Kyu Yeon Kim plays Haydn, Schumann and Bartók
For you Steinway fans, Kyu Yeon Kim is performing on the Cliburn Hamburg Steinway. I have not made it a secret that it is the favourite piano of mine among the three.
Kim opens the Haydn Sonata in C major with an exquisite sense of timing. The weight of the notes is just right, with just enough weight that it wouldn’t fly away with the breeze. The contrast between the C-major part and the C-minor part is well distinguished. It’s instantaneously recognisable that the performance is very well calculated, with all the humourous bits, the sweet bits, the fleshy bits, the juicy bits, in the right places. It’s a lot of fun to listen to the Rondo movement in particular. There is much joy with jabbing humour without being unnecessarily hurtful or ponderous. A delightful, refreshing hors d’oeuvre, for sure.
Kim then launches into the massive Kreisleriana with abandon. The texture is drier than it is often wet, but the staccati in the left hand are brought out distinctly. She has something to say. As she moves onto the end of the first piece, she restrains herself from romanticising the work excessively, and brings a touch of classicism, only to remind us that the story beings to unfold from there.
The approach is very disciplined, and carefully constructed. It is too easy to sentimentalise this repertoire, but Kim shows restraint that allows the audience to hear the colours, textures, lines, layers… the architectures. With over 30 minutes to go, there is no need to rush into anything, and she communicates to the audience to relax, take his time, and listen to the story. I think I’m going to put down my laptop computer, and just listen.
Now, Kim is allowing me to indulge in the lovely lines in No.6 in B-flat major. The tone is indulgent, loving, and the music is alive. I can not only hear the whispering voice in the music, but also the lightest breaths, and the soulful heartbeat.
Overall, Kim’s reading of Kreisleriana is mature, eloquent, without over indulgence. The subtle rubato, the sensual lines, the life she breathes into the music combine to form a story of an epic proportion. Nothing is overdone, or underachived. Every aspect of the music making: the notes, the silence, the voices, the colours, the rhythm… has its place, and is there for the audience to savour. Full-bodied, yet elegant… vibrant yet subtle… this is against starting to sound like a wine review. My apologies.
Now, here comes the Bartók!!!
It is quite a contrast from the eloquent reading of Kreisleriana we just heard. The angular shapes are strong and muscular, but almost a bit too elegant for my peasant ears. Within the context of this recital, the piece and the interpretation are shocking, and shows off a set of vocabulary not used in Haydn or Schumann. Yet the second etude’s lovely lines are colourful, though with a completely different set of hues. The third etude with its brilliance is superbly executed.
In all, Kim’s recital was like a multi-course dinner. Haydn was the amuse-bouche, and Schumann formed the main part of the dinner, with Bartok with a series of desserts with matching wines. The recital was complete in itself, and it left this audience completely satiated. No… I could use a good Cuban cigar now.
Cumming asks Kim about dinners, and Kim mentions going to Railhead, a local institution. However, I figure that Kim should celebrate at Saint-Emillion instead. I might just offer a glass of champagne to her, if I were there.
Ken Iisaka
May 26th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Trying to pick favorites to pass on the semi’s is becoming impossible with the calibre that we’ve seen in the performers, just in the last two sessions alone. I no longer know which 12 I like the best!!!
Now, back to the music!!!!
May 26th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Kim is the one I like the most by far today. She has a wonderful sense of color and her dynamics vary nicely serving well for the music. Her sensitivity is natural, elegant and beautiful and it manifests talent.
May 26th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Well folks, im off to new york for a competition of my own, so I wont be able to listen to the final two, but Im gonna go ahead and make my choices anyway. Im very familiar with Yeolum’s playing, and I’ve never heard her play any other way than flabbergastingly fantastic, so I’m putting her in on credit. The only one I couldn’t hear but wanted to was Alessandro, because there was no sound on the archived recording. Anyway, thanks to all the performers for giving me so much beautiful music to listen to (which incidentally kept me from practicing myself, but oh well).
Stephen Beus
Ran Dank
Spencer Myer
Michail Lifits
Lukas Vondracek
Mariangela Vacatello
Evgeni Bozhanov
Ilya Rashkovskiy
Haochen Zhang
Kyu Yeon Kim
Yeolum Son
These 11 I believe will definitely be there (although I feel Ilya is unfortunately on the bubble because of the Beethoven). As for the 12th man or woman, it could be any number of people. Amy is an incredible musician and a wonderful, sincere person but I felt the Bach was a little heavy-handed today, I’m not sure it will be the jury’s cup of tea. Di Wu can do amazing things physically at the piano. She has an unlimited facility. That being said, I thought Alborada was far too fast for my personal taste. Andrea Lam did many wonderful things last night and I think she could very well be the 12th as well. I’ll be very interested to see the results. Good luck to everyone. They are all absolutely amazing, and the sacrifice they put themselves through to bring us this beautiful music makes all of them my personal heroes.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I know many pianists who would “kill” for Kim’s left hand. She is a wonder and will certainly advance.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I think it would be unfair to select only 12 out of these 29, because it implies the rest are not good enough. It doesn’t come down to technique because everyone here has more than enough. It might come down to repertoire … implying who do you enjoy to see play. But repertoire doesn’t necessarily indicate a superior talent, it just indicates a musical taste, or style, that matches your taste.
I want to congratulate all 29 people here, even though we have yet to hear the remaining 2. If it were up to me, I will advance those last 2 recital unheard along with the 27 we have already heard into the semifinals.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
I am amazed by the quality of these pianists. I said of the first one I saw (Chetan Tierra) tha despite concerns about his style, I would happily pay top dollar to see him. And that has been true of almost everyone who has followed him, even those where there have been criticisms. If they came to my local hall I would be deep in debt for tickets — unfortunately that is not about to happen. HOWEVER, it does turn out that Lukas Vondracek came to my little town in the middle of England where I live — 8 years ago (when he was 14) to give a concert in the summer music festival here. I did not go, but a friend at work (who is not following the Cliburn) instantly recognised Lukas Vondracek’s name when I mentioned the real stand-out performance to me. He had even written a review at the time saying what a fantastic talent he was, and how he would go on to great things. I was just blown away by the coincidence — and out little town is SMALL - we have no concert hall, it would have been at a municipal building or church where he would have played. Anyway, apart from Lukas Vondracek I couldn’t begin to make up a list of only 12, so I shall be very vert interested (and probably inevitably disappointed) when I hear the judges’ decision.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
If Ilya R. is not in the semis, this competition is crap. Then again, Americans are not really respected for their understanding music.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Here is my pick (in order of my favorites):
Lukas Vondracek
Eduard Kunz
Spencer Myer
Michail Lifits
Evgeni Bozhanov
Stephen Beus
Zuo Zhang
Di Wu
Ran Dank
Mariangela Vacetello
Kyu Yeon Kim
Haochen Zhang
I’d be happy to see Tsujii and Varvaresos preceed as well. I didn’t watch the first day so I might have missed a few.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
My Picks:
Top Tier
Bozhanov
Vondracek
Vacatello
Haochen Zhang
Middle Tier
Myer
Di Wu
Lower Tier
Lifits (he may not make it but I want to hear more)
Andrea Lam (I didn’t love her but everyone else did)
Kyu Yeon Kim
Zuo Zhang
Soyeon Lee
Beus (has more ability than he showed, I hope he makes it)
2 more to go! Soyeon Lee and Beus are my bubble artists; they’d be the first to be replaced.
May 26th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Interesting site, but much advertisments on him. Shall read as subscription, rss.
May 26th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
I left out Rashkovskiy! He’s definitely a contender; ahead of Lee and Beus at minimum.
May 26th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I don’t have a top 12 at this point, but I have to say the ones who caught my attention just for the sheer energy and love for the music that they projected throughout were Myer, Andrea Lam, and, actually, Naomi Kudo. There were others I enjoyed more as artists (I actually really liked Natacha Kudritskaya, among others who have already been named here), but those were the 3 whose performances stuck with me. The freshness in all three really kept me entranced throughout.
May 26th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
The only thing that can take Rashkovsky out of the competition is the repertoir selection. But for me was one of the best interpretation of “standards” so far. The Chopin, i almoast cried after the first bars of the intriduction!!!! What taste for detail in frasing!! If you can, ear again with atention, it`s beyond this world. The only let down was the very beginig of the presto but i already surended to his interpretation.
The Beethoven was also very deep! As one said “Beethoven last sonatas are not Music, they are Filosofy”
May 26th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
OK, here’s my list of the semifinalists, with one big caveat. I had to leave Fort Worth this morning to return home, so missed seeing the final five pianists–I expect there may have been some more amazing performances. I’ll definitely be watching tonight and am so grateful for all 29 pianists who put themselves out there to share their love of music. I appreciated the individuality and sensitivity of so many of the performances–it is indeed difficult to make cuts. I’ll treasure some of these performances forever. Special thanks to Nobuyuki and Rashkovskiy (for leaving me with a superlative reading of one of my favorite Sonatas).
Stephen Beus
Evgeni Bozhanov
Eduard Kunz
Spencer Myer
Ilya Rashkovsky
Mariangela Vocatello
Lukas Vondracek
Di Wu
Haochen Zhang
Nobuyuki Tsujii
Vassilis Varvaresos
Ning Zhou
Best to all pianists!
Thanks for this blog; I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments. It kept the fun going when the performance was over, especially for an out-of-towner who didn’t have many people to talk to about this fabulous experience. I went to semifinals last time, but I definitely will want to do the preliminaries again next time–I don’t want to miss a single pianist, especially after all they went to do get into this competition.
Cheers
May 26th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Every single one of these pianists is absolutely exceptional and plays at a superb level. One person I do feel some disappointment in, however, is Stephen Beus. No one can question his technical facility and virtuosity… But this was his second Cliburn, a return visit to show us how he has evolved and progressed as an artist. Thus, I am puzzled at the choice of playing Barber Sonata, in the preliminaries, which is also something he played here 4 years ago. In my personal opinion - the Barber played in 2009 didn’t offer anything new that we didn’t know about him. Perhaps if he had boldly played Hammerklavier in the preliminaries and instead of the semi-finals as he programmed this year - he would have made more of a statement with the jury - some of whom heard him play 4 years ago.
Anyway - that’s my humble opinion and why I omitted Stephen from my list:
Evgeni Bozhanov
Lukas Vondracek
Ran Dank
Haochen Zhang
Zhang Zuo
Di Wu
Ilya Rashkovsky
Amy Yang - a true musician!
Eduard Kunz
Naomi Kudo
Mariangela Vacatello
Kyu Yeon Kim
Yeol Eum Son seems to play note-perfect but for some reason her music is not speaking to me so far…
May 26th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
As Son is totally enthralling us all with the Liszt Spanish Rhapsody, how about in no certain order
Bozhanov
Beus
Kunz
Wu
Zuo
Zhou
Vondracek
Vacatello
Lam
Yang, Amy
Son
???
What a splendid five days these have been.