Speaking of hateful critics:The most horrible & cruel review I have ever seen was in the Chron.
I think my thread hijack of Led Zep deserves a new thread.
Alexei Sultanov of Uzbeckistan won the Van Cliburn Piano Competition in Fort Worth when he was NINETEEN years old in 1989.
He was the most powerful and amazing pianist I have ever seen.
And I've seen Horacio Gutierrez and Arthur Rubinstein live.
I saw Alexei play a recital in Houston about two years after he won the Van Cliburn competition. I met him after the recital and shook his hand. He did not know much English. All I could say, over and over, was, "Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine".
The stupid critic at the Chron, Carl Cunningham, called him "Tarzan of Uzbekistan". Horrendously insulting. Mr. Sultanov was about five foot three, and extremely powerful and solid and muscular. He was the closest thing to a piano playing machine that will ever walk this Earth.
He was also on David Letterman's show and they insulted him by having him play and then making fun of him. Paul Schafer should have kissed this man's feet!!! I wanted to cry after I saw David and Paul making fun of him and not listening to him. He's playing Prokofiev and they're making fun of him and he has no idea because he doesn't speak English??? Absolutely shameful.
This is Alexei Sultanov playing the Mephisto Waltz at the 1989 Van Cliburn Competition with a BROKEN STRING!!!!!!
LISTEN to this and tell me that is NOT an ultimate genius!!
And Carl Cunningham had the balls to insult this fine young genius. Unfortunately, he had a couple of strokes and died very young at the age of 35. He lived from 1969 to 2005. I think he had so much physical energy he literally burned out.
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