3rd International Maj Lind Piano Competition- Live streaming

[fnork]

With an international competition taking place in the very academy where I'm studying, I thought I'd spread the word here. The first round started yesterday, goes on for a few more days, and the competition will be over by the end of September. It's a big three-round competition which includes chamber music performances and a final round with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

https://yle.fi/musiikki/tapahtumat/maj-lind-pianokilpailu-2012/

Check the link, the competition is streaming live and you can also watch previous performances. Many friends participating in this one, hope for the best for all of them smile The overall standard appears to be very high so far. The jury consists of a bunch of (mostly) rather familiar names, by the way:

Gary Graffman, chairman
Pi-Hsien Chen
Akiko Ebi
Ivari Ilja
Dominique Merlet
Matti Raekallio
Elisso Virsaladze

[fnork]

Competitors
First Round

Bakradze, Nino (GEO)
Bergin, Jamie (GBR)
Collan, Anni (FIN)
Devine, Christopher (GBR)
Dulu, Bogdan (ROU)
Fan, Ziteng (FIN)
Go, Aura (AUS)
Gugnin, Andrey (RUS)
Herd, Adam (AUS)
Hilpo, Marko (FIN)
Hsu, Iris (USA)
Inugai, Shinnosuke (JPN)
Jalkanen, Väinö (FIN)
Jensen, Emil (DNK)
Jezior, Oskar (POL)
Kaszó, Syuzanna (UKR / HUN)
Kim, Sanhyoung (KOR)
Kiyone, Marie (JPN)
Kosmieja, Adam (POL)
Kyyhkynen, Tuomas (FIN)

Lajkó, István (HUN)
Lee, Sun Ho (KOR)
Lin, Ivan (TWN)
Liu, Yuntian (CHN)
Maslov, Alexander (RUS)
Niininen, Tuomas (FIN)
Papinoja, Joel (FIN)
Piirto, Johannes (FIN)
Redgin, Segei (RUS)
Rosputko, Anton (LVA)
Samsonova, Elizaveta (RUS)
Semilakovs, Konstantin (DEU)
Shitaka, Misa (JPN)
Sippola, Visa (FIN)
Suh, Hyung-Min (KOR)
Sychev, Alexey (RUS)
Tatoryte, Gryta (LTU)
Xu, Gehui (CHN)
Yang, Yoonhee (KOR)
Yeo, Grace (KOR)
Yin, Wei-Ting (TWN)

Zhdanov, Denis (UKR)

[fnork]

I haven't had time to follow the competition overly close so far, but I can tell that there have been some very fine pianists playing so far. Out of people I know well myself, I'd recommend checking out Johannes Piirto's first round ( https://yle.fi/musiikki/tapahtumat/maj-lind-pianokilpailu-2012/kilpailijat/johannes_piirto.html ) - he's the youngest contestant and made an excellent performance, playing a composition of his own among other things. I particularly liked the Lindberg etude he opened with, but really accomplished, sensitive and colorful playing throughout. If he gets to the 2nd round (and I'd be VERY surprised if he wouldn't pass), he'll be improvising, as well. The 2nd round is a one-hour recital with mostly free repertoire, but all candidates also have to put some Sibelius piano music on the program and a choice of a) one of the two commissioned works, b) a composition by the contestant him/herself, c) improvisation on a theme given to the contestant some 20 minutes before the competition.

Pretty neat to have improvisation/own compositions as an option in a major competition, I hope we'll get to hear some of both in the next round.

Also, my friend Tuomas Niininen, who has already graduated from the Sibelius academy, made a very fine performance. His Ligeti etude (die zauberlehrling) is a very popular choice in this competition it seems (as is the Prokofiev toccata...I think it's being played by 7 candidates or so), and his performance of it was the best I've heard here so far. In fact, I heard none less that Pierre-Laurent Aimard play the same piece in the same hall just weeks ago, but it wasn't as good! The other etudes were very well played as well (I liked Liszt in particular), Bach sounded fresh and spontaneous. Perhaps to his disadvantage, however, his overall approach and program choices are of a more introvert nature (Scriabin 8th sonata, Ravel left hand concerto, Rautavaara Narcissus etc). In any case, his Scriabin 8th is truly on the par with Sofronitsky and other scriabinists, so I'd be very happy if he'd get to play it in the next round.

One pianist I'm VERY curious about hearing is Oskar Jezior - his program includes pieces like Szymanowski's 2nd sonata, Brahms 2nd concerto and the Beethoven Bagatelles op. 126. On youtube, there's a truly outstanding recording of his with the Hammerklavier, really top playing. He's a student of Matti Raekallio at Julliard, if I'm not mistaken.

[outin]

Thanks for the link. I don't know how I managed the miss the whole event...must be the horrible 2 weeks I have had at work, no time to read papers and too tired at home to watch tv. But at least they have the videos online to watch.
Hope your friends do well!

[fnork]

Don't worry - I was told the videos are up for half a year, so, you have time
I was told the jury members are not discussing with one another, and the voting system is a simple one - you either give the candidates a plus, or a minus, depending on if you think they should pass or not. I'm not saying it's the best possible system, but with these things in mind, it seems that the competition is very fair in many ways. Also, only perhaps one or two of the jury members have their own students participating in the competition in any case.

[outin]

I have many more to watch (some videos are still missing?) but the last one of the first round (Tuomas Kyyhkynen) completely melted my heart...amazing sound 

[pytheamateur]

It's good they are doing the streaming; hopefully it will raise the profile of the competition.

This reminds me of the Leeds Competition, which just finished.  I can't help but think this is a competition that is declining in influence.  It certainly does not help that that there was no video coverage of the competition at all, not even on the BBC.  It's worlds apart from what the Poles managed to do in the 2010 Chopin competition (now that's a real world-class competition).  Even the Russians did better than that in the coverage of the Tchaikovsky competition in 2011.

[outin]

Some very high level of playing in this competition. I have really enjoyed many pieces that I didn't care for before. A chinese woman played an amazing Gaspar de la Nuit and I even enjoyed listening to someone's Bach and Beethoven

Watching through all the videos of the performances I missed on the stream takes a lot of time though

[fnork]

Has anyone been following? There was a lot of fine playing throughout the competition, and high calibre playing for sure. Some prize choices were somewhat surprising to me:

1. Sergei REDKIN (RUS) 25.000 €
2. Denis ZHDANOV (UKR) 20.000 €
3. Gehui XU (CHN) 15.000 €

Rest of the Finalists 5.000 €: Shinnosuke INUGAI, Oskar JEZIOR, Johannes PIIRTO


At least Oskar Jezior did a terrific job throughout the competition, and the Brahms concerto felt to me like a very accomplished performance. To me, Deniz Zhdanov didn't make much of an impression, and most people seem to agree that his Rach 2 in the finals was...rather boring, simply put.

[outin]

Yes, I followed all the mid rounds and the finals.

The result was a bit surprising to me too, but for different reasons...

I personally liked Zhdanov a lot, maybe not so much the concerto, but almost everything else he did and I guess the judges made their decision based on the whole competition. I still think Xu could have been placed higher, because she had some amazing performances.

Redkin is a great pianist, but not the "type" that I personally favour. But the judged were surely impressed by his improvisation and artistic creativity.

I also liked Inugai, he was a great performer.