Live now 
The cuntestant that’s playing now wisely avoids everything above mezzoforte. The 1840 Erard sounds pretty sheeyat in the higher register tbh.
Mein gott… The guy who’s playing now just preluded Op.25#5!
Thanks, I’ll only be able to listen for another 7 minutes but if it’s still on this afternoon this will be great.
A prelude in pilgrim-era 
style nonetheless. He starts off like Andreas Staier would, with just some arpeggio playing then introduces a short recitative that flows into a bunch of humming monks tending their rose garden.
Is Wim Winters competing, playing the authentic tempos at half speed? 
Uhm, precisely what I meant to say. 
I kinda liked what I heard of him though. Diminutive and not very defined, but I thought it worked wonderfully on these instruments. The following guy on the other hand was clearly a pianist, rather than a fortepianist. Very French actually, clear and precise, but not very interesting musically from what I heard.
:D:D
I bet he’ll show up at the end here to show everyone how they should have played.
Uhm, if anyone’s watching and saw the current lady from the beginning, what’s the piece she’s playing now?
haaha zum extremly random chop POLOz (op 71)
Was it though?? Maybe some MS version or similar.
Man, I’m really enjoying this! It makes you see the pieces in a whole different light, where different rules apply to the playing of them. As always with the Chopin competition it’s excellently recorded as well.
Another session is ongoing now, although again I only have about 7 minutes to watch it.
Hehe, this explains that mysterious Polonaise - turns out it was by Maria Szymanowska, and not Chopin. The current girl plays the same piece now.
that prelude to 25-5 was just lovely
had no idea this was taking place, thanks for the heads up!
I had to multitask a lot while listening to this today, but judging by the impression from the bits I did hear Ablogin was far and away my favourite. Playing like that would never work on a piano in a concert hall, but I think he nailed what separates the fortepiano from its larger sibling. His performance was intimate, creative and imaginative, and made me understand a thing or two about the music I never have from hearing it on a piano (in the Polonaise, specifically). The others I listened to weren’t bad either, but not particularly interesting artistically, and for the most part they just took a piano performance and played it on a fortepiano. Which you can do, of course, but that way you’ll always just wish they had used a grown up Stoneweg instead. What really caught my interest here was that Ablogin showed quite convincingly what a modern Stoneweg is not particularly well suited to do, and that Chopin’s early works - at least - can benefit from those qualities.
So thumbs up here! I’ll definitely keep an eye on this, and hope more people like the Russian show up during its course.
I couldn’t follow this today, but you can definitely glean new insights into Chopin’s music when you hear it played on a fortepiano. In fact, after I heard Edna Stern’s Chopin disc on an 1840s Pleyel, I came to think that Chopin really was composing for his instrument, not some future instrument that hadn’t been developed yet (like Liszt). I even started to think that the Steinway bass was too much for this music. However, the fortepiano really doesn’t work as a concert instrument, so I quickly got used to hearing this music on the piano again.
Yeah, that’s exactly the insight I’ve been getting today as well. It’s a whole different colourspace, and you can’t rely on dynamics and extravagance, as it were, to the same degree to create your interpretation - which means you’ll get something quite different out from the music than you’re used to from pianists and Steinways. With Liszt and Beethoven it would just sound insufficient, but how right it felt in Chopin!
Well, if these can be called fortepianos. I suppose it’s actually some hybrid. But they definitely don’t sound and function like modern instruments.
After spending the past couple of months on a fortepiano (albeit a Mozart era piano)
1 - It’s such a temperamental fucker.
2 - I know what other instruments feel like playing with a shit pianist who swamps them. I wanted to break it to get more sound but it don’t happen.
3 - It works amazingly well for some rep (the start of doppelganger is positively evil without doing a thing).
4 - It seems to work with blocks of colour. Basically letting each register do it’s own thing.
That’s my Noob thoughts. There are 2 fp specialists in Oz, trying to make it interstate to have a lesson.
I’ll be interested to hear sounds.
DA FUCKKKKKKK?!??!
ahahahah da zepp juz heard a random BAL4 from diz broadcazt
n daiiiiiim
diz epic zong zoundz GHEY AZ FUCK wizout da inzane bazz rape effectz of a modern inztrument 
Is one of those Lancaster?