Cliburn Competition closes with thunder and poetry
With medals hanging in the balance, the last three of six finalists in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition played their concluding concertos Saturday afternoon in a display of stunning technical skill and, often, musical insight.
Backing them in Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall was the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop, capping an equally impressive display of orchestral preparation: twelve concerto performances in under a week.
Vitaly Starikov, 30, of Israel and Russia followed up Wednesday’s splendidly barbaric performance of Bartok’s Concerto No. 2 with a highly subjective take on the Concerto in A minor by Robert Schumann. Tempos in the first movement varied widely, as an even-more-than-usually attentive conductor Alsop tried to keep the orchestra in sync with the soloist. Their stop-and-start performance didn’t hold together well, but Starikov’s clear tone projected his fleeting thoughts effectively into the house.
Tempos steadied during the agreeable dialogue of the brief Intermezzo, and became rock solid during the genial, often humorous finale, which bobbed brightly along with just the right degree of expressive rubato where needed.
In Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand, Carter Johnson, 28, of Canada and the United States made a bigger sound with one hand than the previous contestant had with two. Recovering from a rather pallid performance of Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 on Wednesday, Johnson “went to eleven” in the work’s opening cadenza, summoning that extra twang in the bass of his Steinway grand on his way to a sonorous performance, in which he also gave a master class in contrapuntal voicing with just five fingers.
Using all ten, Russia’s Philipp Lynov, 26, produced such massive, quasi-orchestral sonorities in the work’s first solo cadenza that when the actual orchestra came in, it was just the cherry on top. Fierce marcato, piquant staccato, and clearly articulated runs were a few of the other touches at his command, as well as a liquid legato for the rare quiet moments.
The brief, perpetual-motion Scherzo had as many curves and thrills as a roller coaster. In the lumbering Intermezzo, Lynov drew a classic Prokofiev landscape of fierce chords, stuttering staccato, and ripping slides. March rhythms, this composer’s favorite, predominated in the rather long finale, with the piano leading crescendos in ever-swelling tone, and capping the work—and the entire Cliburn Competition—with a furious, all-stops-out coda.
Gold, silver and bronze medals, and other awards in the Cliburn Competition will be presented in the closing ceremony 7 p.m. Saturday. cliburn.org
