Hastings International Piano Concerto Finals and Results
VICTORIA KINGHAM
So it’s done. A whole year of organisation, ten days of one-after-another performances by some of the world’s finest young pianists. An extraordinary event, a glittering array of talent. It was a privilege and a revelation to me to attend Stage Two and the final, comprising concerts by young pianists who are surely among the best anywhere.
They chose from a set list of concertos in each round. At Stage Two, they also had to play the same new work (premiered at the competition) by Lera Auerbach called Time Irredeemable. It is fiendishly difficult and unusually, interactive, in that half-way through it requires the performer to continue by choosing one of two different passages. The competitors I heard seemed to sail through this – the one piece of the whole competition during which they were allowed to have music on the piano. After stellar performances, it seemed tragic that none of these three reached the final. How good did they have to be?
There were five candidates for the finals on Friday and Saturday, 1 and 2 March. Friday’s people all chose the same concerto, so we heard Tchaikovsky’s No. 1 with its grand triumphant opening chords, bouncy allegro, elegant pizzicato passages three times. Now, each time hearing the nuances, the wondrous exchanges between piano and woodwind, the distribution and swellof the melody between solo instrument and orchestra, I will never ever take this piece for granted.
Friday’s candidates were Curtis Phill Hsu (19 years old), Hyelim Kim (27), and Derek Wang (25). Their styles were different – Hsu’s playing style is already that of a maestro, hands elegantly curving ready above the keyboard at every bar, movement, energy, concentration apparent in his every feature. He produced (from the amazing Steinway) a very substantial sound. Kim’s playing was different – she sat very straight, more or less still, all her concentrated effort going into her hands and, interestingly, her left foot. This was an intense and faultless performance. Derek Wang’s sensitivity highlighted the lyricism, and showed a transformative appreciation of the drama of the pause. It was a unique opportunity to watch these three in action. The judges had a difficult task. Speaking to one of them briefly, I asked whether there was a set list of points which they used to make their decision. He said yes, of course, but most of it was in here, and he tapped the side of his head.
Saturday’s performers were Harmony Zhu, 18, and Chengyao Zhou, just 16. They played with great panache – Zhou’s choice was Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which moves one impossibly to tears at the sheer beauty of Variation 18. It was played with enormous joy and perfection, but Zhou also had the command to make the lesser-known variations sound modern, elegant, and astonishing. Harmony Zhu’s choice was Prokoviev No. 3 – Not nearly so well-known, difficult, dramatic, jaggedly entrancing. She has the gift of communicating with both orchestra and audience, and her whole body engages rhythmically, eagerly, in the exposition. She came second overall, but unsurprisingly won the orchestra prize – the soloist they all voted for before they rushed back to London in their pantechnicon.
With regard to the orchestra, wiry, active, and apparently delighted to be there, conductor Rory MacDonald was totally in command. The Royal Philharmonic are exceptional, and they clearly enjoyed and responded to his direction throughout each evening, never flagging even at the third performance of the Tchaikovsky. Curtis Phill Tsu was announced the winner for his assured and accomplished rendering of that concerto. But by a hair’s breadth – it seemed to me it could have been anybody’s.
The Competition Winner’s Picnic Recital will be at Fairlight Hall at 12 pm on Sunday 7 July
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