So the first night of the Leeds Finals happened last night. I went to bed at 8:30pm and got up at 2 just to watch it, feeling all excited, but frankly, I was a bit disappointed.
Hear me out. I don’t think the pianist’s lack of flair or musicality is the only factor when I say the performances of the finals didn’t live up to my expectations. This year the Leeds have a new rule for the finals: candidates must choose TWO concertos from two lists A and B. List A contains mainly Baroque and Classical concertos, while List B contains the Romantic and 20th-century concertos, i.e. the epic ones. Still, the lists give candidates a pretty limited choice. Traditional “competition” concertos such as Rachmaninoff’s second or third concerto, or Tchaikovsky’s first are missing. What’s more: the judges choose what you play, which means you have to have two concertos on standby, and even though you might prefer one over the other, you might not get to play the favourable one.
I guess it really gives the finalists the ultimate challenge, having to memorize two concertos and be equally suited to both styles, but it also means they will never know whether they would’ve done better had they been given the choice themselves.
When the spotlight shines on you on stage, you’re not being judged for where you come from, whether your personality is likeable or how much work you’ve put in. The music produced in that moment is all that matters. It can be a good thing, but it can also be a harsh truth.
The first night of the Leeds Finals opened with Aljoša Jurinić playing Mozart’s C Minor k. 491. Now I really like the concerto; in fact, it may be my favourite piano concerto by Mozart, and Aljoša played it quite decently, but there just wasn’t much to captivate me, and after a while I got a bit bored. Since there’s not much technical flair in classical concertos as compared to the epic ones from the 19th and 20th century, I think they pose a greater challenge to pianists than the larger scaled ones. Even the medici.tv hostess for the night, Noriko Ogawa–a former prizewinner of the Leeds–said herself she wondered if Aljoša would’ve done better had he been given the opportunity to play his other choice, Prokofiev’s second piano concerto, rather than the Mozart. I guess we’ll never know, and that’s one of the many challenges and surprises of this competition. Still, well played to Aljoša. His musicianship has brought him so far, and now it’s up to the judges to decide his fate.
Next up was Anna Geniushene with Prokofiev’s third concerto. I don’t know how many people noticed, but while watching a close-up of her hands during the second movement, I saw that half her pinky nail of her right hand had come off! I’ve got evidence right here! I can’t imagine what was going through her mind then. Here she was playing possibly one of the most demanding piano concertos in the standard repertoire, with more than a movement to go, and half her nail has just peeled off. I was so scared for her. I would’ve panicked so hard. Somehow that issue disappeared with the beginning of the third movement, as I didn’t see it anymore, but one would wonder whether this took a toll on her playing, because Anna did make quite a few mistakes.
I didn’t really enjoy the performance, because I felt like Anna was rushing and her playing was quite lacking in sentiment. To me, it seems like she kind of just ploughed through the melodic and emotional bits, especially in the middle of the third movement, which was a shame, since I really enjoyed those bits when listening to recordings of this concerto. But what really put me off was that the pianist and the orchestra were constantly out of sync. I understand that this is a very difficult concerto for both orchestra and soloist, and even more difficult when put together, especially with limited practice time, but I also think occasional slips in the first movement made Anna nervous, so when things started to get out of hand, she just panicked and made things worse by rushing. The ending of the concerto, which is usually the climax of the whole thing, was quite a blunder in this performance that I felt bad for Anna.
Mario Häring’s performance of Beethoven’s first piano concerto was actually the best of the three. His phrases were well thought-out and very delicate, and he really paid a lot of attention to the orchestra. He played the second movement in a very lyrical way, and I thought the third movement was quite exciting. But I have to admit, I am not the biggest fan of Beethoven’s first concerto. I find it too repetitive and slightly tedious, so I kind of lost interest for a bit and didn’t pay much attention. I’m sorry!!!
Anyway, I don’t want to take credit away from any of these pianists. They have worked so hard for this competition, and this competition has been nothing but brutal to them, so hats off to them for being such amazing, enduring musicians. The fact that all the pianists accepted into the quarterfinals of this competition have the capacity to play such repertoire simply amazes me. But the hard fact is also that each performance stands on its own. When the spotlight shines on you on stage, you’re not being judged for where you come from, whether your personality is likeable or how much work you’ve put in. The music produced in that moment is all that matters. It can be a good thing, but it can also be a harsh truth.
Finally, tonight we’re going to hear Schumann’s Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto, both of which I am a great fan of, and I’m looking forward to watching the prize-giving ceremony and voting for the medici.tv audience prize!
Literally Left-handed 
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