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Cleveland International Piano Competition: Semifinal Round, Session 1

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By Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — August 2, 2011

After Monday evening’s jury decision that took eighteen pianists out of the running — among them, perplexingly, at least three superb musicians who had played some of the most shapely, intelligent and coherent performances of anyone in the first two rounds — the Semifinal Round should demand that the eight remaining contestants be held to extremely high standards of interpretation. Everyone who has marched up to the Steinway this week has demonstrated extraordinary and reliable technique, but not everyone has proved that they have the analytical skills to put that technique to use in shaping cogent performances of the repertory they’ve chosen to play.

The strange patterns that can result from intentional randomness lined up four Asian contestants for the two sessions on Tuesday. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: eight advance to the Semi-finals

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By Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — August 1, 2011

The jury has selected eight pianists to advance to the Semi-final round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition. The following names were read from the stage of the Bolton Theater at the Cleveland Play House tonight at 10:45 pm by jury chairman Peter Frankl, following the sixth session of the second round. Each will play one hour recitals during the afternoon and evening sessions on August 2 and 3, and four finalists will play concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on August 5 and 6.

Tuesday, August 2 at 1pm*

Ms. Kyu Yeon Kim (25, Korea)

Mr. Yunjie Chen (30, China)

Tuesday, August 2 at 7 pm

Mr. Jae-Weon Huh (24, Korea)

Ms. EunAe Lee (23, Korea)

Wednesday, August 3 at 1pm*

Mr. Eric Zuber (26, USA)

Mr. Alexey Chernov (28, Russia)

Wednesday, August 3 at 7 pm

Mr. Alexander Schimpf (29, Germany)

Mr. Mateusz Borowiak (23, UK/Poland)

* please note the corrected start time.

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Round 2, Session 6

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By Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — August 1, 2011

Contestants 23 through 26 stepped up to the Hamburg Steinway on Monday evening to conclude the second round, after which eight pianists would be tapped to advance to the Semifinals.

Ms. Soo-Yeon Ham (25, Korea) chose Chopin’s Twelve Etudes of op. 25 for her second time at bat. She was consistently impressive in her technique, touch and articulation, but underwhelming in her range of dynamics and sense of drama. The tenth piece, the “Octave” Etude began softly with much rubato and pedal and achived the highest dynamic level so far. Her “Winter Wind” (No. 11) was surprisingly gentle. Overall, her playing was cheerful, pretty, polite and polished.

[Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Round 2, Session 5

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By Mike Telin

Cleveland, OH — August 1, 2011

Steinway Piano model d

Five pianists played in the penultimate session of the second round on Monday afternoon.

Marina Baranova (30, Ukraine/Germany) gave sensitive and stylish readings of Scarlatti’s Sonatas in C Major (K.159) and f minor (k.466). Her discrete use of pedal and clear articulations, combined with some nice ornamentation, made for pleasurable listening. Continuing with two works of Schumann, the ABEGG Variations, Op. 1 and Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26 Ms. Baranova once again showed her technical command of the instrument, and made easy  and clean work of the numerous rapid scale passages in both pieces. In general she approached the ABEGG Variations from an introspective point of view,  creating some beautiful phrasing and lovely articulations. These fine qualities also featured in her performance of  Faschingsschwank aus Wien, along with grand fortissimos. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Round 2, Session 4

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — July 31, 2011

Two Russian pianists simply ran away with Sunday evening’s session at the Cleveland Play House. Mr. Alexey Chernov (28) and Mr. Denis Evstuhin (30), third and fourth in the evening’s lineup, pulled off stunning back-to-back performances which inspired multiple “bravos” from the audience.

Mr. Chernov, who crafted a memorable Mozart Sonata on Thursday evening, wowed us with his interpretation of Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes tonight. The piece has a complicated history and can provide pianists with a real storytelling challenge, but Mr. Chernov made it seem like Schumann’s own Pictures at an Exhibition, so neatly did he frame each of its movements, infusing them with individual character and giving us a moment to admire each of them before moving on to the next. He miraculously achieved dark colors and clear textures at once, expertly layered voices, suspended time now and again, voiced chords dryly but still gave them weight and hue, treated multiple repetitions of chords with individual inflections and spun delicate poetry that Schumann would surely have admired. His sense of pacing was infallable, and when he elasticized the tempo, it was done for expressive purposes. He began with Ligeti’s Automne à Varsovie in a performance so intense he nearly fell off the piano bench at the end. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Round 2, Session 3

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — July 31, 2011

Second impressions lifted a few of this afternoon’s contestants higher — in our humble opinion.

Mr. Scipione Sangiovanni (23, Italy) began with a big Schumann piece, the Fantasie in C, op. 17, then tossed off a Chopin Etude (A-flat, op. 10, no. 10) for dessert. His thoughtful reading of the Schumann brought out the essential, brooding moodinesss of the score. He accomplished fine transitions and made good dynamic and color changes in the first movement. His grand approach to the second paid off; sometimes the musical line became attenuated, but he brought this section to a conclusion with flair. In the rhapsodic third movement, he applied poetic voicing to his graceful rendition of Schumann’s beautiful and solemn melodies. The audience wanted to applaud at the end of no. 2 (and did), but Mr. Sangiovanni’s body language shied them away from expressing their appreciation at the end. His brief Chopin add-on was nicely spirited: he swept across the keyboard with appropriate grandeur. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Round 2, Session 2

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — July 30, 2011

We went into this evening’s session eager to hear four pianists build on their achievements in the first round. We came away wondering what on earth had possessed them to attack their repertory so heavy-handedly.

Mr. Shinnosuke Inugai (29, Japan) led off with a promising and energetic A-Flat Prelude and Fugue (WTC I) with good cadential gestures in the prelude and clear counterpoint in the fugue. The two Chopin Scherzos (op. 39 and 54) that followed were curiously muscular rather than humorous and poetic. There were some nice touches (clear textures, poignant middle sections in the second and fine right hand passage work) but erratic tempos and aggressive drives toward climaxes obscured the architecture of the pieces. Atsuhiko Gondai’s Transient Bell (2009) was full of metallic effects and crystalline meanderings in the extreme treble as well as gratuitous piano tricks (too many full keyboard glissandi). Mr. Inugai played it enthusiastically, but the sonic effect was numbing. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Round 2, Session 1

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — July 30, 2011

Anna Fedorova draws No. 1

The Cleveland Competition gives every player the opportunity to perform again in the second round — a fine way to build on what you revealed about yourself in your first appearance on the Bolton Theater stage. This afternoon’s quartet of pianists produced no major surprises upon a second hearing, but there were more favorable impressions to be made in most cases.

Ms. Anna Fedorova (21, Ukraine) should be proud of her two performances in her unenviable position of being No. 1 in the draw. She began on Saturday afternoon with two Scarlatti Sonatas (in b, K. 87 and E, K. 20). The b minor piece has already received several airings; her sensitive version moved right along with subtle ebbs and flows of tempo (and perhaps too many rubatos to point up too many special moments). [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Round 1, Session 6

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — July 29, 2011

By the end of Friday evening’s session, all twenty-six competitors had been heard for the first time. Here’s our impression of the final four.

Ms. Soo-Yeon Ham (25, Korea) competed in Cleveland in 2009, when she won the Chopin Prize. Tonight, she began with two Scarlatti Sonatas, both in A major, went on to Haydn’s C Major Sonata No. 60 and finished off with Shostakovich’s Prelude & Fugue in d, no. 24. The first Scarlatti was a slow aria, the second a bouncy, fun piece based on a theme that played with octaves. Both these and the Haydn Sonata seemed to suit her proclivity for light, elegant textures. The Haydn was full of persistent motives and surprising harmonic turns, all of which she pointed up nicely, though she allowed herself some liberties with rhythm. The Shostakovich seemed an odd choice for the first round. It’s a bleak piece that wears many shades of grey, but eventually ends triumphantly. Ms. Ham found appropriate metallic sonorities for the beginning of the prelude and dialed up her digital intensity as the fugue gained momentum. But she really seemed most at home in the first three pieces. [Read more…]

Cleveland International Piano Competition: Round 1, Session 5

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by Daniel Hathaway

Cleveland, OH — July 29, 2011

Steinway Piano model d

Friday afternoon brought new faces and some fresh repertory to the penultimate session of the first round.

Ms. Marina Baranova (30, Ukraine/Germany) began the session with the first Beethoven “Waldstein” Sonata to appear in the playlist thus far, closely followed (with hardly any pauses) by Ligeti and Chopin. She took a businesslike approach to the first movement of the Beethoven. There were some tangles in scalar passages and an infelicitous plunge into the recapitulation. She paid more attention to voicing in the slow, second movement, with fine results. She did an intereresting thing at the beginning of the finale — starting it very slowly and softly as though the main theme were emerging from a haze, then making a huge crescendo into the restatement of the tune. Throughout, dynamics seemed to hover at both extremes with not much middle ground, but her soft playing was lovely. In her Ligeti, Fanfares (Etudes: Book 1, No. 4), she stylishly played sassy chords against a nonstop running line that alternated between hands. In her Chopin, the “Winter Wind” Etude, she demonstrated some sensitive phrasing, especially in the transitions. [Read more…]

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