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By Daniel Hathaway
Cleveland, OH — August 8, 2011
L-R: Kyu Yeon Kim, Eric Zuber, Alexey Chernov, Alexander Schimpf. Photo by Roger Mastroianni
The Cleveland International Piano Competition awarded $116,000 in prizes and another $26,000 in consolation prizes during the final event of the 2011 Competition in Severance Hall on Sunday afternoon, August 7.
After remarks from host Robert Conrad of WCLV, Dr. James Gibbs, President of the Piano International Association of Northeast Ohio, Karen Knowlton, Executive Director of CIPC, and a nod from jury chair Peter Frankl, who declined to speak (Conrad passed along Frankl’s opinion that he’d talked enough in the last ten days!), the following special prizes were awarded: Read the rest of this entry »
By Daniel Hathaway
Cleveland, OH — August 7, 2011
Alexander Schimpf playing Beethoven's 4th Concerto. Photo by Rober Mastroianni
By the time the Severance Hall concerto finals began on Friday evening, the four finalists in the Cleveland International Piano Competition had each played two hours’ worth of solo repertory in the previous three rounds. Now we had the opportunity to hear how well they played with others, the others of course being The Cleveland Orchestra under the Competition’s new conductor, Christopher Wilkins. There was a lot of cash attached to the outcomes, but winning the opportunity to perform with an orchestra of this stature was a prize all to itself.
Maestro Wilkins might have had to prepare four different concertos, had the results of the semifinals been different, but two finalists chose Brahms’ first concerto. 25-year old Korean pianist Kyu Yeong Kim opened with that work on Friday, while 28-year old Russian pianist Alexey Chernov played it during the first half of Saturday evening’s round. It’s a work with a tortured history, having started out to be Brahms’ first symphony, was then reworked into a piece for two pianos and finally (with new second and third movements) into a concerto for piano and orchestra. Even in its final shape, it shows signs of the composer’s inexperience as an orchestrator.
Read the rest of this entry »
Cleveland, OH — August 6, 2011
The winners of the 2011 Cleveland International Piano Competition were announced tonight following the second concerto round with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall:
First Prize: Alexander Schimpf (right, 29, Germany)
Second Prize: Alexey Chernov (second from right, 28, Russia)
Third Prize: Eric Zuber (second from left, 26, USA)
Fourth Prize: Kyu Yeon Kim (left, 26, Korea)
The prize ceremony (including the awarding of other prizes and a winners’ recital) will be held on Sunday, August 7 at 3 pm at Severance Hall (live broadcast over WCLV, 104.9 FM).
Our review of the concerto round will be posted here on Sunday afternoon.
by Daniel Hathaway
L-R: Kyu Yeon Kim, Eric Zuber, Alexander Schimpf, Alexey Chernov (photo: DH)
By Wednesday evening, when the Semifinal Round ended, we had gotten to know a lot about the pianistic personalities of twenty-six musicians, but we were eager to learn more about the four Finalists. The Competition kindly provided the opportunity to chat with them in pairs in Reinberger Chamber Music Hall just before their individual séances with conductor Christopher Wilkins at Severance Hall on Thursday, when each would talk through their chosen concerto for the Final Round on Friday and Saturday with The Cleveland Orchestra.
First, we wanted to know how the four came to the piano in the first place, and when the magic moment arrived when each decided to pursue a professional career. For three of the players, there were already professional musicians in the family who facilitated their early discovery of music. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Daniel Hathaway
Cleveland, OH — August 3, 2011
Alexander Schimpf
Alexander Schimpf (29, Germany) and Mateusz Borowiak (23, UK/Poland) closed out the Semifinal Round on Wednesday evening at the Cleveland Play House’s Bolton Theater — and marked the end of the Cleveland International Piano Competition’s occupancy there. The buildings have been sold to the Cleveland Clinic, and the Play House is moving to new digs in Playhouse Square.
Mr. Schimpf began with a single Debussy Prelude, moved on to one of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies and concluded with Schubert’s last Sonata. The lone Debussy Prelude (La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune from Book Two) made for a strange opening gesture and was really too brief to make much of an impression. Mr. Schimpf’s Liszt, the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in c-sharp, was spirited, but not very digitally tidy (lots of nicked notes), and contrasted murky low-lying chords with crystalline Hungarian dance tunes at the treble end of the keyboard. Read the rest of this entry »
By Daniel Hathaway
Cleveland, OH — August 3, 2011
Eric Zuber
Apollo returned to watch over the Cleveland International Piano Competition on Tuesday afternoon, having taken Monday off and left the proceedings in the hands of Dionysius, who was up to his usual mischief. In sequential, one hour recitals, Eric Zuber (26, USA) and Alexey Chernov (28, Russia) restored our musical equilibrium with beautiful performances of Schumann, Debussy, Liszt, Beethoven and Ravel.
Mr. Zuber led off with Schumann’s Scenes from Childhood, op. 15, a baker’s dozen of short reminiscences of the composer’s own childhood. The original title was “Easy Pieces”, which might make one wonder why a pianist would choose these over more virtuosic repertory for the penultimate round of a big competition. The answer is that each one is an exquisite stanza or two of poetry that allows the performer to explore different affects and colors — exactly what Mr. Zuber skillfully did with them. Read the rest of this entry »
By Daniel Hathaway
Cleveland, OH — August 2, 2011
Mr. Jae-Weon Huh (25, Korea), a tall, lanky pianist with long fingers, took the stage first on Tuesday evening for his Semifinal round of pieces by Schumann, Ravel and Rachmaninoff. Schumann’s Kreisleriana began promisingly, well-paced and logical, then veered out of control soon after. Mr. Huh found his balance again, producing lovely, dreamy, poetic colors in soft, slow episodes but often went over the top in fast and furious movement, where he tended toward harshness of touch. Ravel’s Ondine from Gaspard de la nuit had fine moments of nervous tremolos and big climaxes which contrasted with diaphanous timbres and more bursts of energy. But what was up with his Rachmaninoff (the second Sonata, op. 36, revised version)? After big, splashy opening gestures, the piece ballooned into a superscaled essay in sheer pianism that its composer might not have conceived even in his most extroverted moments. Sure, there were colorful, poetic moments, adroit layerings of lines and some brilliant ringing climaxes, but what we’ll take away from this performance is the huge, noisy finale during which the Steinway seemed to cry out in pain, so thoroughly did Mr. Huh pummel its keys. Like Ms. Kim who preceded him in the afternoon, he did some heavy breathing of his own during his set. Read the rest of this entry »
By Daniel Hathaway
Cleveland, OH — August 2, 2011
After Monday evening’s jury decision that took eighteen pianists out of the running — among them, perplexingly, at least three superb musicians who had played some of the most shapely, intelligent and coherent performances of anyone in the first two rounds — the Semifinal Round should demand that the eight remaining contestants be held to extremely high standards of interpretation. Everyone who has marched up to the Steinway this week has demonstrated extraordinary and reliable technique, but not everyone has proved that they have the analytical skills to put that technique to use in shaping cogent performances of the repertory they’ve chosen to play.
The strange patterns that can result from intentional randomness lined up four Asian contestants for the two sessions on Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »
By Daniel Hathaway
Cleveland, OH — August 1, 2011
The jury has selected eight pianists to advance to the Semi-final round of the Cleveland International Piano Competition. The following names were read from the stage of the Bolton Theater at the Cleveland Play House tonight at 10:45 pm by jury chairman Peter Frankl, following the sixth session of the second round. Each will play one hour recitals during the afternoon and evening sessions on August 2 and 3, and four finalists will play concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall on August 5 and 6.
Tuesday, August 2 at 1pm*
Ms. Kyu Yeon Kim (25, Korea)
Mr. Yunjie Chen (30, China)
Tuesday, August 2 at 7 pm
Mr. Jae-Weon Huh (24, Korea)
Ms. EunAe Lee (23, Korea)
Wednesday, August 3 at 1pm*
Mr. Eric Zuber (26, USA)
Mr. Alexey Chernov (28, Russia)
Wednesday, August 3 at 7 pm
Mr. Alexander Schimpf (29, Germany)
Mr. Mateusz Borowiak (23, UK/Poland)
* please note the corrected start time.
