Three years passes pretty quickly! After a busy summer, my cultural activities are starting up again and first in line was the Leeds International Piano Competition. Sadly not enough annual leave left to binge-attend, so I selected one of the second round events (Friday 7th at 7pm) and a semi-final (Sunday 9th at 7pm).
Firstly, I had forgotten how long the rounds take! Each competitor was effectively playing a full on recital. Hard on the audience too, lots of concentration required (so I was very tired indeed on Friday after a full week and then 3 hours of music)!
The second round competitors I saw were Chao Wang, Anna Geniushene, Siqian Li and Samson Tsoy. Chao Wang played a superb Moonlight Sonata - such balance and softness! All the amateur pianists I know would love to play the first movement with the same sense of movement but stillness. However he didn't have the projection of the other 3 performers so maybe that was a factor in his elimination. Samson Tsoy pleased the audience with Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition, which was a good choice to show off his skills. Out of the four, I probably least liked Anna Geniushene - probably due to repertoire choices, because she clearly has huge skill and soft touch.
Sunday's semi-final was between Xinyuan Wang and Pavel Zemen. Another listener's test as the chamber music round was in addition to a full 45 minute solo recital! I liked the inclusion of the chamber music section but if it's to remain with the semi final solos, then something needs to be shortened. 45+30 minutes of performance is hard for everyone and as the evening ran late, I (and a lot of others) had to miss Pavel Zemen's chamber performance to make Sunday trains.
Xinyuan had the crowd with him (and the hall was packed, compared to Friday). His choice of Kurtág, selections from Játékok, might not have been to everyone's taste but the sheer variety of sounds (and their performance) was super. Örökmozgó, at the end, was a real show stopper. It's a piece wholly of glissando runs, with the full ppp-fff dynamic range and a sharp end. Paired with Bach (Partita No. 1 BWV825) and Rachmaninov (Variations-Corelli, Op. 42). He also did very well with Brahms' Piano Quintet Op. 34 with the Elias String Quartet. Xinyuan's manner was also very warm, humble and he definitely has a sense of humour - giving a thumb's up to the audience.
Pavel Zemen wasn't so lucky. Somehow he didn't seem to engage with the audience, and from my seat his programme of Rachmaninov Sonata No. 2 Op. 36, Janáček selections from On an Overgrown Path (4, 6, 10) and Brett Dean's Hommage à Brahms was, well, difficult. I liked the slow movement of the Rachmaninov but that's about it.
The finalists have since been announced: Anna Geniushene, Mario Häring, Aljoša Jurinić, Eric Lu, Xinyuan Wang. I'm pleased that Xinyuan Wang came through and I suppose the judges were looking at things I didn't see with Anna Geniushene.
Chao Wang along with 2 other competitors, played a short piece on Tuesday 11th for the University Library's Tuesday Treasure event, which was all about music-related items from the special collections. I am also planning to attend one of this year's pop up performances at the M&S Archive. It's free but ticketed. I don't recall from the 2015 event that there were as many side-events (talks, masterclasses etc) and it's all excellent. The full list is on the What's On page.
I'm not in Leeds for the finals but all performances are available to watch on Medici TV. Sadly there aren't enough hours in the day for me to catch up on all the performances, but it's a very good innovation so that more people can engage with the competition performances.
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