It requires dedication to follow a competition through
all its stages, and only jury members have a complete overview. Having
at two Quarter Finals sessions and one of the Semi-Finals sampled the
field for this important event (previously triennial and hopefully marketed
as the World Piano Competition - brought forward this year because of
imminent building work due at South Bank Centre) I felt at that point
privileged to have encountered three well equipped pianists, Alexei
Zouev, Lorène de Ratuld and Guiseppe Andaloro,
each of whom might have proved worthy finalists.
Others had the limitations one might expect at the
beginning of a competition, even though the pre-publicity was of 'twenty-four
outstanding
young pianists representing fourteen countries'. It surprised me
that the format did allow for first stage elimination - a generous second
chance for those who had not acquitted themselves well, but onerous
for the jury and for paying audiences. No music scores were provided,
which might have raised difficulties for border-line decisions, it being
unlikely that all Jury
members could have been fully familiar with the long list of set
works (including Carter's Night Fantasies and Dutilleux's Sonata) -
and they certainly could not have known some of the free choices offered
(I heard Boulez Notations and rare works by Hindemith and Lendvai).
Several aspirants failed to match limited talent with
suitable repertoire. One young Russian who battered us with Prokofiev's
huge Sonata No 8 seemed to have spent so long memorising the notes that
he had forgotten all the dynamic markings and given no thought to a
Prokofiev sound; another made Scriabin's grandiloquent third sonata
seem more turgid than usual; a third butchered Liszt's Dante Sonata
so comprehensively that I could not face hearing it played again immediately
afterwards, and with Rachmaninoff's second to follow!
In the quarter-finals stage, Lorène de Ratuld
(French, 22) integrated Mozart's wayward Fantasie in C minor
in a well considered interpretation and delighted me with her comprehensive
grasp of the sensuousness and wit of Dutilleux's multi-faceted Sonata,
a work of such variety and complexity that it can really only be grasped
fully if one has worked at playing it oneself, however inadequately.
Alexei Zouev (Russian, 19) challenged memories of the greats
in two peaks of the repertoire, bringing transcendental technique and
finely attuned ears, with mature thought and the fullest palette of
pianistic colour, to Beethoven's Waldstein sonata and Ravel's
Gaspard de la Nuit.
Guiseppe Andaloro (Italy, 20) showcased three
short sonatas - stylish Haydn encompassing sentiment and wit; perfectly
judged sonority and weight in Janacek's (a grim memorial to 1 October
1905); scrupulous attention to detail and proper hyper-intensity for
Berg's Op 1, and Messiaen's early Prelude no 8 a virtuosic flourish
to finish. Of those three musicianly pianists I had enjoyed, only Andaloro
progressed to the semi-finals in QEH, where he confirmed my good
impressions with another Haydn sonata, Chopin's Scherzo No.4 given with
sensitivity and pianistic subtlety, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.12
scintillating and fresh, holding attention for its every contrasting
section, and to finish dazzling Ligeti; characteristically this pianist
chose to end quietly with No.5. Neither of the two other semi-finalists
I heard matched, in my opinion, de Ratould or Zouev, nor did the two
runner-ups in the Finals who, admittedly, I only heard in the totally
different (and frankly less interesting) situation of concertos with
orchestra.
Andaloro stood out head and shoulders above
the other finalists, playing Liszt No.2 with the LPO/Tomasz Bugaj, with
authority and scale commensurate with the Royal Festival Hall, thundering
with the best when called for, attentive to orchestral soloists, especially
in his accompaniment of the first cello, his timing well judged, ample
variety of touch and dynamics when allowed to relax, holding the audience
in complete, attentive silence with pianissimo which yet carried.
In competition with those selected from the 'hundreds'
who had applied to contend (Lady Solti), he was a deserving winner,
but listening later that night to the 1st Prizewinner's account
of Tchaikowsky No.1 in the 1975 Finals of the Queen Elizabeth International
Music Competition of Belgium (Mikhail Faerman) brought a sense of perspective
to this young London competition, inaugurated in 1991. The Belgian competition
celebrated its half-century last year with the release of a revelatory
CD box of performances back to Kogan in 1951, taking in such luminaries
as Fleisher (1952), Ashkenazy (1956) and the 20 year old Mitsuko Uchida
(only 10th in 1968, but a wonderful Beethoven No.3). I urge
competition fanciers to acquire this set, despite technical imperfections
in some of the older recordings - CYPRES CYP9612.
A last word for Alexei Zouev, who did not reach
Stage Three to play Bartok, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev; only
19, his remarkable gifts and promise were recognised with one of the
Educational Awards for young pianists 'who show outstanding potential',
carrying assistance towards furthering their studies and possible inclusion
in the programme of concert engagements. Try to hear him!
Peter Grahame Woolf
LONDON
INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION
(World
Piano Competition)
Prizewinners
for the 2002 Competition
|
1st prize
|
Mr Giuseppe ANDALORO
|
Italy
|
|
2nd prize
|
Mr Alberto NOSÈ
|
Italy
|
|
3rd prize
|
Mr Andrey SHIBKO
|
Russia
|
EDUCATIONAL
AWARDS 2002
|
Miss Hea-Jung CHO
|
Korea
|
|
Miss Natasha PAREMSKI
|
USA
|
|
Mr Wen-Yu SHEN
|
China
|
|
Mr Alexei ZOUEV
|
Russia
|
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