Cliburn Competition: Preliminary Recital 6, June 3, 2022
—Wayne Lee Gay
Belarussian Uladzislau Khandohi opened the Friday evening session with a highly successful program focusing on variations and short works. After starting with the required Hough Fanfare Toccata, Khandohi moved on to Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, an extended work in which Schumann aimed to demonstrate the ability of the piano to create a symphonic array of effects. As such, it takes the form of a set of variations, with each demonstrating a pianistic technique or effect. Khandohi handled the challenge neatly, simultaneously achieving the magnificent forward impetus Schumann built into the work.
In Scriabin’s Mazurka in E minor, Opus 25, No. 3, Khandohi captured the mystical ambiguity of this dreamlike dance from the spirit world. Prokofiev’s Four Etudes, Opus 2, written by the teenage composer in 1909, provides mature challenges and demands skills ranging from feathery light scales to muscular ostinato figures, all of which Khandohi performed handily.
Italian Francesco Granata likewise presented a very effective program, opening with a short, rarely performed “Meditation” by Tchaikovsky, in which he demonstrated a magically soft pianissimo as well as perfectly executed extended soft trill.
After Hough’s Fanfare Toccata, Granata presented two highly contrasting works: Schubert’s Sonata in A minor, D. 784, and the day’s second performance of Guido Agosti’s piano transcription of Stravinsky’s Firebird. In the Schubert, Granata once again delivered an ear-catching pianissimo, with brief contrasting moments throughout this introspective work. Aside from a slight misjudgment of pedal at one point, the Stravinsky provided a strong close to Granata’s bid for advancement.
Chinese pianist Yutong Sun managed to cover four centuries in his program, opening with a richly textured version of Handel’s Chaconne in G in which he unabashedly drew on the full resources of the modern piano. While definitely not historically authentic, the effect was thrilling, with a wonderful gradual accelerando and crescendo toward the final cadence. Still going strong, Sun gave the noisiest version of Hough’s Toccata Fanfare so far, turning every forte into a fortissimo.
Hungarian Gyorgy Ligeti’s Etude No. 13, aptly titled “The Devil’s Staircase,” features an obsessive, constantly rising motif, presented with much panache by Sun. Moving in an entirely opposite direction, he leaned into the lyricism of Beethoven’s Opus 110, with feather-light arpeggio figures in the opening movement of the sonata, and a sturdy rendition of the notorious fugue of the final movement.
