Preliminary
Rounds
Day 3 Recital 1
(11 am)
Sunday 26 May
2013
The United Kingdom has had a dismal record of sending pianists to
competitions of late, and so the Union Jack has mostly been
flown by JAYSON GILLHAM (Australia/UK),
who actually hails from the antipodes of Queensland, Australia. I have heard
him a few times, and have been totally impressed by his musicianship, and he
seems to get even better with time. This programme is similar to the one he
performed at the semi-finals of the 2005 London International Piano Competition.
As before, his Bach Toccata (it’s the
G minor BWV.911 this time) is immaculate and the contrapuntal lines lucidly
defined. The three Ligeti Etudes – Open Strings, Autumn in Warsaw and The
Sorceror’s Apprentice – reveal a true affinity to this idiom, sounding
positively inviting and lyrical in his hands.
There is a reassuring warmth to his
Chopin Third Sonata in B minor
(Op.58), and I cannot imagine a more poetic account of this overplayed
masterpiece. He produces a big sound, but never in expense of sensitivity,
which he possesses in heaps. The etude-like Scherzo
– spun with absolute accuracy and grace – gets premature applause – and the nocturne-like
slow movement passes like a dream. The valedictory finale builds upon waves of unrepressed
emotions, which gets more emphatic with each pass, and he closes in a flourish
of glory. Standometer: ***
My view: An absolutely musical being,
his progress in this competition will depend on what happens in his second
recital.
ERIC
ZUBER (USA)
is a typically American big-hitter, but with a soul of a poet. His Mozart Rondo in A minor (K.511) is a delightful
from start to finish, its simplicity is disarming but loaded with a sense of
brooding disquiet that gently comes to pass. His recital hinged upon how his
Chopin Twelve Etudes Op.10 fared. Unfortunately
he did not get to enjoy the fortunes of Deljavan from last night. In the A
minor study (No.2), he attempted to bring out a hidden melody in the left hand
and got unstuck for a split second. Elsewhere, he tended to over-pedal,
resulting in an over-reverberant and swimmy acoustic, not the best setting for
clarity of articulation. His best moments: No.1 (C major) and No.8 (F major) suggest
he has fingers of gold. Standometer: **
My
view:
The Cliburn is unforgiving for the slightest of technical infractions. That may
be his undoing.
ALEXEY
CHERNOV (Russia),
at 30 years of age, is one the competition’s veterans. He appears grim-faced
but this façade is immediately dispelled by his playing, which is warm and
generous in Bach’s Toccata in G minor
(BWV.915), a different one from Gillham’s. How playful the fugue sounded showed
he had an innate sense of humour that is beguiling. A master of sonorities, his
Three Etudes (Op.65) by Scriabin
traipsed the fine line between light and shade, inhabited by a spectrum of
colours not otherwise suspected. The Russian composer had synaesthesia, which
means he visualised colours whenever he heard sounds. Chernov’s account was living
proof of that.
The second Ravel Gaspard de la nuit of the competition showed how age and maturity
had the advantage over youthful prodigiousness. Compared with Khozyainov’s
marvellous account from last evening, Chernov’s had more physical presence. His
touch was a tad heavier in Ondine, which
was no less vivid, and he sounded more multi-dimensional, especially in the
repeated tolling B flats of Le gibet.
There was also more bite to his Scarbo,
being less obsessed with speed but making up with a more acute sense of sonority.
Standometer: **1/2
My view: Another standout, another
possible finalist in the making.
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