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TCHAIKOVSKY TRIUMPHS
Barry Millington
The Evening Standard (London)
September 22, 2011 Thursday
UK
There are competitions and competitions, and then there's the
International Tchaikovsky Competition. Founded in 1958, the
Tchaikovsky, which these days embraces cello and voice as well as
piano and violin, is arguably the most prestigious of them all.
Previous winners include Ashkenazy, Van Cliburn, Pletnev and Sokolov,
while former judges have numbered such legends as Richter, Oistrakh
and Callas. In recent years, though, the Tchaikovsky has fallen prey
to the malaise that afflicts most competitions sooner or later. There
were accusations of favouritism, cartels and bribes, and eventually
Valery Gergiev was hired to ride in and cleanse the Augean stables.
Under his chairmanship the 2011 competition delivered winners who
may not have been uncontroversial Ñ that would have been asking too
much Ñ but who could grace a gala concert by the LSO under Gergiev
himself fit to open the season.
First up was the South Korean soprano Sunyoung Seo, who delivered
an affecting account of the Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin. It's
requiring a lot of a singer to invest such a scene with all the
expressive immediacy and poignancy that the dramatic context helps
to create, but this was a Tatyana I would like to hear more of.
Winner of the cello section was Armenian Narek Hakhnazaryan,
who brought to Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations an ideal blend of
Mozartian elegance and intimations of the melancholy that was to
characterise Onegin (composed very shortly after). But inevitably
it's the blockbuster of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 in B
flat minor that defines the competition and the winner of the piano
section. The young Russian Daniil Trifonov can pound the ivories with
all the power of his compatriots. He found ways of making the piece
his own, though, with some inspired turns of phrase.
After all the heroics it was good to hear another side of this
talented artist in an encore, Liszt's La Campanella, thrown off with
breathtaking delicacy.
From: A. Papazian
Barry Millington
The Evening Standard (London)
September 22, 2011 Thursday
UK
There are competitions and competitions, and then there's the
International Tchaikovsky Competition. Founded in 1958, the
Tchaikovsky, which these days embraces cello and voice as well as
piano and violin, is arguably the most prestigious of them all.
Previous winners include Ashkenazy, Van Cliburn, Pletnev and Sokolov,
while former judges have numbered such legends as Richter, Oistrakh
and Callas. In recent years, though, the Tchaikovsky has fallen prey
to the malaise that afflicts most competitions sooner or later. There
were accusations of favouritism, cartels and bribes, and eventually
Valery Gergiev was hired to ride in and cleanse the Augean stables.
Under his chairmanship the 2011 competition delivered winners who
may not have been uncontroversial Ñ that would have been asking too
much Ñ but who could grace a gala concert by the LSO under Gergiev
himself fit to open the season.
First up was the South Korean soprano Sunyoung Seo, who delivered
an affecting account of the Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin. It's
requiring a lot of a singer to invest such a scene with all the
expressive immediacy and poignancy that the dramatic context helps
to create, but this was a Tatyana I would like to hear more of.
Winner of the cello section was Armenian Narek Hakhnazaryan,
who brought to Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations an ideal blend of
Mozartian elegance and intimations of the melancholy that was to
characterise Onegin (composed very shortly after). But inevitably
it's the blockbuster of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 in B
flat minor that defines the competition and the winner of the piano
section. The young Russian Daniil Trifonov can pound the ivories with
all the power of his compatriots. He found ways of making the piece
his own, though, with some inspired turns of phrase.
After all the heroics it was good to hear another side of this
talented artist in an encore, Liszt's La Campanella, thrown off with
breathtaking delicacy.
From: A. Papazian