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Chagrin Studio Orchestra: 15 minutes with pianist Dmitri Levkovich

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by Daniel Hathaway

Levkovich-DmitriOn Saturday, February 13 at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, Canadian pianist Dmitri Levkovich will make his fourth appearance with Steven Eva and the Chagrin Studio Orchestra since winning second prize in the 2009 Cleveland International Piano Competition. The 7:30 pm concert, a benefit evening for the orchestra, will feature Levkovich in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s third concerto.

Since 2009, Levkovich has been busy performing in Europe, competing in competitions, and winning a prestigious German piano award (details of his activities can be seen on his website). We caught up with the 35-year-old pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he was busy practicing for his appearance this weekend.

DH: This will be your fourth appearance with Steve Eva and the Chagrin Studio Orchestra.

DL: The first time was right after the piano competition. Steve wanted me to play Rachmaninoff 2, the same concerto I did with The Cleveland Orchestra. The second time was the Paganini Rhapsody, and then we did a set of concertos: Rachmaninoff 4, and Prokofiev 1. Now it’s Rach 3. We just rehearsed for the first time yesterday, and everything looks good. [Read more…]

2009 Cleveland International Piano Competition — an album

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WCLV Re-broadcasts CIPC Final Four this week

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We asked for details a bit late, but wanted our readers to know that WCLV, 104.9 FM, will be re-broadcasting the concerto performances of the Final Four this week on the station’s Big Work at One series. Here’s the schedule:

Tuesday, August 11 at 1 pm: fourth-place winner Evgeny Brakhman in Rachmaninoff’s third concerto.

Wednesday, August 12 at 1 pm: third-place winner William Youn in Brahms’ first concerto.

Thursday, August 13 at 1 pm: second place winner Dmitri Levkovich in Rachmaninoff’s second concerto.

Friday, August 14 at 1 pm: first-place winner Martina Filjak in Rachmaninoff’s second concerto.

Any remaining time before two p.m. each day will feature Martina Filjak in solo performances from earlier rounds of the competition.

Filjak and Youn in the last Concertos at Severance: Final Round, Part II

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SH2903Inevitable comparisons: in a competition, you want to listen to every performance as if you’re hearing both the piece and the performer for the first time, but with two versions of Rachmaninoff’s second concerto scheduled on two adjacent nights, what’s a listener to do but think about each of them in relation to the other. Both are still ringing in the ears.

Croatian pianist Martina Filjak made an immediate impression with her carefully wrought crescendo and intensifying coloration of the famous opening chords and bass punctuation that begin Rach 2. Same conductor, same orchestra, but when the other hundred or so musicians on the stage joined Filjak in her musical odessey through this engaging score, it was clear that the soloist was seeing it through a different lens.

[Read more…]

And the Winners are….

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The winners of the 2009 Cleveland International Piano Competition:

Fourth Prize – Evgeny Brakhman

Third Prize – William Youn

Second Prize – Dmitri Levkovich

First Prize – Martina Filjak

Other prizes will be announced at the ceremony on Sunday afternoon.

UPDATED 8/9/09

Junior Jury Prize –  Martina Filjak

Audience Prize – Dmitri Levkovich

Baroque Prize – Hoang Pham

Beethoven Prize – Martina Filjak

Cairns Family American Prize – Sean Chen

Chopin Prize – Soo Yeon Ham

Contemporary Prizes – Evgeny Brakhman and Martina Filjak

Mozart Prize – Evgeny Brakhman

Levkovich and Brakhman go head to head with Rachmaninoff: Final Round, Part I

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It’s a dream come true for Rachmaninoff fans: three concertos (well, two different ones) performed on two adjacent evenings at Severance Hall — followed by a Brahms chaser.

Dmitri Levkovich (30, Canada) and Evgeny Brakhman (28, Russia) both speak Russian not only linguistically but musically. The first round of the CIPC Finals gave these fine young pianists the opportunity to show off their interpretive skills in collaboration with Jahja Ling and the Cleveland Orchestra.

In the orchestral hierarchy, concertos don’t get much rehearsal time compared to symphonic works. In this case, there was even less time to be had: each of the two soloists spent about an hour with the orchestra earlier in the day, after a seance with Maestro Ling on Thursday to talk things through. Every detail can’t have been worked out under those circumstances, but there are hundreds of recordings in circulation that have nothing on what we heard from these two pianists, who were obviously pumped for the occasion. It was quite an evening.

[Read more…]

Levkovich & Brakhman

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Evgeny Brakhman and Dmitri Levkovich

Evgeny Brakhman and Dmitri Levkovich - photo Sam Hubish

Yesterday CPIC kindly made the four finalists available for a photo op and interviews. We conversed in pairs to get to know the off-stage personalities of these gifted pianists. You will find Dan Hathaway’s interview with tonight’s finalists, Dmitri Levkovich and Evgeny Brakhman, on ClevelandClassical.com, here.

And then there were eight: Semi-Final Round, Session 1

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The field is getting smaller, the audiences are getting larger and the performances are getting longer this week at the Bolton Theatre as we move into the four semi-final rounds.

In this leg of the competition, the requirements become simpler, with only two imperatives. Competitors must include a work or group of works by a French impressionist composer and a Romantic composer, then they can choose to play any other work of their choice. The French requirement is a vestige of CIPC’s ancestor, the Casadesus Competition, and it brings an entirely new challenge into play.

As the original order of the draw is being preserved in the Semi-finals, Dmitri Levkovich of Canada and Evgeny Brakhman of Russia were the featured acts on Tuesday afternoon. Each player crammed as much music as possible into his 55-60 minute allotment.

[Read more…]

Opinions: Open Thread

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The pause between rounds today gives us a moment to reflect on a week of extraordinary talent, and speculate on the excitement to come.

After the 8 semi-finalists were announced last night, ClevelandClassical.com was surprised to be mostly in accord with the jury’s choices. We’re taken with Dmitri Levkovich, fresh off the heels of winning the Iturbi (Los Angeles), he’s pumped for a second win this year in a major competition. Four of the eight semi-finalists came from group 3–no surprise there. This group was a happy coincidence of the draw for listeners, a real treat! We’ll admit surprise that Japanese contestant Kyoko Soejima did not advance, and that Korean William Youn did, though we’re eager to hear him perform (and prove us wrong) in the next round.

Share your thoughts: Surprises? Disappointments? Who’s moved you so far? What will you be listening for this week? Do tell, let’s use this thread for discussion.

UPDATED Here’s a little more food for thought… Daniel Hathaway’s round up of CIPC Rounds 1 & 2 on ClevelandClassical.com.

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