Cliburn Competition: Preliminary Recitals 8 & 9
Photos by Ralph Lauer and Brandon Wade
—Wayne Lee Gay
May 23, 2025: Pedro López Salas, 27, from Spain, placed his hopes for advancement from the preliminary round in a contrasting repertoire of Mozart and the twentieth-century Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. In Mozart's Sonata No. 10 in C, López performed with a bright tone with subtle but well-defined dynamic contrasts; the general elegance of his approach did not, however, cover up inconsistencies in rhythm and ornamentation. Ginastera's largely rhythm-driven Piano Sonata No. 1 of 1952 proved predictably appealing to the audience; what profundity or real artistry lurks in this lively four-movement score never quite emerged in López's performance. Nor did his performance of Moreno's "Rachtime," presented between the Mozart and Ginastera Sonatas, reveal any distinguishing features on Lopez's part.
Japanese pianist Kotaro Shigemori, 25, made his bid for advancement with an all-romantic program, beginning with Chopin's Nocturne in E minor, Opus 62, No. 2. Given to dark intensity in his performances, Shigemori weighed the Chopin down with a steadily colorless melody line. Although he had a necessarily lighter, more fleet touch in Scriabin's Sonata No. 2 ("Sonata-Fantasy"), Shigemori failed to discover or communicate the drama in his tour-de-force, Liszt's "Dante" Sonata; the loud passages were remarkable only for volume level. The required "Rachtime" of Moreno likewise did little to enhance the impression of Shigemori as a pianist, with lots of muscle but little imagination.
Italian Elia Cecino, 23, provided the bright spot of the afternoon session with a program of Shostakovich, Beethoven, and Liszt. Fleet passage work in the right hand over a persistent ostinato in the left opened Shostakovich's Prelude in B-flat (from his Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues). Cecino owns the finger skills and the muscle necessary here. The succeeding fugue develops a complex theme thoroughly and dramatically, a challenge once again met completely by Cecino. In Beethoven's Sonata No. 16 in G (featuring a jauntily syncopated main theme), Cecino showed off crisp passage work and a wonderfully graduated range of dynamics—and his expertise as an interpreter of Beethoven continued in the aria-like middle movement and in the lively finale, featuring moments of darkness and sudden bursts of sunshine. After the required performance of Moreno's "Rachtime," Cecino skipped, roared, and danced (metaphorically) through Liszt's virtuosic transcription of the famous Waltz from Gounod's opera Faust to complete a memorably strong program.
Chinese pianist Yangrui Cai, 24, presented one of the strongest performances of the preliminary round Friday evening, opening with a high-octane reading of Bach's Toccata in D. Sometimes, he took full advantage of the power and volume range of the modern piano; sometimes, he explored the harpsichord elements of the score--for instance, switching from one dynamic level to another, as if playing on two different keyboards, or presenting occasional passages without pedal. Although Cai might be accused of inconsistency in his approach, the result was unfailingly dramatic and musical. Cai then turned to the Five Bagatelles of Australian composer Carl Vine, ranging from raucous to dreamy (and at one point playing a note with his elbow). In Cai's rendition, Liszt's transcription of the Overture to Wagner's opera Tannhauser, he navigated an amazing array of technical gymnastics, with an equally amazing voicing of intertwined melodic lines. Cai closed with the finest performance yet of Montero's "Rachtime," presenting it as a work of virtuosity on the level of Liszt's transcriptions.
The final performance of the preliminary round featured Israeli-Russian pianist Vitaly Starikov, 30. Starikov opened with Bach's Toccata in F-sharp minor, with reasonable expansiveness, and continued on those lines with Montero's "Rachtime." But Chopin's Scherzo in E proved uneven, coming to life only in the more intense moments. Starikov closed with a thrilling reading of Shostakovich's stormy, dissonant Sonata No. 1; he clearly enjoys noisy modernism over Chopin.
After twenty-eight performances of Montero's "Rachtime," the piece emerged with some obvious beauties, including good tunes and lively piano sonorities. However, in most performances, the work seemed to reach an effective close several minutes before the actual end, with the final section largely filler.
