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CIPC for Young Artists: Final Concerto Round (July 31)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The last lap in the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists brought the six finalists together with conductor Steven Byess and the Canton Symphony on the stage of Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music on Friday evening, July 31.

After putting the young musicians through Magic Flute-like trials to test their mettle in solo performances, chamber music, and master classes with Jean-Yves Thibaudet (the latter an innovation designed to assess their adaptability to interpretational suggestions), it was time to hear how they reacted to the real-world scenario of sharing the stage and making music with a conductor and an orchestra. (In consideration of the competitors’ ages, only the first movements of works were performed.) [Read more…]

Piano Cleveland: CIPC for Young Artists Chamber Music Final Round (July 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The six pianists who advanced to the final round of Piano Cleveland’s International Competition for Young Artists cleared the first hurdle on their way to winning first, second, and third place prizes with performances in the Chamber Music Round on Thursday evening in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Demonstrating how well they can play with others, the finalists performed single movements of piano trios with members of The Cleveland Orchestra, collaborations that couldn’t help but inspire them to new heights.

For this round, the Juniors enjoyed the expertise of violinist Yun-Ting Lee and cellist Martha Baldwin, cello, while the Seniors joined forces with violinist Jessica Lee and cellist Dane Johansen. I attended via the live webcast. [Read more…]

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition: Final Rounds (August 7 & 8)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The pianists who remained on the bench after the rather brutal cut on Wednesday evening in Cleveland Piano’s Virtu(al)oso Competition (the field was reduced from 30 to 6) played virtual 30- to 35-minute programs in the Final Round on Friday and Saturday, pre-recorded at international Steinway locations at the same time as their First Round performances. Here are some impressions.

Friday, August 7 — Session 1

Tamila Salimdjanova (28, Uzbekistan) brought two works to the session: Debussy’s Estampes and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7. She gave the three-movement Debussy (“Pagodes,” “La soirée dans Grenade” and “Jardins sous la pluie”) a fluent performance, but the scenes offer more color possibilities than she exploited, and an abundance of dynamic details that went overlooked. Salimdjanova played the Prokofiev masterfully, but the outer movements needed more sheer brutality to reflect the Sonata’s Stalinist context and to offset the sentimental slow movement. [Read more…]

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