Memorial Ceremony 2007

In Japan, faithful supporters of Alexei Sultanov hold an annual memorial ceremony for him. This year, we had that on Sept 2nd in Shibuya, Tokyo.

At the beginning of the party, we had a memorial cake for him, which Midori-san brought. This is fantastic!



As you can see, this cake express the gold medal of Van Cliburn piano competition.



We had a toast with oriental tea. (in Japanese, we say it as "Kanpai!")



Next, Yusuke played "The Star-Spangled Banner" to cerebrate Alexei! (Actually, he also played Chopin's Ballade No.4 with his very respect to Alexei)



Then one of the attendee sang "When you wish upon a star". It was so beautiful! We are sure that Alexei would also love that jazzy-arranged performance!



After the song, Kazuko-san's lovely daughter played "America the beautiful" in flute.



Finally we listened lots of Alexei's performance, and remembered his genius again!
It was such a great moment for us to share the memories. Each attendee has his or her original memory with Alexei.



One more thing, this is a Kazuko-san's masterpiece, a painting of Alexei and Dace. It is soooooooooooooooo beautiful!



After the ceremony, we went to Japanese bar(which is called as "Izakaya") and continulusly talked and talked and talked about Alexei...

Thank you very much for Alexei, Dace, Japanese fans and all the person who loves magic piano power of Alexei Sultanov!

Yusuke

Alexei Sultanov on Chicago Tribune

If you have not had a chance to see this great article, take a look at the following web site and enjoy movies, phots, and articles. You can find lots of his movies and photos as well as many detailed description about his life.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/piano

The memory of Alexei Sultanov

Today, I happened to find another blog entry which is about Alexei Sultanov.

http://spaces.msn.com/members/klaviercindy/Blog/cns!1pfecDroigdJgKvYzyxWqjjg!292.entry

This is written in German and unfortunately, I can not understand. I tried to use Altavista's translation service and almost understand now. It appears me that she mentioned about the conversation with her teacher.

She also create a photo page of him. Thank you very much.

On Memory of Alexei Sultanov

I found on the internet that there is another blog page which is written both of Chinese and English.

http://thelma0724.blogspot.com/2005/08/on-memory-of-alexei-sultanov.html

There is a kind message for him. You can read it in English. Just please take a look at it. There are a lot of people who remember him.

Alexei Sultanov had passed away.

In this blog page, the author Yoshiko-san mentioned about this loss.

http://pogo-wao.cocolog-nifty.com/ivo_at_the_ivories/2005/07/post_1cb8.html

When she first met with Alexei, it was in Feburary, 1991. She was at a concert of him. She knew Mr.Sultanov because her respecting pianist, Pogorelich mentioned about Mr.Sultanov at some interview. Pogorelich started to hold a music festival since 1989, and one of the guest pianist at the first festival was Mr.Sultanov. Pogorelich praised Mr.Sultanov that his performance was great and the concert was successful.

Yoshiko-san remembers his performance of Beethoven's appasionata. He was just around 20 years old at that time, but he plyed it with exclusive energy. He was not a kind of big person, but his performance was overwhelming.

She continues her entry with introducing how Alexei got ill, worked on rehabilitation, and come back with playing with his right hand. She also mentioned about his wife's devotion, becoming a member of U.S. citizen, and "Live in Riga". She finished her entry with quoting Mrs.Sultanov's touching word "Never Give Up".

Sultanov

In this blog page, Chopiana-san wrote her impression on Mr.Sultanov.

http://toccatina.blog15.fc2.com/blog-entry-3.html

It is her great sorry to lose this young pianist. She used to be a fan of him when he played at Chopin Competition. She tried to imitate his performance especially Chopin's Ballade No.4. It appeared her the piece was quite difficult to understand, but through his performance she felt the piece much closer.
Mr.Sultanov had good modern inspiration and his episode of taekwondo was very close to us. However, she thinks these modern inspiration and the style close to the audience could not be understood by juries of competition.
He was always her interest. She believed that he must be an good old master if he could live more...

This author thinks that she should play and practice the piano while she could play.

Alexei Sultanov has passed away.

In this diary page, the author hrkntr-san wrote this news with comparing some of the recordings of Rachmaninov's Piano concerto No.2 of London symphony orchestra.

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/hrkntr/20050708

The author says Rachmaninov's piano sonata is much better than piano concerto as he listened to Mr.Sultanov's recording. While listening to these discs, the author happened to look into Mr.Sultanov's condition and found that he had passed away just while ago. It was a real shock for him to know this sad news. The author just had an image for him that he is sort of a naughty boy. So this news, Mr.Sultanov fought against terrible illness for a long year and finally passed away at the age of 35, made the author shocked. He felt some strange fatality that this author happened to buy his CD on the day of his memorial ceremony, 5th June.
The author says that he could not still understand what Mr.Sultanov tried to express on his Rachmaninov's piano concerto, but he mentionted that he will try to listen again with serious ears.

Unbeliavable...

There is also an another blog entry in the following page.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/chamakan/e/177730a73b62cdf6efca0bd0293758ca

Recently we often have a chance to see the pianist Izumi Tateno on Japanese medias. He is a pianist who also had stroke and had paralysis on his right hand, but came back as a pianist using his left hand. When this author hear about the news of Izumi Tateno, she can not help remembering the other pianist, of course Alexei Sultanov.

When she thinks about Alexei Sultanov, she first remember about Beethoven's Apaasionate Sonata which Mr.Sultanov played in Japan, 1996. At the final movement, she was so surprised because he started it in extremely fast tempo. She was wondering if Mr.Sultanov could reach the goal with starting such fast tempo, but he did without applying the brake. If she find the word something means for the performance, it must be "demoniac(in Japanese way)", but anyway it is the Sultanov's style.

The contrast was in his "Fantasie Impromptu" of Chopin. When a pianist play this piece, it is a big probrem for them which to choose the edition. But that was nothing to Mr.Sultanov because he made his own style, that is to say, choosing edition is not such important issue for him.
When he played this piece, the speed is not so fast, the sound is not so strong. Not so fast, not so strong, she thinks Chopin must be delighted with this interpretation. There are so many pianist in the world who played this piece, but this blog author said she loves Mr.Sultanov's.

At the Chopin competition in 1995, he got a second prize as the highest rank. She was in Warsaw at that time as an audience. It was her dream to be at Chopin Competition for these 10 years since she was a junior-high student. So that was a memorable trip for her, and Mr.Sultanov was the big memory of that.

She heard a recording of Rachmaninov's piano concerto No.2 performed by Alexei Sultanov, and always wanted to listen at a concert.

In the meantime, she happened to know Mr.Sultanov's illness four years ago.

It was her pleasure to know that Mr.Sultanov started playing the piano again with his right hand. It is a touching story that his wife plays his left hand part. And seeing the comeback of Izumi Tateno, she believed that Mr.Sultanov must come back to Japan in some day...

Sultanov

Mr.Sultanov is also mentioned in this blog.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/matuszynski/e/a6ee70bb5d28295d65b154909e64dfb0

This author, Matuszynska-san said Alexei Sultanov is not always her favorite for Chopin or Rachmaninov, but she knew that it is sure that Alexei Sultanov is a great pianist. In many ways, he is really sincerely a great musician.

Mr.Sultanov once had a stroke few years ago, and was in the middle of tough and intensive rehabilitation. It is a heart-wretching story for the author to imagine Mr.Sultanov's internal struggle which must be impossible to express in words. For a musician, performing music itself is equal to "living", like breathing, walking and laughing. This means that being unable to play, or losing the means of playing music is virtually an issue to losing some organs which need to have to live. So is that possible to fully recover from these situation?
It could be impossible to fully recover from this situation. It is sometimes very cruel to live in the real world. We must live on the earth while we have the life.

Mr.Sultanov attracts his audience with perfect technique and strong touch. He must want to play more, and live more. But everybody remeber his brave life with fighting against the hardest test in the world. It is also this author's bitterness to think about his wife and parents...

Favorite Chopin

This author, jumper-san mentioned about some recommendable recordings.

http://ameblo.jp/jumper-higher/entry-10002683148.html

This entry recommends Mr.Sultanov's Nocturne No.13 of Chopin as it says we might have a nosebleed with excitement. This Nocturne is one of the track of "Fantasie Impromptu" which is a live recording of his tour in Japan. It is said that Nocturne No.2 is famous with excellent melody, but No.13 is also great. This author loves No.13 and tried to listened lots of recordings, and found the greatest one is Mr.Sultanov's performance. This performance is really extremely great!

The theme starts quietly, then the music changes like a choral in church. After the part, the variation of theme starts like a thunderstorm.

This author mentioned that Mr.Sultanov's performance is extremely great at this variation.

This author tried to practice this piece and finally played at a concert, although it could not be like Mr.Sultanov's performance.
At the end of this entry, the author finished his article with saying "There are lots of recordings of Nocturne, but the most recommendable one is Alexei Sultanov's".

bad news

This blog author also reported this bad news on his blog.

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ffchopin18101849/6291796.html

He had believed Mr.Sultanov's full recovery and coming back as a pianist. He recommended everybody especially who had never listened to his music should try the CD "Live in Riga". This CD is created by Japanese supporters of him.

May his soul rest in peace.

Sultanov

At this Japanese blog site, there is also a small entry for reporting this lost.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/yo_ho_absinthe/archives/27257604.html

It was very surprising to know this sudden news that the pianist Alexei Sultanov had passed away on 30th, June.
Mr.Sultanov was not always this author's favorite, but the author appreciate his greatness and mentioned it is big sadness to lose these young and excellent pianist.

May his soul rest in peace.

Memories of Alexei

This is not a entry to introduce Japanese blog page. I found a new page on Alexei's official web page. As you can see in this page, a lot of people in the world are writing about their own memory of Alexei.
http://alexeisultanov.free.fr/memories

I myself have not still attended on this project, but I must write it soon. Please try to write your own memory to Dace, and share all the greatness of Alexei all over the world.

There are still a lot of entries who are very close to him, like Mr and Mrs. Wilcox, Beverly, Dr. Kramer, and so on. It is also a very good way to read it to understand Alexei Sultanov more.


I may add that 7th August is a birthday of Alexei. I hope he could have a very happy birthday up there.

As a memorial to Alexei Sultanov

Guchinsky-san, who is a pianist studying in Paris, wrote his sorrow on his blog.

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/guchinsky/diary/200507050002/

At first he mentioned that he really respect this pianist, Alexei Sultanov. Mr. Sultanov was just 35 year old. It's too early to go...

In Japan there was a plan to release his CD, which Dace Sultanov kindly gave us. And with a lot of people's help, the CD was finally avaibable on the market. This is a live recording in Riga including Liszt's piano sonata and pieces of Horowitz's transcription. Guchinsky-san also attended this project. While he was in the project, he had chances to see lots of his pictures, know lots of episode which Mrs. Sultanov provided us. Throughout this project, he felt Mr.Sultanov much closer than before. So he thinks that it must be good to be able to release the CD in the time he was alive. This CD really expresses the greatness of Mr.Sultanov and Guchinsky-san hopes this CD would be a legendary CD.

He first got to know Mr.Sultanov's performance when he won at Van Cliburn. Guchinsky-san listened to his Chopin's piano sonata on the radio. And fortunately, he could be also at some of the concerts in Japan.
The speciality of his performance is making the audience addicted to his music. His energy to try to cross the limitation which he showed on his performance , must be the same when he fought against the illness. It is his sincere sorry that the toughness Mr.Sultanov had after he got the illness, he can not play the piano even though he wanted.
Since Guchinsky-san is a pinist, he can not help being grateful for the issue that he is healthy and can play the piano. Ane let's send cards to his family!

Proceeding...

A well know pianist internationally, Urara Sasaki described about his loss in her blog.

http://urarablog.exblog.jp/2224064/

This entry basically mentioned about her care as a pianist. She is a very diligent pianist, and sometimes she practice the piano too much to hurt her arm.
However, she found how she is happy that she can live and play the piano to hear the news the Alexei had passed away. She now found that there are some people who can not live, who can not play the pianist against for their will. We never know this when we are healthy. So she express her great appreciation that she can play as a concert pianist in those great numbers of pianists.
Now Mr.Sultanov can play the piano to his heart's content on heaven. It was really tough for him to fight againt the illness, but now he is free all of these bondage.
With deepest condelence.

Alexei Sultanov

In this blog, ratamu-san described about the news that Alexei Sultanov had passed away.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/ratamu/e/4cb70a2a0cdf62b16adc758742be079d

She mentioned that his career for winning Van Cliburn and award-winning for both of Chopin competition and Tchaikovsky competition, and also the performance style of having arguments

for and against. She had just listend one of his performance on-air and found his personality and unique style.
She feels sorry that it must be terrible for a pianist to have paralysis on his hand.
With deepest condelence.

# The original entry described in Japanese is written in very vague language style, so I am sorry that I can not describe appropriate way in English. Sorry. But I must say thanks to ratamu-san to pick up this topic on her blog. (Yusuke)

Mr.Sultanov has passed away

Maruta-san wrote this sad news on the blog.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/maruta_2005/e/863e4c71d501524a97d02e22b59a07b0

This entry also reports the sadness. Maruta-san has one Rachmaninov CD of Mr.Sultanov. In the article, it is said that this CD is the favorite and it is often listened. Mr.Sultanov was still young at that time, so Maruta-san expected his brilliant future, but Maruta-san soon heard about his illness. In the meantime Mr. Sultanov was so hard on rehabilitation. Maruta-san used to say to him "Hang in there!", but finally heard this sad news...

His 2nd movement of Rachmaninov's Piano Sonata is the favorite. It is a little jazzy and cool. But now Maruta-san is too sad to listen to this CD...

May he rest in peace.

That Sultanov...

This entry is also posted on 3rd July, very early timing in Japan. This person is an amature cellist. Some of Mr.Sultanov's photos are including in the article, so I strongly recommend you access to the following site, even though you do not understand Japanese.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/ya-ya-ma_japan/e/ce7fafb1459983765bfa2c44be170006

In this entry, he mentioned that Alexei Sultanov is not a type of his preference, however he could not help being lost in admiration with his great and brilliant technique.

He thinks it is too young to passed away in age 35. It is such an irony that Mr. Sultanov was so energetic person to play martial arts but finally got paralized unfortunately. He was so shocked to hear the news and devastated.

This person has an experience of hearting his hands and had a time when he could not play the instruments, so he can understand the feeling of Mr.Sultanov, a little.

He once saw him on TV right after the 95's Chopin competition, and still remember the Mr.Sultanov's expression after he heard the result. Because his performance was overwhelming and all the audience were for him. A lot of Japanese fans gather to see him, when he came to Japan. This author also had a chance to go to his concert. The program was two concerto of Chopin and Tchaikovsky. He was with full of energy. He is kind a small person, but his touch is so strong and it was great! It is not a rare issue to play two concertos in a day, but he really enjoyed Alexei's Brillian concertos! The encore was the 3rd movement of Prokofiev's Sonata No.7. It was also great!

Some of his video picture were also impressive. His original passage that use 3rd melody in Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu is exactly the Sultanov style. He snapped the string while playing the Scriabin's Sonata No.5, but he was just natural. He was so impressive.

Hoshi no Alexei

Translating the title into English is a little difficult, so I put the original Japanese title. I think it can be say "The star's Alexei" or "Alexei of/at the star". But I think there is some possibility that this author used the Japanese translated title of the famous book "The little prince/Le petit prince"
Anyway, Today I will introduce you this entry.

http://www.foobar.ne.jp/~gorou/tt-cgi/archives/2005_7_2_153.html

This article was posted on 2nd July, so this person caught this news in the early timing and kindly wrote it on the blog. The author of this blog is not my acquaiace, it is described thatthis person is a Japanese pianist studying in Brussels, Kingdom of Belgium.

In this entry, this person mentioned about Alexei's golden career, about the competition, and illness, nationality. This person had rare chances to listen to Mr. Sultanov's performance, but have remembered that it appears very difficult to play like his Fantasie-Impromptu with adding some notes to make the melody in third.

Too young(2)

Yesterday, I posted this article which reports the comment of Ms. Kiai Nara.

Today, I happend to find the similar entry and found out that the same person is writing. So I must introduce this article again and try to send a trackback to the site. Thank you very much, Ms. Kiai Nara-san.
For your information, she is a very famous pianist in Japan who take an active part in musical world in Europe.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/classicpianist/e/2da00c511f26f4be7536674b595d05b4

She mentioned almost the same thing as she wrote in the previous entry. She said that she saw Mr.Sultanov's performance in Moscow. As she mentioned in the previous entry, she thinks that the preference about his performance is just a small issue and he is really beyond these Preference.