Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Blog: Day 4 of Finals – Saturday 7 June
7 June 2009, Fort Worth, Texas
Nobuyuki Tsujii performing Rachmaninoff's Second ConcertoCredit: Altré Media
Yeol Eum Son performing the Prokofiev Concerto no.2 in G minor op.16Credit: Altré Media
Mariangela Vacatello performing the Prokofiev Concerto no.3 in C major op.26Credit: Altré Media
The penultimate day of the finals comprised an afternoon and an evening concert, allowing the audience to hear all six finalists perform in one day. The afternoon concert began with this year’s youngest contestant, Zhang, performing Brahms’ Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel op.24 and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, which he dispatched with his customary faultless technical precision and assurance. Zhang has a rather serious and precise artistic temperament, and this translated more successfully to the Brahms, which had moments of real beauty. Gaspard is an altogether different kettle of fish, and while Zhang negotiated the technical demands of the work with consummate ease, it was a rather obedient reading. All the gestures were there, and every marking was impeccably observed, but the work’s characterization and otherworldly subtext eluded him.
Yeol Eum Son here concluded her three-day finals marathon with Prokofiev’s Second Concerto. Of all the finals candidates, Son is the only one to have really put her stamp on a concerto – as she did here with the Prokofiev. The Second is most technically demanding and musically outlandish of Prokofiev’s concertos, and Son demonstrated that she had the energy, tenacity and dynamism to negotiate its colossal four-movement architecture magnificently. This music is not for the faint-hearted – the terrain is extreme, the temperament darkly wild and catastrophic, the atmosphere barbaric and full of menace. Son played dangerously - teetering on the knife-edge between control and wild destruction, yet she never lost the plot. She kept control whilst creating the illusion of being on the brink of losing it, and all the while maintaining constant communicating with conductor and orchestra. She karate chopped her way through the audacious five-minute long first movement cadenza like a thing possessed, yet never was her playing affected or self-indulgent.
Nobuyuki Tsujii, who performed Chopin’s First Concerto on Thursday, here gave a sensitive and thoughtful reading of Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto. He recovered admirably from the temporary loss of cohesion between pianist and orchestra at the beginning of the piece to deliver a performance that was admirable and at times extremely moving. Tsujii’s blindness compels him to play with his hands close to the keys, and this restriction of physical movement unfortunately has an impact on his sound, which is rather small. Often his playing was submerged within the orchestra, and climactic moments never fully bloomed. He was far better suited to the Adagio sostenuto, which was very beautiful and moving, but in the finale his presence receded again. Nevertheless, this was an emotionally charged and engaging performance and deserving of the standing ovation.
The evening concert opened with Di Wu’s recital of Bach’s Toccata in F sharp minor BWV910, Schoenberg’s Klavierstucke op.11 and Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit. The Bach was beautifully etched; the Klavierstucke – not the easiest piece to understand and communicate to an audience – engrossing. Wu is an intense and intelligent player, and her programme was perhaps designed to demonstrate an ability to get inside the sound worlds of widely varied repertoire. This worked well with the Bach and Schoenberg, but Gaspard is an ambitious piece for such a young pianist to tackle, and as with Zhang I felt that while the notes were all there, it was the characterization and the real understanding of the work that that was lacking.
There can have been few middle of the road responses to Bozhanov’s performance of the Rachmaninoff Second Concerto this evening. His performances in the preliminary and semifinal rounds had been widely praised, and many tipped him as a favourite to win the competition. Watching him perform the Rachmaninoff Second, I found myself wondering whether the pressure of competing in such a high profile competition is starting to take its toll on his playing. If his finals recital rather went off the rails at times, his performance of the Rachmaninoff Second lost the plot entirely. Bozhanov has polarized opinion from the outset of this competition; for some tonight’s performance was flamboyant, dangerous, inspired, energizing, beautiful; for others it was erratic, self-indulgent at the music’s expense, messy, undisciplined and immature. I’m afraid I found myself in the second camp. He may still be the competition’s most compelling personality, but with this performance he took things too close to the edge for my tastes.
Vacatello is a pianist who has gone from strength to strength throughout these finals. Here she launched into a hair-raisingly high-octane performance of Prokofiev’s Third Concerto, negotiating the work’s devilish acrobatics with aplomb, maintaining a relentless forward momentum throughout and all the while maintaining dialogue with the orchestra. The reticence that had marked her recital a few nights back had here completely evaporated. The problem with her performance – and this was also the case with her recital – was that she has a tendency to rush, and occasionally she raced ahead of the orchestra. That aside, she had all the intensity of focus, the magnificent technique and the seriousness of purpose to make this a captivating performance.
For me, then, Vacatello and Son are the most mature and interesting players. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings – the final day of the finals.
Recordings of four of the competitors from this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition can be found on our Downloads page. Simply go click on the Features and Reviews tab, then select the Downloads option.
Chloe Cutts
