Cliburn Competition: Preliminary Recital 6
Photos by Ralph Lauer and Brandon Wade
—Wayne Lee Gay
May 22, 2025: Canadian Alice Burla, 26, opened her preliminary round program Thursday evening with the classic optimism of Haydn's Sonata in G (Hob. XVI.6). She presented the opening movement with a firmly grounded tone in the outer movements, with occasional shifts to a lighter touch—and successfully transferred and amped up that classical era assertiveness toward the twentieth-century in Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti's "Fanfares" Etude, with brilliant passage work surrounding fanfare-like motifs. That same energy continued in Burla's rendition of Montero's "Rachtime," performed with convincing momentum; she further raised the intensity of her program in her journey through the four movements of Barber's formidably complex Sonata, from the aggressive modernist opening through the monumental fugal finale.
Chinese pianist Yanjun Chen, 23, presented one of the most strikingly memorable performances of the preliminary round. She opened with a fairly conventional choice, Haydn's Sonata in E (Hob. XVI.31), performed with elegance and energy—and a gentle touch of darkness in the second movement. Russian romantic Nikolai Medtner's brief, songlike "Canzona serenata" proved that Chen can spin a broad lyrical phrase as well. But the memorable moment came in her powerful rendition of Shostakovich's Sonata No. 1, a musically violent product of the early years of the Soviet regime in Russia. Her performance of this work, requiring hammered fortissimo passages and quick shifts of mood, all in a sea of dissonance, mark Chen as a formidable force in the piano world—particularly next to the clarified classicism of her Haydn and the broad lyricism of her Medtner. Not surprisingly, energy from the Shostakovich spilled over into her rendition of the required "Rachtime" by Montero.
California-born Jonathan Mamora, at 30 the oldest competitor, closed Thursday evening's session with a set of four Etudes by Bahamian-born, UK-based composer David Onac, ranging from formidable passage work to lean, austere monophonic passages. Mamora followed with an unassailably conventional presentation of the Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor from Book Two of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, before turning to Montero's "Rachtime" in a convincingly well-structured performance. Having begun with an intriguing set of unconventional Etudes, he closed with a dramatic and brilliant performance of Scriabin's Fifth Sonata.
