Piano Forum

Unpopular opinion, but after today, I'd say that Angel Stanislav Wang is easily my favorite out of all of the Cliburn contestants. Of course, I haven't paid much attention before today, but given Rach 3 isn't even really one of my favorite pieces, I would say that there's not too much bias involved. In fact, Brahms 2 is my favorite piano concerto, but then, I might be too harsh on Aristo Sham because I love it so much. I just think he's too harsh on the keys at times - the 2nd movement was practically all variations of forte and fortissimo, there was really never any sotto voce, it seemed like the orchestra was carrying his technically flawless playing. (Amazing cellist, by the way.) Angel made tons of mistakes and cuts but they weren't extremely problematic, and his playing was notably more dynamic than any of the other contestants. Of course, this is just my opinion, and people with more experience than me will have a more informed idea of what you can expect from each particular concerto.