3RD HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION / Winners Announced

The results of the 3rd Hong Kong International Piano Competition were delivered shortly after 10.20 pm, which did not take very long to arrive. According to Chairman of the Jury Vladimir Ashkenazy, the decision was unanimous. By 10.30 pm, everybody was ready to go home, but many stayed behind to meet and greet and have their photos taken.

The final placings were as follows:

FIRST PRIZE: Giuseppe Andaloro (Italy)

SECOND PRIZE: Sato Keina (Japan)

THIRD PRIZE: Tsai Min Hao (Taiwan)

FOURTH PRIZE: Ann Soo Jung (South Korea)

FIFTH PRIZE: Elmar Gasanov (Russia)

SIXTH PRIZE: Chen Han (Taiwan)

Giuseppe Andaloro learns he has just won the 3rd HKIPC.

Even at 14 years of age, Tsai Min Hao (red and white stripes) stands out among the throng.

Prof. Li Mingqiang congratulates Andaloro as Ashkenazy looks on.

Garrick Ohlsson has some words for the winner too.

All the winners, Jinsang Lee (2008), Ilya Rashkovskiy (2005) and Giuseppe Andaloro (2011) with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Drs Andrew and Anabella Freris. Winners all!

A lovely Korean pair: Jinsang Lee and Ann Soo Jung.

Chen Han with the Boss.

Peter Frankl congratulates Sato Keina.

The winners have a victory smoke.

Hong Kong International Piano Competition 2011 / Finals Day 2, Part 2

3RD HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

Finals Day 2 (Saturday 29 October 2011), Part 2

SATO KEINA (Japan)

Sato Keina is a serious looking young Japanese lady for whom a hint of a smile might even seem a tad too forward. Her maroon evening gown is elegant and understated. She performed the Blake with the score as safety net, when she need not have. Using the sustaining pedal a little more than the others, she achieved an impressionistic glow to her performance, again sounding different from the other versions we have heard. First it began Debussy-like, and later with the onset of chimes and bells, the dissonances were highlighted and it gradually morphed to sound like the ecstatic pages of Messiaen. Again it was different, and a lady friend seated next to me commented on Sato’s “feminine mystique”. I think she hit the nail on the head.

Her Beethoven Third Piano Concerto was also different from Tsai’s. First it sounded more urgent and serious, and she had none of the youngster’s extraneous gestures. Fact: at 27, she is almost double his age. One could also feel a more mature and subtler mind at work, but could apply power and voltage when the need arose. On her debit side, her performance was less clean, having flubbed some of the arpeggio runs in the first movement cadenza. Here she appeared a little vulnerable alongside Tsai’s rock-steady confidence.

I however preferred her view of the slow movement, which had a reverential air besides the requisite poetic beauty. Yet there was a sense of world weariness and fragility that coloured the reading, and a missed note and French horn raspberry seemed to underline that fallibility. The concluding Rondo had a nervous edge that was missing in the young man’s performance, with an emphasis on clearer accents and contours. Much as both pianist and orchestra tried, those moments at the end of the pianist’s dazzling runs which coincided with orchestral cadences did not come off cleanly. It would have been the equivalent of catching lightning in a bottle had those split-second decisions clicked. Conductor Ashkenazy knew it, but he smiled nonetheless. A slightly grim–faced view turned to pure joy from the coda to the final page, and that itself was worthy of good cheer.

My verdict: A more mature but less clean vista of already familiar music. Sato’s self-effacing and embarrassed look summed up her outing. Tsai’s youth and confidence has the edge.