don't shoot the pianist
he is doing the best he can

I’m usually the last person to notice something like this, but … does the Hamamatsu have some sort of dress code I don’t know about?

I mean, what gives? Is this supposed to be a piano competition or a funeral?

Gold medal: e.a. Nobuyuki Tsujii (Japan) and Zhang Haochen (China)
Silver medal: Son Yeol Eum (Korea)
Crystal award: n.p.

Finalists: Evgeni Bozhanov (Bulgaria)
        Mariangela Vacatello (Italy)
        Wu Di (China)

I have to say that I suspected the tie as soon as I saw two silver trophies on the table. The no prize for the crystal confirmed my suspicions (the crystal is only to be awarded if there is a single gold medalist and a single silver medalist).

The jury had choices ranging from the eccentric—Bozhanov, who imposed his personality onto the music to the point where he reportedly incensed maestro James Conlon with his “with me or against me” attitude in the concerti—to the conservative: pick the pianist who didn’t miss more than a handful of notes during the entire competition. The selection of Zhang—who, at the ripe old age of nineteen years and four days, becomes the youngest gold medalist in Cliburn history—falls solidly on the latter end of that scale.

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