by Mike Telin
Following tonight’s opening ceremonies at the Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland International Piano Competition gets underway on Wednesday, July 31 beginning at 1:00 pm in the Museum’s Gartner Auditorium. Unique to CIPC, each of the twenty-eight contestants has the opportunity to perform in two rounds.
The Competition’s rules state:
Use the five requirements listed below to choose repertoire for the first two rounds. Over the course of the First Round and the Second Round, each of the five requirements must be represented once. Candidates may present their choice of works in any order, provided the First Round performance does not exceed 30 minutes and the Second Round performance does not exceed 35 minutes. All contestants perform two rounds before the first jury vote.
If you’re wondering how this will play out in real time, let’s have a look at the repertoire the contestants have chosen to fulfill each of these five requirements.
• One original work or group of works by a Baroque composer (no transcriptions):
Bach – Contrapunctus I and IX from The Art of Fugue – English Suites Nos. 3 and 6 – Fantasia and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 904 – French Suite No. 5 – Partitas Nos. 2 and 5 – 7 Prelude and Fugues from WTC Book 1 and 4 from WTC Book 2 – and the Toccatas in F-sharp Minor and C Minor. Eleven different Scarlatti sonatas will be heard as well. Rameau’s “L’Enharmonique” & “L’Egyptienne” from Nouvelles Suites de Piéces de Clavecin round out the repertoire for this requirement.
• One Chopin etude.
From opus 10, nos. 1, 2, 4, 5,8, 10 and 12. From opus 25, nos. 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 11. As always there are duplications. From opus 10, nos. 1, 2, 5 and 12 will receive two performances each, while nos. 8 and 10 will receive three. From opus 25, nos. 6 and 10 will receive three, and no. 5 will have four. And we can all breath a sigh of relief: no. 11, “Winterwind,” will only be heard twice.
• One sonata by a Classical composer (excluding Schubert).
Beethoven: Sonatas Nos. 2, 3, 4, 8, 23 and 30 will each receive one performance while sonatas nos. 110 and 111 will each have three. There will eight different sonatas by Haydn. The sonatas nos. 8, 14 and 15 of Mozart will have single performances while no. 12 will have two and no. 9, three.
• One work or group of works by Chopin, Brahms, or Schumann (choose one composer).
TheSeven Fantasies, Op. 116 and the Vier Klavierstücke, Op. 119 of Brahms will be heard twice. There will be single performances ofSonatas No. 1, Klavierstücke, Op. 76, Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 and Sechs Klavierstücke, Op.118. Three interpretations of the sonata no. 3 will be heard. Returning to Chopin, Ballads nos. 1 and 2, the Fantasy in F Minor, Preludes, Op. 28, Nos. 1, 12, 13 & 24, Sonata in B-flat Minor, Op. 35 and the Scherzo in E Major, Op. 54, No. 4 will each be heard once; the Polonaise in A-flat Major, Op. 53 “Heroique” twice; and the Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58, thrice. The music of Schumann rounds out this requirement with single performances of the Fantasiestücke, Op. 12 and the Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13 while there will be two performances each of the Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17, Kreisleriana, and Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp Minor.
• One work or group of works written by one composer after 1950.
This requirement is represented by a fascinating mix of composers with surprisingly almost no duplication. Only nos. 3, 4, 6 and10 from Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata will each be heard twice. Here is the list in alphabetical order. Babajanian Poem (1966) – Bacewicz Sonata No. 2 (1953) – Bolcom“Butterflies”, “Hummingbirds” (from 12 New Etudes, Book II) – Britten Night Piece (1963) – Corigliano Fantasia on an Ostinato (1985), Winging It (2008) – CurrierScarlatti Cadences (1996) – Dutilleux Prelude No. 3: Le jeu des contraires (1988) – Holliger I. „Elis, wenn die Amsel im Schwarzen Walde ruft, Dieses ist dein Untergang.“ (from An den Knaben Elis) II. „Blaue Tauben Trinken nachts den eisigen Schweiß Der von Elis’ kristalliner Stirne Rinnt” (from Elis II) (1961, revised 1966) – Kapustin Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40 (1984)24 Preludes in Jazz Style, Op. 53 (1988) – Kirchner Interlude II (2003) – Kurtág Seven pieces from Játékok (1983-1998) – Lachenmann Five Variations on a Theme of Franz Schubert (1956) – Ligeti Musica Ricercata, Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 10 (1951-1953), Etude No. 4, “Fanfares”, Etude No. 10, Der Zauberlehrling – Messiaen “Le Loriot” from Catalogue d’Oiseaux – Montsalvatge Sonatina para Yvette (1962) – Reddy Toccata for John Roos (2007) – Rzewski Dream (2013) & Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (1979) – Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Minor, Op. 87, No. 14 – Tanguy Intermezzo No. 1 (2002) and Vine Five Bagatelles (1994).
Published on ClevelandClassical.com July 30, 2013
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