There ought to have been six medals in Forth Value, Texas. However there might be solely three, one every of gold, silver and bronze, because the Seventeenth Van Cliburn Worldwide Piano Competitors got here to a hard-fought conclusion Saturday within the Bass Efficiency Corridor.
Gold went to Aristo Sham, 29, a personable and articulate Hong Kong native with a penchant for critical repertoire and distinctive wardrobe. He complemented an excellent Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 on Tuesday with a note-perfect account on Friday of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2. It says one thing about his assurance on stage that he gained the $2,500 USD viewers award (culled from a web based voter pool of greater than 9,000) in addition to the gold medal, which is value $100,000 USD in money alone.
A bracing efficiency of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata within the quarterfinal spherical certainly helped propel him to victory. At a post-announcement press convention, Sham admitted to a keenness for “constructed” music whereas deflecting the suggestion that German repertoire was a particular curiosity. In any case, he identified, his semifinal spherical was all-Russian.
The silver medallist (US$50,000) was Vitaly Starikov, 30, a considerate resident of New Haven, Connecticut and graduate of the Moscow Conservatory who holds Russian and Israeli passports. His exceptional exploit was to match the ferociously troublesome Piano Concerto No. 2 of Bartók with Schumann’s inward-looking Piano Concerto.
Taking the bronze (US$25,000) was the soft-spoken American Evren Ozel, 26, whose compare-and-contrast pairing was of Tchaikovsky’s grandiose Piano Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven’s poetic Piano Concerto No. 4. Few would deny that his refined model was higher suited to the latter.
To The Last Last Spherical
Every of the finalists was required to play twice with the Fort Value Symphony Orchestra beneath the baton of Marin Alsop. The 28-year-old Canadian Carter Johnson (in actual fact a twin Canada-U.S. citizen) acquired $10,000 USD as a non-medal-winning finalist, as did the Moscow Conservatory-trained American Angel Stanislav Wang, 22, and one other Moscow alum, Philipp Lynov, 26.
Canada was additionally represented within the Awards Ceremony by Alice Burla, 28, who gained a $4,000 USD jury discretionary award, together with the 26-year-old German, Jonas Aumiller, and Mikhail Kambarov, 24, of Russia. Burla, eradicated within the quarterfinals, was the lone lady to win a prize.
It has not gone unnoticed that solely 4 of the 28 rivals who began the Cliburn course of again on Might 21 had been feminine. Jacques Marquis, the Canadian president and CEO of the Texas competitors, asks us to do not forget that 5 of the 9 pianists comprising the jury had been girls.
Different notable prizewinners included Yangrui Cai, 24, of China, who earned $5,000 USD for the very best efficiency of Rachtime, the necessary work composed by jury member (and one-time Montrealer) Gabriela Montero. It is a vital victory contemplating that every one the rivals needed to play it. Ozel gained an additional $5,000 USD for greatest efficiency of a Mozart concerto. He most likely helped his possibilities by writing his personal cadenzas.
“No security internet, no loopy virtuosity, very clear instrumentation, no place to cover, all about voicing, phrasing and the music,” Marquis stated of the semifinal Mozart spherical, which changed the chamber-music spherical in 2022. “That’s why we determined to make it necessary for everybody.” Carlos Miguel Prieto was the conductor.
The final of 4 remaining classes, on Saturday, appeared to seal a medal end for Lynov, who gave an authoritative efficiency of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. A subdued opening left loads of runway for this serious-minded Russian to succeed in a monumental climax within the first-movement cadenza. Semiquavers galloped within the madcap second motion and the glissandi of the third had been actual. Moonlight within the finale provided respite from all of the turbulence. Lynov was in a sombre temper at a post-finals occasion within the central Fort Value public area referred to as Sundance Sq.. When requested whether or not his competitors profession would proceed, he stated, “Sadly, sure.”
Johnson selected Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand as his second providing, producing a extra coherent sonority with one hand than he had Wednesday (in Prokofiev) with two. All the things went nicely for this pure communicator, a boyish-looking father of two.
“I don’t know a lot Ravel,” a member of the viewers was overheard to say at intermission. “I do know the Bolero. However I need to hear this once more.”
Having carried out Bartók 2 and lived to inform the story, Starikov turned to Schumann. An array of tempo modifications (fastidiously adopted by Alsop) introduced you into the composer’s interior orbit, maybe with out supplying you with sufficient causes to remain. The sequence with the cellos within the Intermezzo was on the sluggish facet. However Starikov’s strategy was definitely private.
“Schumann may be very particular to me,” he stated at a meet-the-press gathering on Tuesday. “It doesn’t appear to be such a technically demanding piece, however this makes is tougher. You can’t simply play the notes.”
Friday featured a trio of performances differing in form however united by excessive accomplishment. Ozel’s lyrical strategy, which had bordered on nonchalance in Tchaikovsky, was nicely tailored to the Beethoven. The outer actions had been songful and the adversarial rhetoric of the Andante con moto was properly captured. Attention-grabbing that the in any other case well-behaved viewers couldn’t resist the temptation to applaud the primary motion.
Subsequent got here Wang in Rachmaninoff’s arch-familiar Piano Concerto No. 3. A brown belt in Tae Kwon Do who has studied ballet, this pianist projected the music boldly however by no means on the expense of dreamy romance. Figuration was admirably clear and rubato sounded pure. Wang was instructed by his grandfather (on the maternal Russian facet) that “Rach 3” represented “the true sound of the Russian soul.” He clearly took the remark to coronary heart.
Too Clear Minimize?
Sham closed the Friday live performance with Brahms. A couple of on-line commentators have censured the efficiency as too clear reduce however it’s exhausting to search out fault with the faultless. Educated within the U.Okay. and at Harvard, the place he majored in economics, this pianist combines impeccable method with a relaxed private model.
He is likely to be good medication for troubled instances.
“On the finish of second motion,” Sham stated of the Mendelssohn, “there’s this overwhelming feeling that it doesn’t matter what occurs on the planet, all the things might be OK.” One can at all times hope.
No worldwide competitors can be full with out disputes over the outcomes. For some listeners the early elimination of Magdalene Ho, a Malaysian, was not a great factor. The Montreal pianist Dominique Morel, in Fort Value to evaluate prospects, regretted the disappearance of Cai.
With out having adopted each spherical exhaustively, I harbour a keenness for Aumiller, who within the semifinals performed his personal transcription of Liszt’s tone poem Les Préludes — a tribute each to his bravado and the Cliburn coverage of permitting huge latitude in programming. Liszt would have cherished it.
If there had been an award for sartorial creativity it could most likely have gone to Sham, who wore a light-weight blue swimsuit and checkered socks for Mendelssohn and a tuxedo jacket and darkish purple socks for Brahms. “It’s a part of my inventive persona,” the pianist says.
“Aristo” is pronounced ar-ISS-toe, though the pianist additionally solutions to ar-EES-toe and AR-iss-toe.
“The story behind the origin of my title is definitely fairly boring,” he stated. “My mom discovered it in a ebook of child names.
“It’s Greek for ‘greatest.’”
- You could find extra details about the winners [HERE]. All rounds can be found to look at on the Van Cliburn YouTube channel.
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Arthur Kaptainis was classical music critic of the Montreal Gazette from 1986 to 2022 and wrote for the Nationwide Submit from 2010 to 2016. His articles seem in Classical Voice North America and Gramophone in addition to Ludwig Van. Arthur holds an MA in musicology from the College of Toronto. He’s president of the Music Critics Affiliation of North America.