Search - Various :: Tenth Van Cliburn Piano Competition

Uneven But Interesting Performances from 2nd and 3rd Place W

Michael A Pahre | Cambridge, MA | 05/22/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Recordings of the prize winning performances for piano competitions provide a great opportunity to hear new artists---the good, the bad, and the soon-to-be-forgotten. The tenth Van Cliburn international piano competition produced two albums: one by the first prize winner (Jon Nakamatsu), and the other by the 2nd (Yakov Kasman) and 3rd (Aviram Reichert) place winners. As you can expect, the quality of the runners up is uneven---with some performances gems, others lackluster. The recordings are all live and unedited, as far as I can tell.Schumann's Allegro in B minor is a peculiar piece, long-winded, and somewhat difficult to follow. Kasman sifts out the verbiage in the music to present a fairly clear and logical reading, although the ending disappoints. He then proceeds to play the Rachmaninoff first piano sonata with lots of conviction and amazing chops. He cuts through the thick writing and counter-rhythms to bring out singing melodies, dreamy moods, and thundering climaxes. (I think he managed to break a string in the middle of the 3rd movement and also pounded several others out of tune.) This performance is the highlight of the disk. (He has since recorded the first and second sonatas for Calliope.)The Schubert A minor sonata (Op. 143, D. 784) is a dramatic work, although it is never thickly scored. Reichart plays the whole work with plenty of energy, and the finale with particularly nimble fingers. Sometimes he inserts mannered and abrupt pauses before big chords, and at times his articulations in the first movement are inconsistent and depart from the score. The Chopin nocturne (C minor, Op. 48) is played convincingly---from the gentle, sorrowful procession of the opening to the dramatic pianism of the middle section. Finally, the Chopin etude (B minor, Op. 25) is tossed off effectively. He creates whirling washes of sound, although too much use of the pedal sometimes muddles the octaves.The rating of three stars reflects a comparison of the overall quality of the disk to that of established pianists. If you are more interested in seeing the quality of the next generation of pianists, however, this disk is well worth investigating."