The Piano Semifinalists of the Tchaikovsky Competition Announced

The first round of the Tchaikovsky Competition has ended in most categories, the list of contestants has thinned by almost half. The piano jury distinguished themselves with particular generosity, skipping to the second round not twelve (according to the regulations), but fifteen participants. Tells Irina Mikhalkina.

Today’s Tchaikovsky competition is arranged in such a way that it has become more difficult to quickly get any complete picture of its performance level and the logic of judging in all categories, if only because the tours are held in six halls in Moscow and St. Petersburg simultaneously in non-stop mode: at the current « Tchaikovsky” 236 participants perform, and the terms of performances are compressed to ten days. In 2011, when the competition was first held under the supervision of Valery Gergiev, it lasted 19 days, but in past competitions, the duration was even longer – and, it is worth recalling, there were fewer nominations. For example, twelve cellists from the first round made it to the semi-finals, eight of them are Russian musicians, the other four are from South Korea. The violinists out of thirteen semi-finalists have eight Russian ones. Of course, part of the audience knows that among the past there are already well-known concert musicians, such as Ivan Sendetsky (cello) or Leonid Zhelezny, Daniil Kogan, Ravil Islyamov (violin) and others. But personally tracking the course of events in all categories with such a schedule is simply impossible – much will have to be assessed after the fact, by record. This is the reality of many major competitions, but for Tchaikovsky it is a relatively new collision, to which the public has not yet been able to get used to.

According to the results of the first round, seven pianists from Russia will continue their performances, but the rest of the contestants are from the USA, France, China, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and South Korea: almost fifty-fifty. Despite the demonstrative generosity of the jury, it is still impossible not to regret that we will not be able to hear in the next rounds the 20-year-old Serbian pianist Bogdan Dugalich, already an artist who delighted Tchaikovsky with his deep, intelligent “Dumka” and filigree texture in “Wild Hunt” Liszt, or Elaman Yernur from Kazakhstan, a stylistically subtle musician, whom the jury probably did not forgive for the failure in Liszt’s Transcendental Etude (No. 10).

In general, a difficult competitive struggle is planned in the semi-final – among those who passed, there are extraordinary or at least intriguing musicians with their individuality: among them are Angel Stanislav Wong from the USA (now a student at the Moscow Conservatory), Alessandro Villalva (Italy), Marcel Tadokoro (Japan/France), George Harliono (Great Britain), Ilya Papoyan (Russia) and others. But everything is still ahead: it is in the second round that the toughest selection takes place – only six finalists should remain by the final stage of the competition.

The enthusiastic reaction of the Great Hall of the Conservatory, which was overcrowded already in the first round and vigorously supported the contestants (unfortunately, also shocking them with applause between parts of the sonatas and ringing mobile phones), as usual, is unlikely to influence these decisions. In the piano panel of judges headed by Denis Matsuev, Russian musicians are formally not in the majority – they are accompanied by colleagues from Belgium, Germany, Vietnam, China, South Korea, the USA and Japan. By the way, they all came to Moscow and are sitting in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, unlike some members of the jury in other categories, who listen to the contestants online and, as the organizers explain, promise to join their colleagues in the next rounds.

So far, the first achievement of the current competition can be considered the fact that, contrary to forecasts, interest in the Tchaikovsky Competition in the world has not been lost: according to statistics, more than 7.5 million people in different countries watched the broadcasts of the first round, and not only Russian journalists cover the events of the competition , but also representatives of the media in Germany, Kazakhstan, China, Japan, South Korea.