Cliburn Competition: Preliminary Recital I, June 2, 2022
Photo credits: Richard Rodriguez; Ralph Lauer
—Wayne Lee Gay
The magically evocative first measures of Scriabin’s aptly nicknamed “Black Mass” Sonata, delivered by Latvian pianist Georgijs Osokins, provided an appropriately entrancing opening for the 2022 Cliburn Competition Thursday morning. Osokins immediately discovered the gorgeous tonal qualities of the piano in the brand new and acoustically superb Cliburn Concert Hall, and he expertly explored the resonant possibilities of the piano in the room in a well-chosen piece, aiming toward the breathtaking quiet close.
While clearly reveling in the sonorities of Chopin’s Third Piano Sonata—one of that composer’s most richly melodic works—he sacrificed precision and definition. Individual phrases were striking, but overall impetus was absent. The enthusiastic audience broke into applause before the second movement; Osokin once again created an almost sensuous cloud of sound, but sacrificed momentum, here and in the ensuing Scherzo movement and closing finale. A heavy foot on the pedal did not further Osokin’s case.
As the first competitor to perform, Osokins had the privilege of presenting the world premiere of the competition’s required commissioned work, British composer-pianist (and jury member) Stephen Hough’s Fanfare Toccata. (As all thirty competitors are required to perform the piece during the preliminary round, it will, for the next three days, be the most frequently performed piano work by living composer in the world.) The relentlessly optimistic Fanfare Toccata (a superb antidote to the general condition of the world these days) offers a recurring rising Fanfare theme alternating with passages of impressionistic cascades and a beautiful reflective section with a slightly jazzy accent. The challenges are huge, but the rewards are great in a work created by a great virtuoso with a superb insight into piano sonority.
Next up, Russian pianist Elizaveta Kliuchereva came onstage in a glittering gown with waist-length hair, opening with an unabashedly aggressive and noisy rendition of the Hough Fanfare Toccata. She followed with one of the monuments of nineteenth-century romanticism, Belgian-French composer Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Choral et Fugue; although her technique sparkled as much as her gown, she apparently hasn’t discovered the magical space between piano and forte—and, indeed, tended to turn every forte into fortissimo.
After an intriguing use of the damper pedal for resonance in the opening phrase in her final work, Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole, she launched into a performance of that grand showpiece that was technically impressive but lacked clear direction.
So, the morning belonged to the final performer of the session, Chinese pianist Ziyu Liu. He opened with a technically clean, attractively assertive of Schubert’s Drei Klavierstücke (D. 946); he clearly knows how to achieve the perfect balance of classicism and romanticism in this music. Likewise, he has that special—and rare—ability to create distinctive contrapuntal voicing at the piano, as in a fine chorus.
Liu headed in a completely different direction with Bartok’s Sonata, Sz. 80 of 1926, a masterpiece brilliantly marrying modernism, folk influence, and classical structure; particularly impressive moments arrived in the perfectly shaped chime motif of the second movement and in the blood-curdling finale—in Liu’s capable hands, a wild folk dance for all humanity.
Liu eased capably into the required piece by Hough, closing a short program that revealed him as a pianist equally at home with Schubert and Bartok, leaving this listener is eager to hear more from him.
