American Wang is a standout in first night of Cliburn Competition finals
After two intense weeks of solo mini-recitals and Mozart concertos and of course practice, practice, practice, the Final Round of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition finally got underway Tuesday night in Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall, with a program of piano concertos performed by three of the competition’s six finalists.
Angel Stanislav Wang, 22, of the United States was the evening’s standout performer, with a lucid, meaningful rendering of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop, that brought that familiar score vividly to life.
Competitors Aristo Sham, 29, of Hong Kong, China and Evren Ozel, 26, of the United States displayed formidable technical ability but fell a little short when it came to projecting their tone and communicating where they were trying to take the audience with their performances.
Three more concerts, each consisting of three concertos, are to follow on Wednesday and Friday nights and Saturday afternoon, completing this round with a total of 12 concerto performances, two by each of the finalists. The jury of nine distinguished pianists will select and announce the three medal winners soon after Saturday’s concert.
A reviewer helicoptering in for the final round is at a disadvantage in handicapping the competitors, since the judges are weighing not only this last round of big Romantic-to-Modern concertos but previous rounds that included short solo programs, a new piece by Gabriela Montero, and, in the semifinals, Mozart piano concertos that really separated the men (mostly) from the boys, musically speaking.
The outer movements of Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor unleash blizzards of 16th notes that can sound demented if the player doesn’t find a shape and a reason for it all. Pianist Sham’s strategy seemed to be blinding speed, pure and simple–or perhaps one should say deafening speed, since a listener in Row S couldn’t tell at that tempo if he was really even playing all the notes, or only about half of them.
At times in these movements the composer grants us one of his characteristically pretty tunes, but on Tuesday these failed to sing out clearly and bring relief. Relief came at last in the central Andante, which began in a soft, vague dynamic but gradually took shape as its aria-like melody unfolded. Pianist and conductor sustained a rapt mood throughout, despite a rather limp melodic line that affected solo players in the orchestra as well.
After the concerto, the piano was wheeled off stage and replaced with another that looked just like it. But no swapping of Steinway grands—the piano maker’s (and competition co-sponsor’s) showroom is just around the corner from the hall–can explain the difference in tone between Sham’s Mendelssohn performance and Wang’s of the Beethoven.
To be sure, Beethoven’s richly emotional concerto Is an incomparably greater work than Mendelssohn’s buzzy showpiece. But give pianist Wang credit for making that difference crystal clear, with piano tone that projected throughout the hall in all dynamics, a lively conception of what the piece was about, and a sense of direction in every bar that swept the listener along with it.
The pianist moved with ease through the ever-changing landscape of the concerto’s first movement, capturing the Beethovenian mix of wit and sentiment and creating memorable moments along the way. Each note had a center that made the fast passages sparkle and the lyrical themes sing. His inspired playing shone especially in contrast with the orchestra’s workmanlike execution of its part (understandable considering how many big pieces they had to prepare for this week).
As with most performances of this piece, there was not much “moto” in the Andante con moto, but Wang carried it off, using a soft-wristed technique to produce plaintive chords that quite believably calmed the glowering strings. In the jaunty finale, the pianist found line and direction in the fast passages and, despite a fluent technique, resisted all temptation to rush, so that the climaxes had their full effect.
The evening closed with this competition’s sole performance of that standby of standbys, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor. There is an aspect of daring about coming to Fort Worth and playing the piece that made Van Cliburn a national hero, but unfortunately there was nothing daring about Evren Ozel’s well-prepared, by-the-numbers performance. Despite admirably accurate execution, both soloist and orchestra seemed overmatched by the sheer size of this composer’s suffering, longing, exulting personality.
One knew trouble was ahead when the orchestra managed to play the big opening theme out of time, despite the metronome of the pianist’s booming chords. The soloist’s tone tended to vanish when the dynamic dropped to piano, and when wind players in the orchestra doubled his tunes, one heard mostly them and not him.
The hopping theme and scherzando episode of the first movement needed a more pointed attack, but the scherzando middle section of the second movement fared better, leaping and spraying notes all over. Orchestra and piano danced well together in the finale, but a rather businesslike execution overall made the grandeur of the big tune at the end sound forced.
The Cliburn’s Final Round continues 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday. Free streaming is available at cliburn.org
