Cameras Open Cliburn Competition

Compressing the work of both professional and nonprofessional camera crews who followed the contestants of the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition around for close to three weeks in June, producer-director Peter Rosen has put together a colorful, necessarily fragmented 90-minute documentary on the competition, held, as always, in Fort Worth.

Called “The Cliburn: Playing on the Edge,” it can been seen locally tonight on KCET.

It is an engrossing look and listen focusing mainly on the six (from a field of 30) who eventually became finalists in the competition, following them from their arrival at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport through several social occasions, into the homes of their local host families, through practice and rehearsal sessions, even in some limited sightseeing.

At least eight of the contestants reveal their thoughts, self-doubts and cockeyed optimism in this process of competing. The piano-playing itself--Schubert and Liszt are heard, as well as good chunks of pieces by George Crumb and Lowell Liebermann--is heard in many snippets, most of them long enough to be musically revealing. The cameras also briefly visit the 13 judges, both in and out of their deliberations. Conductor James Conlon, who emphatically led the Fort Worth Symphony in accompanying the six finalists, proves an important figure in the action.

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“The Cliburn: Playing on the Edge” can be seen on KCET, Channel 28, at 9:30 tonight.

Cliburn gold medalist Olga Kern appears in recital at El Camino Center for the Arts, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance, Nov. 9 at 8 p.m. $21-$24. (310) 329-5345.