Tchaikovsky Compeition Moscow Gala - In Pictures!

Two gala concerts followed the Tchaikovsky Competition's awards ceremony; one on Friday in Moscow and one in St Petersburg on Saturday.  The old-school rectangle of the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory certainly contrasted with the modern stylings of the Mariinsky Theatre's Concert Hall, though the latters PA system-delivered announcements were rather smoother than Moscow's man with a clipboard.  Excitingly, we got to hear a number of the finalists in a range of repertoire, rather than the Tchaikovskython I had anticipated.  Here's some snaps of the Moscow gala concert, taken from the online stream.  

The Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory

Conductor Valery Gergiev lurking



Amartuvshin Enkhbat of Mongolia

Krzysztof Penderecki, who composed the cello competition's set new work



Edgar Moraeu of France, playing Penderecki's set work in Moscow



Pianist Alexander Romanovsky, winner of the Special Vladimir Krainev Award

Piano gold medallist Daniil Trifanov, playing Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky Competition - all the other prizes

Piano

Prize for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work by Rodion Shchedrin:
Yeol Eum Son (South Korea)

Prize for the Best Performance of the Chamber Concerto:
Yeol Eum Son (South Korea)
Daniil Trifonov (Russia)


Jury Discretionary Awards:
Pavel Kolesnikov (Russia)
François-Xavier Poizat (France)

The Special Vladimir Krainev Award:
Alexander Romanovsky (Ukraine)


Cello

Prize for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work by Krzysztof Penderecki:
Edgar Moreau (France)

Prize for the Best Performance of the Chamber Concerto:
Narek Hakhnazaryan (Armenia)

Jury Discretionary Awards:
Jakob Koranyi (Sweden)

Janina Ruh (Germany)


Violin

Prize for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work by John Corigliano:
Nigel Armstrong (USA)

Prize for the Best Performance of the Chamber Concerto:
Jehye Lee (South Korea)

Jury Discretionary Awards:
Aylen Pritchin (Russia)

Yu-Chien Tseng (Taiwan)


Voice

Jury Discretionary Awards, Female:
Oksana Davydenko (Kazakhstan)
Olga Pudova (Russia)

Jury Discretionary Awards, Male:
Dmitry Demidchik (Belarus)
Gevorg Grigorian (Russia)


Online Audience Awards:

Piano: Daniil Trifonov (Russia)
Cello: Narek Hakhnazaryan (Armenia)

Violin: Sergey Dogadin (Russia)

Female Voice: Elena Guseva (Russia)
Male Voice: Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Mongolia)


Don't miss your chance to see all the winners in action at the two winners concerts taking place today and tomorrow - It's Moscow tonight and St. Petersburg tomorrow, both at 7pm local time (4pm BST) and presumably streamed live on the Tchaikovsky Competition's website.

Tchaikovsky Competition winners in full

Piano

1-Daniil Trifonov (Russia)
2-Yeol Eum Son (South Korea)
3-Seong Jin Cho (South Korea)
4-Alexander Romanovsky (Ukraine)
5-Alexei Chernov (Russia)

Violin

2-Sergey Dogadin (Russia) & Itmar Zorman (Israel)
3-Jehye Lee (South Korea)
4-Nigel Armstrong (USA)
5-Eric Silberger (USA)

Cello

1-Narek Hakhnazaryan (Armenia)
2-Edgar Moreau (France)
3-Ivan Karizna (Russia)
4-Norbert Anger (Germany)
5-Umberto Clerici (Italy)

Voice

Female

1-Sun Young Seo (South Korea)
2-Elena Guseva (Russia)

Male

1-Jong Min Park (South Korea)
2-Amartuvshin Enkhbat (Mongolia)

Tchaik Comp: Giving out the gongs

As if they'd not done enough already, the organisers of the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition kindly delayed the awards ceremony until I'd got home and had my dinner.  The slightly shambolic bilingual ceremony began more than an hour late and the hall was never more than half full, but once under way, the judges rattled through the honours in a manner alien to the epic duration of the Academy Awards. 

There weren't, admittedly, as many awards on offer here, but even within the categories, there was some divergence in the format.  Representatives of the male and female vocal award judging panels went first (Renate Scotto suffering from being on first and clearly unsure of what she was supposed to be doing) and awarded (as far as I could tell) first and second prizes in the respective categories.  The instrumental prizes then built toward the piano award and in each case awarded prizes to all five finalists in each section.  That seemed a bit harsh on the last place people, with the fifth placed pianist looking monumentally unimpressed as he slunk off the stage.

A full list of the winners has yet to be uploaded to the Tchaikovsky Competition's website (the list will follow here once it appears), but in the violin category no first place was given and the second price was shared between Itamar Zorman (Isreal) and Sergey Dogadin (Russia), who struck me as the two  most interesting finalists.  I had assumed that Dogadin's relaxed demenour and outstanding technique would take the top prize, but it's good to see the panel recognising Zorman's individuality.

Finally, the competition organisers scored real points for attracting 1958 piano gold medallist Van Cliburn (pictured) back, clearly still held in great esteem and affection by the Russian audience.  In his deep Texan drawl, he reminded musicians of their responsibility to be soldiers for classical music.  Sad to say, but it does often feel like we need to fight for it.

Tchaik Comp: Round three, day two

Imagine a world where we didn't have to sleep.  What would you do with the hours of 11pm-7am?  I'd probably end up playing too many computer games, though this week I'd certainly be watching as much of the Tchaikovsky Competition finals as possible.  Even with my self-imposed focus on the violin prize, there's not enough time in the day to see everything. 

The second night of the third round saw a pair of Tchaikovsky Concertos and a Prokofiev 1st, which was an interesting opportunity to compare at least two soloists in the same repertoire.  With time at a premium, I focused on the first movements, and found three quite different players gradually winning me over with their playing.  First up was American violinist Eric Silberger (pictured), giving a nervy but persuasive Tchaikovsky Concerto which settled down as it progressed.  I admired his engagement with the work's expressive core, but it was his misfortune to share an evening with Russian fiddler Sergey Dogadin, whose ease with the solo part's difficulties was exceptional and whose calm control and perfect technique reminded me of Julia Fischer.  Between them came another American, Nigel Armstrong, whose choice of concerto (Prokofiev's 1st) was wise and whose performance was hugely enjoyable.  You'd have to say, though, that on this evidence, Dogadin has the edge.

One issue of sound did concern me, however.  Listening remotely is always going to be a different experience to being in the hall, but I was very aware of the dry tone of both Silberger and Armstrong during the first half, which had been replaced by a warmer and more reverberant sound for Dogadin.  Had the technical people altered the mix for the second half, or was Dogadin simply standing in a better spot on the stage?  Whatever the answer, I was left wondering how different the perspective of the judges must be, sitting close to half way back in this large hall, and how close to acoustical reality our online vantage point really was.

Tchaik Comp - Round three, day one

Thanks to some troublesome time zones, the first half of the Tchaikovsky competition’s third round violin finals (with two more third round concerts to follow today and tomorrow) fell across the journey home from work, and internet gremlins made the second half an intermittent affair.  What I did see was a great credit to the competition organisers, who have succeeded in making this an accessible and exciting event for those of us not lucky enough to be in the competition halls:  picture and sound are very good for a free-to-view service.

I only caught the second half of South Korean violinist Jehye Lee’s Tchaikovsky concerto and my impression was of a player with a strong technique and presence who could have done with a bit more flair in the dancing finale.  Still, I very much look forward to her performance of Bartok’s second concerto, which may well suit her better.  The final performance of the evening came from Israeli violinist Itamar Zorman, whose choice of the Berg concerto was admirably brave.  He often placed grit and expression above beauty of sound, which was refreshing, though I wonder if I was alone in finding his pained facial expressions distracting.  His Tchaikovsky follows Lee’s Bartok on Wednesday evening.  Follow this link for the complete final round schedule in the violin and cello categories.    

Tchaikovsky Comp final rounds

After two weeks of competition, we have the final week's schedule confirmed.  The last three days of the violin compeition will look like this (note: times given are for St. Petersburg):

Violin

June 27

7:00 p.m. - Nigel Armstrong (USA)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major
7:40 p.m. - Sergey Dogadin (Russia)
SHOSTAKOVICH   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in A minor

20-minute intermission

8:40 p.m. - Jehye Lee (South Korea)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major
9:20 p.m. - Itamar Zorman (Israel)
BERG Concerto for violin and orchestra (To the Memory of Angel)

June 28

7:00 p.m. - Eric Silberger (USA)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major
7:40 p.m. - Nigel Armstrong (USA)
PROKOFIEV   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1 in D major

20-minute intermission

8:40 p.m. - Sergey Dogadin (Russia)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major

June 29

7:00 p.m. - Jehye Lee (South Korea)
BARTOK   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 2
7:50 p.m. - Itamar Zorman (Israel)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major

20-minute intermission

8:40 p.m. - Eric Silberger (USA)
BRAHMS   Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major


And in the cello contest:

Cello

June 27
7:00 p.m. - Norbert Anger (Germany)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra in A major
7:30 p.m. - Narek Hakhnazaryan (Armenia)
DVORAK   Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor

20-minute intermission

8:50 p.m. - Ivan Karizna (Belarus)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra in A major
9:30 p.m. - Edgar Moreau (France)
SCHUMANN   Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in A minor

June 28
7:00 p.m. - Umberto Clerici (Italy)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra in A major
7:30 p.m. - Norbert Anger (Germany)
SHOSTAKOVICH   Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in A minor

20-minute intermission

8:50 p.m. - Narek Hakhnazaryan (Armenia)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra in A major

June 29
7:00 p.m. - Ivan Karizna (Belarus)
ELGAR   Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E minor
8:00 p.m. - Edgar Moreau (France)
TCHAIKOVSKY   Rococo Variations for Cello and Orchestra in A major

20-minute intermission

8:50 p.m. - Umberto Clerici (Italy)
SCHUMANN   Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in A minor


I for one can't help feeling three days of Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos would be much preferable to three days of Rococo Variations...

All the Tchaikovsky Competition you could want

Nobody likes competitions, right?  Loads of people playing the same pieces for hours and hours...  Well we certainly like them when they’re streamed FREE over the internet!  We’ll have anything if it’s free.  The International Tchaikovsky Competition organisers certainly think so, as they’ve opted to broadcast the whole thing online for our delectation.  Aren’t they nice?

The competition is in full swing now with the first rounds already out of the way, and there have been a few tricky moments in the early stages.  In the piano competition, star judge Nelson Freire has already pulled out, finding the contest too exhausting.  And former runner up Peter Donohoe apparently found choosing the second round shortlist a little too emotional, saying ‘they are almost all wonderful’.

The four categories (violin, cello, piano, voice) head for their final rounds next week, followed by a pair of winners concerts in St Petersburg and Moscow.  And all this is free and live to watch at the Tchaikovsky Competition’s website.  You might need to download a player when prompted, but as far as I can tell the organisers are as good as their word, offering good quality sound and vision.  The only downside to the whole thing is that each discipline takes place at the same time, meaning you’ll have to choose which to watch.  I’m going to be dipping in this week and concentrating on the final week’s violin contest, bringing you some thoughts on the competitors.