Wednesday, December 28, 2005

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

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

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.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

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.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

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.

Monday, August 08, 2005

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.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

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!

Saturday, August 06, 2005

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)

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

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.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

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.

Shock

One of my friend, Satomi-san, wrote about her sadness about this news on her weblog page. She is a student at an university of music and studying the piano. Here is the article.

http://satomida4.exblog.jp/3081505

She mentioned that it was a great shock for her to know this sad news. Alexei was too young to go. He was just 35 years old. She can not believe this fact and can not find if she is sad or got shocked, just paniced. It is deep sadness that she can not listen to his live music again.
She said that she really wanted to listen to Mr. Sultanov's music when he is in his 40's because she believes that 40's is a very good season for a pianist, but listening to Alexei's music when he is 40's just ended up in smoke for her....

Memorial Service for Sultanov

Motoko-san(a.k.a. Fiori-san) as I mentioned repeatedly in this blog, wrote a summary of what is reported in the Start-Telegram article about his Memorial Service in Japanese.

http://fiori.seesaa.net/article/4902624.html

She summarized the article about his Memorial Service. The place, the people who attend the ceremony, what was on the screen, and Van Cliburn's messages are mentioned in the article.


In Japan, there are two CDs, "Fantasie-Impromptu" and "Sultanov plays Chopin" which were available from Japan Arts. Both CDs are now difficult to get but those are definitely great. You still have a possibility to get it if you contact to Japan Arts directly.
She also mentioned that we supporters should buy some of his recordings to be some economical support for Alexei's families.

Finally, the flowers we (including Motoko-san and myself) Japanese fans sent to Dace, were welcomed by Dace and she was so happy with it. Actually the flower was her choice. You can see the photo of the flower.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Too young

A favored Japanese pianist, Kiai Nara, also mentioned about this sad news on her blog. She has a great career on many piano competitions.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/concertpianist_j/archives/27546103.html


At first, she just says TOO YOUNG. Ms. Nara had two chances to listen to Mr.Sultanov's performance. She also knew that his illness, but it was a big surprise and sorrow to hear this sad news...

It is often said that his performance is a matter of preference and tastes, but Ms. Nara thinks that these preference is just a small issue and he is really beyond these Preference. She thinks that he is a great pianist gifted with remarkable talents.

From the day...

Mio-san, I mentioned earlier, wrote another entry 10 days after she heard the news of this sorrow.

http://www.mypress.jp/v2_writers/miochi/story/?story_id=1114179

At first, she wants to do something for Alexei, and add few links of his CD on her weblog.
She wants to attend the memorial campaign which we Japanese are doing, introducing each person's memorial goods related Alexei, however she does not have them near her now because she put them at her parent's house. But two things, the autograph she got on the CD "Sultanov Plays Chopin", and the photos which she took at the autograph session at Tower Record on 5th March, 1999.

At that time, she was just 9th grands student. It is a big issue to a junior-high student to go to a concert, she asked her parents to take her, and fortunately she could be at one of his solo recital held at Tokyo Metropolitan art space on 4th March, 1999.
On that day, she met him, give him folowers, shake hands, have a little conversation, and could listen to his great performance. That was really the happiest moment for her.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Cards

Shiho-san(a.k.a Shipporin-san) as I introduced before, also wrote an article about her writing cards to Dace.

Here is the article with some photos. (So even though you can not read Japanese, I recommend you access to this page to see the beautiful photos)
http://shiporin.exblog.jp/3101122

Even though Shiho-san says she is not good at English, she kindly wrote a card to Dace. The card is very beautiful with Japanese-Style pressed-flower. She used the Internet and her dictionary a lot, and finally did her English composition as good as she can. She hopes that her caring to Dace and Alexei can be understandable to Dace.

The day for Mr.Sultanov's remembrance

This is a blog entry of Miya-san, who is a husband of previously introduced Kassy-san.

As a matter of fact, I went to one concert on 22th March, 1999 with them. Mr.Sultanov played Chopin's piano sonata No.3 at this concert.

http://miyapiano.exblog.jp/116389

He described in his blog that he is just a beginner of the piano. But even though Miya-san is a beginner of the piano, he could easily understand how Mr.Sultanov is great with his great techniques. He mentioned that there are so many pianist who is said to be great, but Alexei Sultanov is the special pianist among them.

Unfortunately, he had rare chances to see Mr.Sultanov's performance on TV, but he hopes medias should broadcast these great performance.

News of Alexei Sultanov's Death

Today, I introduce Shiho-san(a.k.a Shipporin-san) to you. She is a teacher of the piano working in Kyoto prefecture.

http://shiporin.exblog.jp/3057177/

She reported this sad news with Mr.Sultanov's picture, and introduce his career, for example about his win at Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He also let them know about his stroke he had in 2001.

She mentioned that it must be so tough for a pianist to have a paralyzed hand, and have difficulty to play the piano. But she praised Mr.Sultanov that he was so patient to have tough rehabilitation with his dedicated wife. She was happy to hear that Mr.Sultanov had recovered as he could play three hands piano piece with his wife. So this sudden news makes her depressed. Unbeliavable...

She also introduced his last recording "Alexei Sultanov Live in Riga", which is created by Japanese fans, and is available domestic in Japan. In this CD, there are Liszt's Piano sonata and some of Horowitz's transcriptions. She mentioned that Mr.Sultanov played with great energy, vitality and surprising outstanding techniques. This CD is her treasure.

Now he is far from this world, but his music is just beside us, forever and ever.
May his soul rest in piece, and she will continuously listen and watch his performance.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Magic Piano

I am in the middle of introducing all of you the weblog articles written in Japanese, but I must just stop it today, and instead of that, I have to introduce the great web site.
Here is the site.

http://magicpiano.w.interia.pl/

This web site is created by Marta Polanska in Poland. As I mentioned earlier, she is one of the most faithful supporter of him in the world. In this site, there are so many information about him, his career, competition history, links, CDs, and lots more.
Please have a try to access this site, remember the greatness of Alexei, and try to write your own memories about Alexei, which you found while attending his concerts, listening to his recordings, or anything else. You can write it on his guestbook, or just write it in E-mail to Dace.
Thank you for your cooperation.

I will soon continuously update this page.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Deepest sorrow

This is a blog entry of Mio-san. She knew Sultanov when she was just a junior high school student. She wrote this sorrow on her weblog.

http://www.mypress.jp/v2_writers/miochi/story/?story_id=1105690

She loved Alexei Sultanov so much, and can not believe it, does not know how to express her feeling.
She first met Alexei when she was a junior high and this meeting changed her approach toward the piano totally different. She got to know a lot of people because of Alexei's music. ( I guess one of the people might be me)

It is great sorry that he had passed away, since she was delighted to hear the news of his acquiring American nationality and playing 3 hands pieces with his wife, Dace.

Finally, she is encouraging all the Japanese fans to send memorable cards.

Additionaly, she responsed in comment section that it is our mission to talk Alexei's memories, and also to support Dace. His performance was so nice and she was encouraged with his music for many times.

Sad News

This is also a entry of Motoko-san(a.k.a Fiori-san)'s weblog. She reports this sad news on 2th July, in her blog.

http://fiori.seesaa.net/article/4786892.html

At first, she reported this sad news, and mentioned that it hurted so much. Before this sad news, she was in the middle of writing about Alexei on her blog, and wanted to write more and more. As a representative of Japanese fan, she thought she should support him struggling against the disease. She was so shocked and can not still believe and accept this sad news.... He music is alive in her heart forever....

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Alexei Sultanov has passed away

As far as I know, this web site is the first Japanese resource for reporting this sad news.

http://okaka1968.cocolog-nifty.com/1968/2005/07/post_f649.html

This news is based on the report "Pianist dazzled at 1989 Cliburn".
It is a very objective report that he had passed away. His background, illness and the acquisition of American nationality.

He commented as a respond of another person's comment that he had not had a chance to listen to his live music, but he has a favorable impression in his Chopin when he listened in the radio.

He finished his article with offering words for sympathy.

Original Card

Now we have a small campaign that we should send cards to Dace Sultanov. However it is a little difficult to find a card in Japan, because we do not have such a culture in Japan.

Kassy-san, the lady I mentioned in this page a lot and one of my best friend, created a beautiful card and told us the key points of creating those cards in her blog.

http://kassy01.exblog.jp/2219501/

She created a card with Origami crane with Japanese paper. She creates this card with praying for Alexei and his family.

Finally she gave us an advice for creating our own original cards. She mentioned that you should try to see Hallmark's homepage to find a good design if you do not know how to create an original card.

At the end of the article, she said that she listened to Alexei's CD "Sultanov Plays Chopin" at the night before and she was going to listen to his Rachmaninov Concerto on that night.

Memorial to Mr.Sultanov

This is the first entry of Kassy-san's weblog about Mr. Sultanov's passed away.

She was just busy for those days to manage the concert that she is planning. In the meantime, she got to know this sad news and came to write this sad news in her weblog page.

http://kassy01.exblog.jp/2203529/

She mentioned that she must say special thanks to Mr. Sultanov that he gave us a chance to listen those invaluable performance. The rehabilitation must be very tough but she hopes that he can now freely relax.

She kindly mentioned about writing cards to the Sultanovs. She introduced my homepage how to write a card, and also encourage all the fan that she already finished writing and sent it.

She also mentioned about the original CD "Live in Riga" which is available only in Japan.
She finished her article that she was listening to Alexei's CD all day with tears.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Memory of Alexei (3)

This is about a weblog page of my friend, Motoko-san(a.k.a Fiori-san).

Even though she is one of the most sincere Japanese supporter of him, she unfortunately had never had attended his concert. However she has her own treasure.

http://fiori.seesaa.net/article/5139053.html

She has a memorial magazine that his picture is on the front page. She got it at the internet auction. This is a magazine of "Ongaku no tomo( a friend of music) " of May, 1996. In the magazine, there is a small article which reports his concert on 28th March, 1996 at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space. The author of the magazine praises his performance of Scriabin, Rachmaninov, and Beethoven. This author describes in the magazine that "This performance is reaching the end of human being's tether to express music on the piano. Great techniques." This editor also mentioned about his colorful sounds and expression.

Unfortunatelly, Motoko-san did not attend the concert at that night, she knows his performance through his live recordings. So she knows this author's explanation about his Scriabin and Rachmaninov is appropriate.

Motoko-san is talented in English and I guess she will write her memories of Alexei in her own words.

Memory of Alexei (2)

This is the other article of his memories. My friend Kassy-san also wrote about his autographs.

http://kassy01.exblog.jp/2234110/

Actually, I was with her at this concert. Both of us bring a music note of Chopin's piano sonata, and she also got the same autograph. Here is the picture of it.

She mentioned that the Sonata he played on that day was extraordinary, for both of technically and artificially and she was so impressed. She also remembered the another day he played Prokofiev's Piano concerto. On this day, the string was snapped and Alexei could not play encore because the piano was broken, but it was so energetic and touched.

This autograph is the only memorial goods for us except concert bills, so she thinks to preserve it permanently.

Memory of Alexei (1)

In Japan, we are talking about some memorial goods of Alexei using weblog system. They are all written in Japanese. So I will try to introduce all the entries in English here.

The first one is my own entry.
http://ymtokyo.exblog.jp/2082429/

My treasure is his autograph which he did on my music books.
Here is the picture of those autographs.

I got the left one on 4th, March 1999 at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Place when he played Chopin's piano sonata No.3. I play the piano a little, however Chopin's piano sonata is too difficult for me. Anyway this autograph is my treasure forever.
And the right one with "Thanks a lot" is the one I got on 18th March 1999 also at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Place. He played both of Rachmaninov and Prokofiev's No.2 concertos at the same night. He was very kind to add "Thanks a lot" because he knew that I followed him on around Japan on this tour. Those are not only my treasure but also a historical property in the musical world.

He was always very king to have a autograph session after his concert. Hundreds and hundreds of his fan got lined, but he was very kind with smile.

To begin with

I have my own personal weblog page which is for Japanese readers. It is basically written in Japanese. It is my personal page and mention about my daily life, but I added a small article related about Alexei, which entry is a sort of placeholder to trackback articles written in English outside of Japan. This time I just want to introduce the article and use it as a test for trackback.

This is the entry.
Alexei Sultanov has passed away

After I wrote this entry, some people said that I was such a luck person to have a chance to go to his concert for 11 times. But I still regret that I could go to much more concerts if I did my best. Anyway I am very proud of attending this 11 concerts, and those were living in my heart forever. Unforgettable moment.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

About this Weblog

This weblog is created and written by a faithful Japanese supporter of Alexei Sultanov. To begin with, Dace Sultanov, Alexei's devoted partner wants to collect a lot of stories related his memory. In Japan, it is sometimes tough for us to write those memories in English, however we have a good culture to describe each person's opinion using weblog. There are a lot of weblog articles which describes some of his memories, so I just try to introduce those articles, as well as my memories about Alexei Sutlanov.

Alexei Sultanov was loved by supporters all over the world who know the pleasure of music well. He is especially famous in Japan and also in Poland. For a long time, I had just a small community of his fan limited in Japan, but fortunately I met a faithful Polish supporter of Mr. Sultanov, Marta Polanska last year. She is a great supporter of him and I got a lot of good influence, so I would like to say my great thanks before I start this blog.

There are also many Japanese supporters. I will try to introduce them, while I am introducing Japanese article.