Inevitably there’s a winner

I don’t particularly like competitions, especially in the arts, but I enjoyed the finals of the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition well enough. Not for the fact that there was a winner, but because I got to hear the same pair of tunes played three times in such different ways by the three pianists who reached the finals. At least this time we guessed the winner (I have a poor record at Wangaratta), but that’s at least partly a function of our preferences as much as the performances.

Each finalist performed the same two Chopin pieces for the final: the lullaby Berceuse Op.57 and the Concerto no.1 in E minor with chamber accompaniment. The chamber group was made up of some members of the Goldner Sting Quartet and a few ring-ins: Dimity Hall and Mark Ingwersen (violins), Irina Morozova (viola), Julian Smiles (cello) and Justin Bullock (bass). The Berceuse was a delightful piece with some unexpected dissonance and an echoed melody line towards the end that seemed devilishly difficult to pull off effectively (and to read). It certainly sounded different from each performer. The concerto was also very different on each performance so the repetition was no strain on attendees. The third movement is well known and, by the third time through, I was feeling the other movements were old friends. It’s a live version of the experience of re-listening to CDs, but this had the added diversion of different performers.

Peter de Jager played second so had the advantage of well warmed-up string accompaniment, but I noticed many other differences. I found his melodies were wonderfully clear and well identified against accompaniment in the other hand. I noticed this first when the melody moved from right to left hand, and the left took easy prominence. Peter is a composer, so I wondered if this might help him to clearly comprehend the parts and perhaps to channel the instruments that would otherwise play the parts in a full orchestra. I also noticed his firm tone and a parallel firm direction he gave to the strings and the ensemble playing. That had me thinking further. The preceding pianist, Gracjan Szymczak, was Polish and delicate and softly spoken; the following pianist, Oliver She, was Australian and firmer and louder, somewhat like Peter. Also, I’d noticed the frequent delicacy of Janusz Olejniczak, the seasoned Polish pianist who’d opened the Competition with a recital the previous Sunday. Could these be national characteristics, in performance style or training or interpretation? (Comments invited below). But I preferred the firmer playing that drew a very different tonality from the Steinway and provided needed volume for the piano to match the strings. Suffice to say, I enjoyed all three performers but felt more comfortable with Peter’s interpretations.

The strings were also a pleasure. There was a clear improvement from the first to second performance of the concerto (as in job interviews, never take the first spot). Cellist Julian Smiles was a delight to watch with vivid involvement on his face, open eyes to respond to the leading violin, and lovely, firmly fingered passages. First violinist Dimity Hall was strong and involved in her melodic, front-line role. I enjoyed the bouncy melodies and some longish pizzicato passages towards the end of the third movement and the interplay of the string parts as the second violin followed the first, or moved in unison with the viola or the viola played with cello and the bass offered a simple, deep paraphrase of the cello lines. Again I’m showing my ignorance, but I thought I understood the structure of orchestral composition better from seeing the interplay of strings in this quintet. Presumably the orchestral version has sections playing the quintet lines, with some highlights from the piano score taken or matched by instruments other than strings. Local bassist Justin Bullock didn’t have the most demanding part, but he did the job well and the role added immensely to the effectiveness of the strings in balancing the piano’s huge range.

Pianists Peter de Jager, Gracjan Szymczak and Oliver She performed for the finals of the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition. Dimity Hall and Mark Ingwersen (violins), Irina Morozova (viola), Julian Smiles (cello) and Justin Bullock (bass) accompanied in the Concerto. The judging panel was chaired by Larry Sitsky and comprised Emanual Krasovsky, Alan Hicks, Stephen McIntyre, Pamela Page, Piotr Paleczny, Arnan Wiesel and Charles Bodman Rae. And everyone was congratulating Arnan Wiesel for the good work in organising the competition.