stir things up.

It seems to me that if the Van Cliburn Foundation wants the contestants to be on even footing, they should just say "this is the piano for the competition," and not offer any choice of pianos at all. If they _are_ interested in giving the pianists a choice of instruments (as they did with the 2 Steinway pianos), then why not allow them the wider choice and allow each manufacturer to place 1 instrument in the competition, as has been the norm at most competitions worldwide?

To quote from the Star Telegram article May 23rd (Peter Goodrich of Steinway was speaking) " 'We think this is good,' he smiled broadly. 'We like this.' "

Don Mannino RPT