The big dogs weren’t hunting yet on this week’s Piano no Mori, so it was almost entirely a buildup episode.  Indeed, we only hear two pianists, neither among the more prominently featured in the series so far.  One thing I found notable was that the Russian (or possibly Ukrainian) entrant Olyesa Yuschenko played a Shigeru Kawai, the magnificent pinnacle of Japanese handmade piano manufacture, which as far as I know isn’t even in the Chopin Competition’s allowable rota (which I thought was Steinway, Yamaha and Fazioli – the last of which has yet to appear in the anime).

Yuschenko is also notable because she’s the first to play Chopin’s Concerto #2, which Pang Wei also plans to win with.  If one accepts that orchestration was not Chopin’s greatest strength – and frankly I don’t see how one can not – then the reasons one might prefer the more intimate, restrained #2 become more logical.  It simply sounds more like Chopin to me, in a good way, whereas the #1 has always sounded a bit muddled and overeager. Yuschenko won’t win of course, as she’s strictly chum and here to introduce the piece before Pang plays it.  But it’s interesting to hear it played on the Kawai, with its warm tone and almost impossible dynamic range, nonetheless.

Speaking of Pang, the halls are abuzz with the sensationalist piece the sleazy tabloid reporter has written about him and passed off as an official program.  Given that, it’s hardly a surprise that she and her assistant were arrested, though functionally speaking she’s really nothing more than a narrative straw man.  It certainly represents another challenge to Pang’s concentration if he finds out about it (which I assume he will), which has been under full assault the last couple of episodes.

As for Kai and Shuuhei, we’re pretty munch in full holdover mode from last week, with Shuuhei strictly caddying for Kai at this point.  The more interesting moments involve Youichirou, who gives his son a lecture on why Kai can’t win – some of which is bogus and some of which makes sense.  The question of whether Kai, at 17, could win the Chopin Competition is an interesting one on a couple of levels.  There’s the matter of whether the judges would see fit to let a 17 year-old (and one not coached by a heavyweight) win – a legit concern.  But what Youichirou says about a pianist’s “song” and how it reflects their age and life experience isn’t totally without merit.

I know we’re supposed to make much of the meeting of Youichirou and Ajino, but this kind of falls flat for me for a couple of reasons.  First of all I’ve never much liked Ajino to be honest – he’s quietly smug.  As well, Youichirou is so comically insecure about Ajino that any notion of rivalry between them just doesn’t pack much weight.  At least Kai told Youichirou that he used to attend his Christmas concerts, but that’s the sort of half-gnawed bone that’s pretty much all the mangaka every tosses an Amamiya man.  At this point it’s all treading water – Piano no Mori is really only about two people, Kai and Pang Wei, and while there are other competitors to hear from those two performances are the ones that actually matter.