Cliburn Finals 2: Ozel, Wang, Sham
Photos by Ralph Lauer and Brandon Wade
—Wayne Lee Gay
June 6, 2025: A beautiful, subtly-shaped introductory solo announced Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 as American Evron Ozel, 26, opened his second performance of the concerto round; he backed that up a few bars later with a gloriously light, clear scale on his second entrance.
But the overall effect of Ozel's performance was problematically subdued. Conductor Marin Alsop carefully balanced the Fort Worth Symphony to match Ozel's volume levels; however, for the most part, he whispered when he should have been singing.
In his favor, Ozel lovingly molded the soft sections and passage-work. The second movement emerged as it should--an operatic duet between a gruff character (the orchestra) and a more subdued companion (the piano). The third movement was lively, but, once again, almost too refined. Ozel apparently confused Beethoven for Mozart.
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American Angel Stanislav Wang, 22, displayed his Russian ancestry and Russian education in his performance of the Mount Everest of piano concertos, Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3. From the opening bars, he gave a thoroughly detailed, nuanced performance as the piano part evolves from simple parallel octaves to a monsoon of notes; he handled the more difficult of the alternative cadenzas Rachmaninoff provided with ease. And he impressively managed volume levels in order to arrive at a perfect flood of glorious sound at the climax of the first movement.
The second movement is indeed slow and lyrical, but overlaid with a storm of notes from the piano, once again superbly and subtly handled by Wang. And he achieved that magical momentum to which Rachmaninoff held the magic key in the final movement. But, therein lies the issue that has plagued Wang throughout the competition. He clearly possesses the intellectual and, within bounds, the technical power for the monumental repertoire he plays. And he also owns a calmly charismatic stage presence, clearly acknowledged by the friendly audience ovations he has received. But, repeatedly, he has run short of energy at the ends of the several gigantic works he has presented, evidenced by the tiny but noticeable scattering of wrong notes in his performances. As I write this, it remains unclear to what extent that will effect his final ranking.
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Chinese pianist Aristo Sham, 29, answered Wang's Rachmaninoff with the equally daunting challenge of Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2. As much a four-movement symphony with a massive piano obbligato as traditional piano concerto, Brahms's Second Concerto has, like Rachmaninoff's Third, tested generations of brave pianists.
It also fit into an unusual strategy for the concerto round on Sham's part: in programming Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 2 as his other concerto in this section, he positioned himself as a proponent of what might be called the "classicist" school of romanticism.
He played the Mendelssohn on Tuesday with a virtuosic sharpness; in the opening of the Brahms, he announced himself with thunderbolts of volume, and conductor Alsop responded with appropriate volume from the orchestra. Though somewhat slight of frame and physical stature, Sham continually showed off his pianistic muscles, but within the frame of well-balanced dynamic levels. He maintained an interestingly expressive rubato, leading to a magnificent radiance at the recapitulation of the main theme.
Sham and Alsop together uncovered the epic narrative quality of the second movement--a sense of history and humanity comparable to the same composer's
German Requiem and Symphony No. 1.
The third movement moves in a different direction, opening with a lieder-like cello solo, to which the piano responds with a rumination at first reflective, and then expansive, once again beautifully handled by Sham.
Brahms surprises by turning light-hearted with yet another side of the human experience in the fourth and final movement, with a tune halfway between folk music and dance hall. Sham was up to the task again, and ready to toss the pianistic lightning bolts at the climax of the concerto.
