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| The finalists (from L): Julian Trevelyan, Khanh Nhi Luong, Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, Junyan Chen & Kai-Min Chang Photo: Fmarshallphoto |
FINALS IMPRESSIONS
OF THE LEEDS INTERNATIONAL
PIANO COMPETITION 2024
Friday & Saturday
(20 & 21 September 2024)
St George’s Hall, Bradford
as viewed on YouTube
No, I’m not in Bradford, nor in Leeds, but in the comfy armchair of my piano den, watching the finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition. Reliving my 2006 experience (where I was actually in Leeds), there is a kind of deja vu, except that this year, the finals with orchestra is held in Bradford’s St George’s Hall as Leeds Town Hall is undergoing major renovations.
There have been major changes since then. Dame Fanny Waterman, founder of The Leeds, has passed on. Only the second stage onwards are held in UK. The semi-finals has a chamber music segment, and there will be just five finalists (instead of six). The partnering orchestra this year is the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic conducted by Domingo Hindoyan.
More controversially, this year’s jury’s instructions have now included affirmative action for women, including a consideration of favouring a woman pianist if there is a tie (supposedly to nullify the natural advantages men have), and a recount if the women to men ratio is unfavourable. That might explain why there are two women among five finalists this year, as opposed to 0 in 2021 and 1 in 2018 (making just 1 woman out of 10 finalists in the last two editions).
First Evening (Saturday)
JULIAN TREVELYAN (UK) was this competition’s wild card, having been the first reserve pianist, admitted into the Second Round when one of the 24 dropped out. He full justified the jury’s faith by giving an idiomatic and totally musical account of Bartok’s Third Piano Concerto. This is the mellowest (and supposedly “easiest”) of the Hungarian’s three piano concertos, but has never won a single competition.
No fault of Trevelyan’s as he has its poetry and Hungarian folk influences down pat. There were truly beautiful moments in the Adagio religioso slow movement, coloured by Bartok’s patented night music episode. The finale was sufficiently ebullient, the fugato very well handled and there was nothing to dislike about the performance.
My thoughts: He’s already succeeded by making it this far, but Bartok (like Mozart) is unlikely to trump the likes of Brahms, Rachmaninov or Prokofiev.
KAI-MIN CHANG (Taiwan) was a standout of the earlier rounds, but with Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto in G major (Op.58), it was going to be a tough sell. Another very idiomatic performance, and he acquitted himself very well musically and it was hard to believe he was playing this concerto for the very first time with orchestra.
Again, there was nothing to dislike in his reading, which got steadier as the work progressed, capturing well the slow movement’s gravitas and the finale’s joie de vivre.
My thoughts: He might have fared better with Beethoven’s Third or Fifth, for the Fourth is the most difficult to pull off convincingly, even for keyboard veterans.
JUNYAN CHEN (China) gave the performance of the evening with Rachmaninov’s Fourth Piano Concerto in G minor (Op.40). With the Second and Third expunged from this year’s repertoire list, this “Cinderella” concerto, less melodically interesting and harmonically grittier than its predecessors, could go down like a lead stone. Except that it did not in Chen’s buoyant and even joyous reading, which makes one wonder why this is not more often heard (the obvious reason is the existence of Nos.2, 3 and Paganini Rhapsody).
No matter, if there is a performance of this concerto to make new friends, this is it. Chen possessed the physical heft, lyrical sensibility and rhythmic drive to make this problematic vehicle work. The slow movement’s big melody and chordal climax (recycled from an earlier Etude-tableau in C minor, Op.33 No.3) was gloriously brought out, before the finale’s hell-for-leather romp.
My thoughts: Possible winner of the competition, certainly to figure within the top three places. She looked like she enjoyed every moment of this concerto.
Second Evening (Sunday)
KHANH NHI LUONG (Vietnam) has done Southeast Asia proud for being the first pianist from this region to make the finals of the Leeds. Nobody else has come close. Her vision of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto in C major (Op.26) was exactly what one would have hoped for, a combination of steel fingers and a velvet touch.
The secret was keeping a fleet-fingered technique throughout and applying percussion on demand, best demonstrated in the central movement’s Theme and Variations. There were some nervous moments of wrong notes in the finale, but she held her nerve to close with stunning aplomb.
My thoughts: Well done, she has become the most famous Vietnamese pianist since Dang Thai Son. A new piano legend. Good for a top three ranking.
JAEDEN IZIK-DZURKO (Canada) was the pre-competition favourite, and displayed rock-solid performances in the second round and semi-finals. In Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto in B flat major (Op.83), all he needed to do was to turn up and not falter, and then win. In the longest concerto by far, he was rock-steady from the very outset, his opening statement and cadenza was confidence itself. Never looking back, this was a performance of brain and brawn.
With the heavy lifting of the first two movements done, it was poetry all the way to the end. The RLPO’s principal cellist was part of the slow movement’s chamber music which was reciprocated in kind by the piano. The lightness of the finale, with playfulness worn on the sleeve, completed a memorable performance. One just needs to forget this is a competition, and he did so without apology.
My thoughts: Likely to be the first Canadian winner since Jon Kimura Parker in 1984.
The jury was not far away from this assessment, awarding the prizes as follows:
First: Jaeden Izik-Dzurko (Canada)
Second: Junyan Chen (China)
Third: Khanh Nhi Luong (Vietnam)
Fourth: Kai-Min Chang (Taiwan)
Fifth: Julian Trevelyan (UK)
Audience Prize: Tomoharu Ushida (Japan)
Contemporary Music Prize:
Kai-Min Chang (Taiwan)
Special Prize for best Semifinalist not advanced to the Finals: Ryan Zhu (Canada)
Special Prize for performance of women’s compositions: Junyan Chen (China)
Special Prize for best chamber music performance:
Junyan Chen (China)
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