Cliburn Finals: Lynov, Starikov, Johnson
Photos by Brandon Wade and Ralph Lauer
—Wayne Lee Gay
June 4, 2025: By coincidence, two Hungarian works and two twentieth-century modernist works (with one work fitting in both categories) provided a very interesting evening for lovers of dramatic piano concertos at the Wednesday night performances of the final round of the Cliburn competition.
While there's a century-and-a-half tradition of looking down on Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 as a glitzy warhorse, that work is, on closer examination, a compositional tour-de-force built around a simple two-note descending motif.
Russian Philipp Lynov, 26, in collaboration with conductor Marin Alsop and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, answered the orchestra's brief introduction with a radiantly calm passage, gradualy evolving into a muscular march punctuated with percussive tone clusters in the piano. Lynov continued to show off both lyricism and power before landing, in the heart of the work, in a melodic duet with cello—providing a bit of chamber music in the midst of the massive concerto. He thus presented a wide technical and expressive range—and equally importantly, joined conductor Alsop in giving a unified sweep to this highly episodic work.
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Russian-Israeli Vitaly Starikov, 30, turned for his performance to the all-too-rarely performed Second Piano Concerto of Liszt's latter-day Hungarian compatriot Béla Bartók. The infectiously spirited first movement came across as a bit tame in Starikov's reading; in the solo cadenza, however, he produced a magical rendition of that glorious Magyar melody floating in a sea of pianistic fireworks.
The middle movement, including a whispered dialogue of piano, tympani, and muted strings, proved hypnotically effective—and in the third movement, Starikov and the FWSO finally achieved full fury in this famously difficult concerto.
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Canadian/United States finalist Carter Johnson, 28, closed the evening with a journey through the widely varied terrains of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2. That the work can degenerate into bombast was demonstrated a few weeks ago in a performance by a different pianist and conductor at the Dallas Symphony; here, Johnson and conductor Alsop proved that this work can be rich in excitement and beauty without blasting the audience.
After the sprightly orchestral introduction, the first movement launches a twentieth-century version of romanticism, combining traditional lyricism with modernist harmonies and textures. Johnson met the multitude of opportunities and traps therein, then glided with seeming ease through the second movement, with its perpetual strands of rapid scales. In the third of the four movements, he navigated neatly and convincingly through the ponderous opening section that rises into a light-hearted march.
Appealingly startling shifts of character and tone characterize the fourth movement; Johnson's flawless technical execution and exhilarating momentum (in collaboration with conductor Alsop) capped the final and most impressive performance of the first two days of the concerto round of the competition. From where this listener sat, Johnson won Round One.
