Van Cliburn Semifinals: Wang, Aumiller, Chen, Ozel
Photos by Ralph Lauer and Brandon Wade
—Wayne Lee Gay
May 31 (evening): Mozart's dark Concerto No. 20 in D minor provided a fine vehicle for American Angel Stanislav Wang, 22, playing into his penchant for performance with a romantic accent. His Russian musical training during the past decade showed up clearly in the brooding first movement, with conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and the Fort Worth Symphony accompanying. Mozart changed the mood from stormy night to warm afternoon with a brief cloudburst in the second movement, once again enhanced by Wang's natural sense of drama. The finale returned with full fury, leading to a happy conclusion. Wang, in keeping with the proto-romanticism of the concerto, performed with the cadenzas by Beethoven.
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German competitor Jonas Aumiller, 26, took a genteel approach in Mozart's Concerto No. 27, with his own cadenza in the first movement. He followed with a breathtakingly quiet sotto voce in the reflective middle movement, especially striking in the parallel unison of flutes, piano, and violins that Mozart inserted in the middle of that movement. Aumiller returned to a more conventional Mozart approach in the final movement, while retaining a very light touch, and once again utilizing Mozart's own cadenza.
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In Mozart's Concerto No. 23 in A, Yanjun Chen of China, 23, applied the same highly physical approach as in her previous performances of solo repertoire: she creates her aggressive tone and wide volume range with use of full body force, which also produces a visible reaction in her whole body with the strike of every note. This style of playing (most clearly obvious in her preliminary round performance of Shostakovich's Sonata No. 1) played well into the brisk tone of the first movement of the Mozart Concerto, backed up at full volume by conductor Prieto and the Fort Worth Symphony. Chen and the orchestra applied this same assertive style in the minor-key second movement as well, giving a sturdy edge to the lilting, almost mournful character of the movement—and she continued in this same manner in the return to the cheerful major key for the finale. Chen utilized Mozart's original cadenzas in her performance.
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Throughout the competition thus far, American Evren Ozel, 26, has continually impressed with solid performances. Mozart's Concerto No. 25, with its grandly majestic orchestral introduction, provided a fine example of Ozel's collaborative technique--as well as gorgeously smooth scales. (He used his own stylishly classical cadenza.) He maintained momentous intensity in the second movement, and launched his entry in the Finale with arresting, sparkling scale work. The triumphant ending of the concerto provided a worthy close to the entire Mozart Concerto portion of the competition, as well as Ozel's progress through the competition so far.
