SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2025: GRAND FINAL / Review

 

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 

PIANO COMPETITION 2025 

GRAND FINAL 

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall 

Sunday (19 January 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 January 2025 with the title "Singapore International Piano Competition levels up with stellar global competitors".

It is a strange but true fact that there has not been a major international piano competition in Singapore since the Rolex International Piano Competition in 1989. The Singapore International Piano Competition, now in its fifth edition, has been operating under the radar for the past few years, organised by the China-based Global International Musicians Association (GIMA) which has otherwise no imprint here. 

Jury members included
Xiaohan Wang (Artistic Director), Danwen Wei,
Adam Gatehouse, Piers Lane, Gesa Luecker,
Noriko Ogawa, Katarzyna Popova-Zydron
& Albert Tiu.

The competition, however, took a massive leap this year by attracting an international cast of young pianists, judged over multiple rounds by an august international jury (comprising well-known concert pianists and pedagogues) and culminating in a final concerto round with a full symphony orchestra. Judging by the playing in earlier rounds, the standard has never been higher, with 20 pianists from ten Asian and European nations whittled down to just three for the final showdown. 

The Metropolitan Festival Orchestra conducted by Chan Tze Law did the accompanying and the final outcome was nothing less than satisfactory. For someone as young as Leyu Xu from China, at 16 and the most junior competitor, it must have been a daunting task. 

Her nerves mostly served her well in Sergei Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, where she matched the orchestra blow-for-blow. Overcoming the most technically difficult variations with relative ease, the chordal climax of the famous 18th Variation became the glorious pinnacle of her performance. Momentary desynchronisations with the orchestra near the final hurdle threatened to derail the proceedings but she held up well to the end. 

Quite unusually, there were two performances of Sergei Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto in G minor (Op.16). This is regularly essayed in high level piano competitions but not often heard in concert because of its ferocious technical demands. That competition warhorses, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s First and Rachmaninov’s Second and Third Concertos, had been expunged from the prescribed repertoire might have also explained this anomaly. 

Already a seasoned soloist, 26-year-old Russian Philipp Lynov provided the requisite Slavic brooding for the opening slow movement. The gigantic cadenza which entered most surreptitiously was gradually built up with ever-escalating intensity to its monstrous climax of sweeping arpeggios and crashing chords. 

The machine-gun rattling in the Scherzo and myriad grotesqueries of the Intermezzo were very well negotiated before the finale’s tempestuous onslaught of percussive violence. 

This would have been the winning performance if not for 20-year-old Tianyou Li from China replicating the same heroics but in a more nuanced reading which better contrasted darkness and the light of day. 

While Lynov focused fully on the unremitting tragedy, Li’s performance was one that provided glimmers of hope amid a cataclysm. It was this hope that made the difference. And it also helped that the orchestra was performing the concerto for a second time in the evening, hence a better-oiled outing. 

The jury voted to award third place to Xu, second to Lynov and the crowning first to Li, who also won the prize for the best performance of J.S.Bach. A very bright musical future beckons.

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2025: HERE ARE THE FINALISTS

The three finalists of the Singapore International Piano Competition 2025 have been named. 

They are Leyu Xu (China), Philipp Lynov (Russia) and Tianyou Li (China). They will perform a concerto each with the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra conducted by Chan Tze Law on Sunday evening (7 pm, 19 January 2025) at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory.

The finals concert:

LEYU XU (China) performs 

RACHMANINOV Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (Op.43)

PHILIPP LYNOV (Russia) performs

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor (Op.16)

TIANYOU LI (China) performs

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor (Op.16)

Tickets at $30 are available at SISTIC:

https://sistic.com.sg/events/lite_2025sipcfinal

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2025: SEMI-FINALS SESSION I

 

SEMI-FINAL ROUND 

Session I (Thursday, 16 January 2025) 

Because of my work schedule, I got to catch just two of six semi-finalists, and even for that, I had to leave work early. Each of the pianists would perform a solo recital followed by a violin sonata and encore with Chinese violinist Ning Feng. Getting to hear Cesar Franck’s sublime Violin Sonata in A major twice in a single sitting is the stuff of dreams. So no regrets. 

Tiankun Ma (17, China) had earlier impressed in Chopin’s 24 Preludes (Op.28), so there was lots to expect from him in a recital of three sonatas. His Haydn Sonata in C major (Hob.XVI:48) began deliberately but was clear and clean cut in his articulation. The finale had both wit and humour. In Chopin’s Funeral March Sonata in B flat minor (Op.35), described as “his four wildest children under the same roof”, was a combination of vehemence and lyricism. His thunderous response in the first two movements was balanced by the eponymous Funeral March’s gravity and the central section’s stark beauty before the whirlwind of its mysterious finale. 

His view of Prokofiev’s Sonata No.7 in B flat major (Op.83) was one of extreme percussive violence, but he seemed to know what inquieto (disquiet) meant, which was to get under one’s skin. The famous Precipitato finale began steadily but built up a head of steam before finishing strongly. 

Good as his solo recital was, his inexperience showed in the Franck Sonata, where he gelled mostly with the highly experienced Ning Feng but had flubs in the second and fourth movements. It was a rough and ready reading and in the encore, Kreisler’s Liebesleid, his preening and prancing to the waltz rhythm was exaggerated and distracting. Is he accompanying the violinist, or the other way round? 

Leyu Xu (16, China) continued to impress in her solo recital. Mozart’s Sonata in D major (K.311) received a very bright and vibrant performance, which seemed to exhibit Romantic era sensibilities but without its excesses. The touching slow movement wore its heart on the sleeve, while the deceptively difficult Rondo seemed like putty in her hands. In Chopin’s skittish Scherzo No.4 in E major (Op.54), she brought out its elusive wit which is often a closed book to far older players. 

Most impressive, however, was her reading of Henri Dutilleux’s Sonata Op.1 which has to be heard to be believed. The jazz-inflected pages of its first movement flashed through effortlessly, the central Lied an oasis of beatific calm before the Choral et Variations provided the icing on the cake. Pianists double or triple her age will envy the seeming facility of her assured performance. 

Age did not seem an impediment to her performance of the Franck Sonata with Ning Feng. When Ma had earlier struggled, her more organic reading seemed a breeze as she and Ning blended far more naturally. This was a total treat and Elgar’s Salut d’Amour became a most fitting encore with she being the perfect accompanist. Even without hearing the other four pianists, I am convinced she will be one of the finalists.

Watch the semi-final session here.

And more here:

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2025: PRELIMINARY ROUND SESSION III

 

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 

PIANO COMPETITION 2025 

PRELIMINARY ROUND Session III 

(Tuesday, 14 January 2025) 

As I am still working, I was only able to catch the piano competition live in the evening. There were just two pianists when I had expected three, but the playing standard was so high that there were simply no complaints from me! I was able to catch the earlier sessions via YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@amadeustv), and was immediately blown away by the musicianship and virtuosity of the pianists. This was to be no ordinary piano competition, and by far the highest standards of playing I have ever witnessed on this island. 

Attending live is so much better than watching videos, and so I headed down to the School of The Arts to join the few dozen other people to watch the performances in person. 

Leyu Xu (16, China) is a child prodigy whom I first encountered in 2019 playing Carl Vine’s First Sonata (second movement) and am pleased that she continues to progress. Although she did not observe repeats, her view of J.S.Bach’s Partita No.5 in G major was one radiating the joy and vitality of youth. The crispness and clarity of articulation through the dance movements impressed, and she kept the narrative flowing. In Haydn’s Sonata in D major (Hob.XVI:32), she captured both gravitas and wit to the right degree, and if Chopin’s Third Ballade in A flat major (Op.47) came across as somewhat prosaic despite its finesse, its probably tainted by over-familiarity. 

Finally the gloves came off for the celestial violence of Messiaen’s Regard de l’Esprit de joie from Vingt regards sur l‘enfant Jesus. Despite her slight frame (being the tiniest of twenty pianists), she delivered in heaps, completely unfazed by its physical and technical demands. Her pluck, passion and poetry are reminiscent of a great Chinese pianist who decades ago equally impressed at that age – Chen Sa. 

Jeyu Lee (26, South Korea) did observe all the repeats in J.S.Bach’s French Suite No.5 in G major, and for the second time round each dance, the added ornamentations were ear-catching, stylish and unobtrusive. His Gavotte and Gigue, often rushed off by over-eager keyboard technicians, were more measured responses which still had the lightness and sparkle. Although the programme leaflet had listed Chopin’s 24 Preludes (Op.28), what came instead was the 12 Etudes (Op.25), which proved the final treat of the evening. 

Like Yunchan Lim in his Decca recording, Lee brought out hidden voices never previously encountered in several of these, most pointedly in the F minor (No.2) study. His technique was mostly beyond reproach, and even the running thirds of the G sharp minor (No.6) held no terrors for him. His resistance to barnstorm was a credit, and he delivered the famous slow “Cello” Etude in C sharp minor (No.7) most beautifully. The blazing fire, snow and tsunami of the three final studies (Nos.10-12) were not so much a show of virtuosity but intense musicianship. A few missed notes in the dozen meant little in the scheme of things.