Van Cliburn Semifinals: Wang, Aumiller

Photos by Brandon Wade and Ralph Lauer

—Wayne Lee Gay

May 29 (afternoon): American Angel Stanislav Wang, 22,  interspersed thunderbolts with whispers in his rendition of Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata, achieving striking brilliance in the arpeggios near the close of the first movement. Overall, however, his strategy focused more on creating arresting moments in this monument of repertoire than outlining a unified structure.

Born in Los Angeles but largely trained in Moscow through his teenage years, Wang proved an adept interpreter of American music in the form of two of William Bolcom's Etudes: "Fast and Furious" was elegantly noisy, while "Hymne à l'amour" transitioned neatly from urbane sophistication to a mystical mood reminiscent of Messiaen.

Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, though much beloved by audiences, is a risky competition entry. Wang exercised some impressive pedal technique and produced some moments of symphonic sound; however, his stamina flagged slightly toward the end, so that the famous final moments were less impressive than earlier portions of the work.

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Germany’s Jonas Aumiller, 26, opened impressively with Busoni's transcription for piano of Bach's massive Prelude and Fugue in D. Aumiller used the damper pedal generously to create the volume and aura of a grand organ in a cathedral—a risky strategy, especially in a room unfamiliar to the performer—but in this case, very effective. And the copious instances of sixteenth-note octaves in the fugue proved breathtaking in Aumiller's performance. 

His Brahms' Opus 118 was woefully undernourished, however, with a weak melodic line in all these short, autumnal pieces. Chopin's Impromptu in F-sharp was likewise puzzlingly anemic. 

After the low energy of the Brahms and Chopin, Aumiller's presentation of his own piano arrangements of Liszt's symphonic poem "Les Préludes" was thrilling and expressive. Liszt's grand orchestral strategies transfer convincingly to piano in Aumiller's version—Liszt couldn't have done better himself.