Van Cliburn Semifinals: Sham, Cecino, Alexewicz, Cai
Photos by Brandon Wade and Ralph Lauer
—Wayne Lee Gay
May 30 (evening): The calmly cheerful first movement of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A opened Friday evening's (all-Mozart) semifinal concert of the Cliburn Competition, performed by Hong Kong pianist Aristo Sham, 29, with the Fort Worth Symphony and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto. Sham leaned into an emotionally low-key approach, but with a sparkling tone: the succinct cadenza—basically a quick set of scales—glowed like a diamond necklace. He took the F-sharp minor Adagio second movement at an indulgently slow tempo, deemphasizing the operatic quality of the movement, but picked up into the treasure trove of melodies in the finale.
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Italian Elia Cecino, 23, took on the darker side of Mozart in the form of the Concerto No. 24 in C minor; with the slightly larger wind section, conductor Prieto provided an expansive orchestral accompaniment. Cecino brought a full-throated volume to his part, particularly in the first-movement cadenza (composed by Andras Schiff). The almost touchingly romantic main theme of the second movement, in a more serene A major, allowed Cecino and the orchestra to "sing” together. The finale provided Cecino with an opportunity for constant interaction with the orchestra, as the music finally settled into the darkness of C minor.
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Piotr Alexewicz, 25, from Poland, showed off a feather-light touch in his performance of the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat, performed with Mozart's original cadenzas. Alexewicz receded all the way into a pianissimo in the development section of the first movment; he continued with an almost pastel tone through the middle movement and into the dancing, gigue-like finale. On the whole, Alexewicz and Prieto retreated, in this concerto, into the music-box approach that characterized Mozart playing in much of the twentieth century.
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Chinese pianist Yangrui Cai, 24, continued what appears a likely progress toward the final round with the Piano Concerto No. 25 in C. Here, conductor Prieto and the orchestra provided the grand opening section at a volume level that allowed Cai to respond with an appealingly broad expressive range. Cai used the cadenza for the first movement composed by past Cliburn silver medalist Kenny Broberg. Earlier in the movement, Mozart introduced a motif resembling "La Marseillaise," which Broberg very entertainingly turned into an obvious quotation of that tune in his cadenza. While the first movement as a whole showed off Cai's ability to perform Mozart at an expansive level, the slow movement displayed an appropriate delicacy, leading to a wonderful Mozartian combination of cheerfulness and longing in the Finale.
