Chopin Piano Competition 2020-2021

oshogg · 2021-10-09T00:33:51+00:00

The stage II of International Chopin Piano competition is starting soon. The first round winners were just announced. There is quite an excellent live broadcast of the competition at https://www.youtube.com/c/chopininstitute The quality of audio and video has been spectacular. Enjoy if you have time! Osho

arc

Deleted In the past, Musicians did not learn how to play an instrument. They learned Music, which is not only about mastering an instrument but also mastering theory, composition, improvisation, listening, interpretation. But today, only a handful of the participants in these competitions would be called Musicians. The majority are instrument players with outstanding technical capabilities, whose primary goal is to achieve maximum playing speed with zero wrong notes. And this the type of performance often rewarded by the juries, who do not seem to care about Music anymore.

MacMacMac

@arc: Those are bold claims. Where did you get these ideas?

oshogg

arc This notion that today's musicians are not accomplished in theory, composition, improvisation, listening, interpretation etc. and are just an 'expert technical player' is complete BS.

Osho

Johnstaf

arc The majority are instrument players with outstanding technical capabilities, whose primary goal is to achieve maximum playing speed with zero wrong notes

Then the fastest and most accurate players would win. They don't.

Jose EB5AGV

Last player yesterday, Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, was superb. I need to check, but I would be surprised if he didn't make to next phase

Deleted

Johnstaf Then the fastest and most accurate players would win. They don't.

For lower-tier competitions it is usually the relationship with jury members, which decides who wins.

vagfilm

And the 12 finalists are announced…

From the website:

Ms Leonora Armellini, Italy
Mr J J Jun Li Bui, Canada
Mr Alexander Gadjiev , Italy/Slovenia
Mr Martin Garcia Garcia, Spain
Ms Eva Gevorgyan, Russia/Armenia
Ms Aimi Kobayashi, Japan
Mr Jakub Kuszlik, Poland
Mr Hyuk Lee, South Korea
Mr Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, Canada
Mr Kamil Pacholec, Poland
Mr Hao Rao, China
Mr Kyohei Sorita, Japan

The final auditions will be held from 18 to 20 October, only in evening sessions starting at 6:00pm CEST. You can find a detailed timetable in the Calendar tab. Each pianist will play one of Fryderyk Chopin’s two piano concertos."

Some of my favourites are still in competition (Gadjiev, but also Li Bui, Bruce Liu, Kyohei Sorita), as with some that I really did not like (1,10,11… Hey… what do I know?) and some that I have not yet listened to… Too bad I cannot stomach through 12 piano concertos…

CyberGene

I largely stopped following the competition after they cut off Osokins but from what I’ve head in the first two stages Gadjiev and Gevorgyan are very fine players, especially the latter who is only 17 👏🏻

CyberGene

arc But today, only a handful of the participants in these competitions would be called Musicians. The majority are instrument players with outstanding technical capabilities, whose primary goal is to achieve maximum playing speed with zero wrong notes. And this the type of performance often rewarded by the juries, who do not seem to care about Music anymore.

I’d rather agree with that statement although it may be a bit on the extreme side. IMO players like Bozhanov and Osokins are true musicians who can reflect Chopin through their personal point of view. Most of the others are just good playing “machines”.

oshogg

Among the remaining, the following are my favorites. I hope some of them end up in top 3.

Ms Eva Gevorgyan, Russia/Armenia
Ms Aimi Kobayashi, Japan
Mr Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, Canada
Mr Kyohei Sorita, Japan

Sorita seems to have developed quiet a bit of following - at least judging by the comments in the chat in youtube live stream.

Osho

arc

Johnstaf In top-tier competitions they do not due to quality of the competitors. The finalists are amongst the best young adult pianists out there. But in lower and mid-tier competitions a player with mediocre musicality but high accuracy and the ability to show off a virtuoso piece can certainly make it.

arc

oshogg Alexander Gadjiev performance a while ago may have put him in the top 3. Kyohei Sorita had one of the best performances in the final so far and in my opinion was extremely consistent during the previous stages. Aimi Kobayashi and Bruce Liu (performing tomorrow) as well. Eva Gevorgyan had her moments in previous stages, but she is nailing the Concerto right now…

vagfilm

I don't have the time to listen (skim…) to more than 2 or 3. Other than Gadjiev (which is my favorite of the ones I listened in the previous stages), which 2 of the ones that already played (8 so far, correct?) do you recommend?

vagfilm

Just listened to Eva Gevorgyan, and it was wonderful… Have to check her playing on the previous stages. Did not enjoy Garcia Garcia…

vagfilm

vagfilm Some of my favourites are still in competition (Gadjiev, but also Li Bui, Bruce Liu, Kyohei Sorita),

The winners of the 2020 (2021) were announced a few minutes ago… Out of the 4 that I selected 3 days ago (when the 12 finalists were announced) I got the 1st place winner (Liu), the two 2nd places (Gadjiev and Sorita), and the 6th place (Bui). Happy with my non-expert choices, and happy with these future good pianists (Gadjiev was phenomenal in many pieces, and probably the best barcarolle I ever listened to; Liu was consistently good but not brilliant as Gadjiev). We must not forget that Trifonov finished in 4th place in 2010 just ahead of Bozhanov)… and see how that turned out…

Gombessa

vagfilm Congrats! Bet you wish we started a pool 🙂

Jose EB5AGV

My favourites were Liu(1st), Kobayashi (4th) and Garcia (3rd) (well, being Spanish I was perhaps somewhat biased, but I really liked his concert rendition). So, for a complete newcomer to this kind of competition, I did also pretty well! 😄

CyberGene

I haven't listened to any of the Bruce Liu performances in this competition and didn't know about him until he was declared a winner last night so it comes as a bit of surprise to me 😲 But I guess he must be very good to earn it.

BTW, I discovered Osokins through this competition, a few weeks ago (although he has participated in the previous one but I don't remember him) and he reminds me so much of my favorite Evgeni Bozhanov. Turns out they are actually friends, studied with the same teacher, they both play low at the piano and bring their own Fazioli chairs and play the Yamaha CFX, as well as very similar repertoire. Too much of coincidence to be random! Which is why I started researching Osokins and listened to his two Chopin CD-s and I'm in complete awe! 👏🏻 This is exactly my Chopin, very personal, very original, improvisational, even slightly awkward but very touching. Frankly, I don't care much about the other players now who are indeed great players but they just play safe and so their competition was mostly one of comparing playing skills, stamina and nerve-control rather than originality. That being said, I'm fully aware that this competition is not about originality and individuality.

These are fantastic recordings I would whole-heartedly recommend:
https://music.apple.com/bg/album/osokins-plays-chopin/1436858842
https://music.apple.com/bg/album/chopin-late-works-op-57-61/1167479682

I'm sure those albums can be found on Spotify too.

QuasiUnaFantasia

Does anyone else find Chopin's nocturnes terribly boring? Oh, sorry, wrong thread. Carry on! 😉

CyberGene

OK, I just listened to Bruce Liu's final (the concert) and I can't help but think that:

Fazioli is simply not my sound. The difference between ppp and fff is only in the volume. Almost like a single velocity layer piano 🤣 Yeah, I realize how ridiculous that it but it sounds like the piano is always equally bright in timbre. I've had this experience with the Ivory Italian grand (that's long ago when I had a pirated copy of it but I've abandoned piracy for many years now, so please don't blame me!) as well as listening to demos of sampled Fazioli pianos.
Bruce Liu plays way too straight-forward, it's just a nice playing and I can't find any other words that I can describe his playing. So, again, maybe just not my type of Chopin, not saying he doesn't deserve the award.

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