The Editor's blog from the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition: Sunday 7 June – last day of the finals
8 June 2009, Fort Worth, Texas
(From left to right): Second Prize winner Yeol Eum Son, and joint-First Prize winners Nobuyuki Tsujii and Haochen ZhangCredit: Altré Media
Last day of the finals. After hearing his earlier performances of Chopin’s First and Rachmaninoff’s Second concertos, I was looking forward to finding out how Tsujii would fare in recital, where his musicianship would be more transparently on display. He chose for his programme Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’, Chopin’s Berceuse op.57 and the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody no.2, and gave musical and assured readings of each, with some moments of real beauty. The ‘Appassionata’ was technically secure, if rather drilled, although the second movement was sensitively handled; the Chopin Berceuse was nicely shaped and developed; and he got into his stride with the Hungarian Rhapsody, which he played with impressive emotional depth, insight and abandon.
Try as one might, it’s impossible to shake off the sense of astonishment that he has learned to play these scores by ear (including the Hammerclavier in the semifinals); but beyond technique Tsujii also displays a kind of innate, natural and unforced talent for the piano. His renditions may lack a true understanding of the music, and a sense of having something individual to say, but this is possibly due to the way that he learns the music: Tsujii used to study Braille music but found it so time-consuming he started learning pieces by listening to recordings. The problem with this is that he is learning the music through someone else’s interpretation; if he is to develop as a musician he will need to find his own way of understanding the music he plays, independent of the interpretation he has heard in order to learn the notes.
Zhang’s performance of Prokofiev’s Second Concerto was nothing short of brilliant. It’s incredible to think of a 19-year-old playing this piece with such maturity, technical ease and calm confidence. This is widely regarded as the composer’s most taxing piano concerto, and yet by the end of the performance he seemed to have barely broken out into a sweat. Every note was there, every detail of the score scrupulously observed, the whole thing perfectly paced and controlled, with an eye constantly focused on the work’s overriding architecture. This was a nigh-on faultless reading, with strong support from the Forth Worth Symphony Orchestra and James Conlon. Zhang is currently studying at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he has three years to go before he graduates. He gave his debut recital at the Shanghai Music Hall at age five, performing all of Bach’s Two-Part Inventions; made his orchestra debut age six, and five years ago performed the complete Chopin Etudes op.25 at the International Chopin Festival in Poland. With this sort of technical facility, and with age and experience, Zhang might turn a faultless reading into an inspired one.
No piano competition is complete without at least one outing of Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto, which here received an airing at the hands of Di Wu. In 2005 Wu failed to advance past the preliminaries of the Van Cliburn Competition; having advanced so far this time round, she appeared absolutely determined to go all the way. There was plenty to like about this performance – it had flair, power, beauty and there was plenty of Russianesque struggle and angst in her rendition. She also has a superb technique, but her rendition lacked cohesion and the narrative felt disjointed, with little sense of overall architectural narrative. There were also a couple of occasions when pianist and orchestra were out of sync with one another. The audience didn’t seem to mind any of this, and rewarded Wu with a standing ovation.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WINNERS
From 225 applications, 157 worldwide screenings, 71 performances, there can only be one winner – or rather two. The jury voting procedure dictates that at least one gold medal must be awarded. Thereafter, any combination of gold and silver medals may be awarded up to a total of three medals. A single crystal award will only be awarded if only one gold and one silver are awarded. When the time came for Van Cliburn to announce who had won what, the first big surprise was the Vacatello did not receive a medal: she, Wu and Bozhanov were not placed; although Vacatello did win the audience vote (Tsujii came a close second, Son third). The second big surprise was the announcement that no crystal prize (third place) was to be awarded. This meant one of two things: two golds and a silver, or two silvers and a gold. The announcement that Son had won silver and Tsujii and Zhang tied first-place gold has to be one of the most controversial outcomes of any Cliburn competition, and will no doubt be debated for a long time to come. This is the first year that the medals have all gone to Asians, and the first to award first prize to a blind pianist (although Tsujii is not the first blind pianist to enter the Cliburn). Both top-prize winners are the youngest entrants of the competition.
The three medalists each receive $20,000, a CD recording on the Harmonia Mundi USA label and professional career management for the next three years – including concert tours and recital dates. All finalists receive $10,000 plus US concert tours and career management for three years. Jury Discretionary Awards went to Alessandro Deljavan, Lukas Vondracek and Eduard Kunz; the chamber music award went to Bozhanov and Son; and the best performance of a new work to Tsujii.
For the three winners, and for all the candidates for that matter, taking part in the Cliburn will, if nothing else, have provided a world platform from which they can be heard. Son’s career is already well established – she has performed with most of the leading orchestras in South Korea, as well as with the Israel, Tokyo and Warsaw Philharmonics, and in 2004 she toured with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Lorin Maazel in Asia. Tsujii already has his following in Japan, and has debuted (at age 12) at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. He has also performed with several of Japan’s leading orchestras, and released a CD. Winning the Cliburn will help him get the break into the US he’s been looking for. Zhang has performed with the China National, New Jersey, and Shanghai and Shenzhen Symphony amongst others, and at 17 he became the youngest winner of the China International Piano Competition. It is going to be very interesting to see what happens next for each of them.
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
