First Three Contestants Kick Off Final Round of Classic Piano 2024
Nine finalists will be duelling it out over three days for a prize fund of €250,000
All good things must inevitably come to an end, and now, after more than three weeks of intense competition, the 2024 Classic Piano International Competition has embarked on its fourth and final round!
With three participants taking to the stage of Zabeel Theatre on each day of this three-day round, jurors will get their last chance to watch all these talented performers in action, before making their final decisions on who will win the First Prize of €100,000 in cash coupled with a 10-concert tour with a total honorarium of €50,000!
Jury members Ashley Wass (UK), Zhe Tang (China), Hüseyin Sermet (Turkey), Marios Papadopoulos (UK), Giuliano Mazzoccante (Italy), Hae-Young Kim (South Korea), Stanislav Ioudenitch (USA), Eleanor Hope (Austria), François-Frédéric Guy (France), Pavel Gililov (Austria/Germany), Peter Donohoe (UK), Kirsten Dawes (South Africa/Germany), Epifanio Comis (Italy), Massimiliano Caldi (Italy), and Gisèle Ben-Dor (USA/Israel) are the ones tasked with making this consequential decision, and they will be listening intently as each pianist presents the concerto of their choice.
“The danger with young pianists is always speed”, Donohoe remarked, “and I was myself a young pianist once, and I know when I listen back to what I did I was also like this; it’s because we have young ears and everything is very energetic. What I think I’m looking for is someone who’s able to provide the space that music needs, and the trouble with most great Russian piano concertos is that it’s very hard to hold them back – Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky – those three composers they’re very difficult to hold, particularly if you have fantastic technique, which they do, all of them have! Once they get to the finals this is certain, it’s just amazing pianism, and the level of that is astonishing. So how do you choose between nine fantastic pianists… well I’m looking for the musician as opposed to just the pianist. I think that’s the essence of it.”
Asked about the prize that will be awarded to the First Prize Winner, which is one of the most substantial amongst contemporary piano contests, the UK juror observed that “I hope, given that it’s a fairly extensive tour and a lot of money, I hope they’re absolutely ready for it. Because if you win a competition, that night is a change of your life, especially with a competition that’s major like this one. It happened to me, 40 years ago! And you feel as if you’re another person because the world treats you differently, but you need to make sure to stay on the ground and be fully aware of reality as opposed to what people are telling you. Because what they’re telling you is based on your success and gradually that becomes more of the distant past, and I think that’s when it’s dangerous.”
Of the three participants who performed today, namely Zhiquan Wang, Yuanfan Yang, and Arina Antonosyan, two of them decided to present Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with Yang being the only one to choose Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
Rachmaninoff will also be making a return in tomorrow’s repertoire, with Andrey Gugnin electing to perform his third concerto as well, while Hyounglok Choi and Sunah Kim will both be interpreting Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. Finally, the last day of the round will see Anastasiia Kliuchereva with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Marek Kozak taking on Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Artem Kuznetsov closing things off with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
To keep updated with all the latest developments at Classic Piano 2024, make sure to visit the official website here.