Anna Zhao

    anna.whizh@yahoo.com

    CHINESE contestants claimed the top three prizes at the 3rd China Shenzhen International Piano Concerto Competition held from June 16 to 27, out of 28 candidates from nine different countries.

    Ma Ke, a 20-year-old from Shandong Province, was crowned the top prizewinner after a final competition with other five contestants. She was the only female candidate in the finals.

    She received a prize of US$30,000 and two performance contracts with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of Sichuan Conservatory of Music.

    The second and third place prizes went to Zhu Hao and Jin Wenbin, who received US$20,000 and US$15,000 in prize money, respectively. The two also received the opportunity to work with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.

    The Chinese contestants performed outstandingly. Five of the six contestants who qualified for the finals were from China. The judges were not surprised by the results. Arie Vardi, a three-time judge of the competition, said Chinese players are very careful about their individual performances, and they have undergone very good training, so they typically stage strong performances.

    Contestant Vondracek Lukas from the Czech Republic received a huge applause from the audience with his performance of Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No.3 in C Minor, Op. 37” in the preliminaries. However, he failed to enter the semifinals despite the praise from spectators, many of whom were music professionals.

    Music commentator Zhu Xianjie, who has been a longtime audience member for the competition, said it was no surprise that Lukas failed spectators’ expectations in the end because he had put too much personal expression into his performance. “Piano competition judges tend to prefer for players to adhere to the rules with appropriate skill, rather than go too much beyond standard. That’s what makes the competition amusing, as well as cruel,” Zhu said.

    Osokins Andrejs from Latvia was the only contestant from abroad who qualified for the finals with his rendition of Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto No.2 in B-Flat Major, Op. 19.” “This is my first time visiting China, and I am happy to be in such a green city. The most exciting thing about the competition was working with the orchestra,” Andrejs said.

    Arie Vardi said that he thought Shenzhen was well-prepared for hosting the world-level piano competition because it has several advantages: a good symphony orchestra led by a renowned conductor, a well-facilitated concert hall, excellent event organizers, and it is home to the famous piano educator Dan Zhaoyi, the only person in China who has tutored winners of two top international competitions, the International Chopin Piano Competition and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

    “The Chinese contestants gave good performances, as they have in other international competitions. Piano and classical music both originated in the West, and it’s amazing to see how much the Chinese have progressed in such a short period of time,” Vardi said.

    The Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SSO) provided full orchestra support throughout the competition. Nie Bing, vice chief of the SSO, said he has witnessed the event develop toward an international competition and has watched the contestants’ skills mature year by year.

    “The contestants who qualified for the semifinals were all top-grade players with almost equally good skills. But the final results depended on their performance in the finals, and that’s how the judges made their decision,” Nie said.

    Nie was not surprised that the top three prizes were won by Chinese contestants because he said more and more talented Chinese people are studying in renowned conservatories overseas, and many have assumed top positions in music performances, just as more Chinese people are succeeding in other fields around the world.

    Nie and his orchestra have played in several top-level piano competitions in China, and he said the orchestra feels honored to present excellent pianists to a global audience by working with them in various competitions.

    He said there is a misunderstanding among many young players who have won prestigious competitions and think they are achieved pianists reaching the peak of their career.

    “Different from other prizes, such as the Nobel Prize, a prize in a music competition is only recognition of a player’s performance at one moment of life. It remains uncertain whether a prize-winning player would eventually become a professional pianist,” Nie said. “The competition is just a platform through which a prize-winning player could enter a new phase in life. More challenging tasks remain ahead.”

    Gu Xiaojin, a local music aficionado who has watched the competition since its inception in 2006, believes the competition has grown with a strong judge panel this year, but the international vibe was still lacking with a small number of international contestants.

    He said more time is needed for the young competition to develop into an influential music competition that could rival the International Chopin Piano Competition.

    “It’s an endowment for music lovers in Shenzhen that the city can host such an event and bring world-class pianists from different countries to local audiences,” Gu said.

    Russian pianist Galina Chistiakova, who was the champion of the 2011 competition, returned to give a performance at the opening ceremony in collaboration with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra.

    Chistiakova didn’t sign up with any orchestra after she won the competition, and she now works at a real estate brokerage in Italy. She said it’s a precious opportunity for prizewinners to be able to work with the SSO because competitions seldom provide young pianists opportunities to stage concerts with orchestras.

    “Most people would think I am already successful, but a piano soloist has to accumulate experience through performances face to face with his or her audience. Today, a piano player no longer stands out from others in a competition,” she said.

    The first China Shenzhen International Piano Concerto Competition was held in 2006, and the competition has been held in the city every three years since then. This year, 45 contestants from around the world qualified to attend the preliminary, semifinal and final contests. The judge’s panel was led by respected Chinese piano professor Zhou Guangren, and included piano masters Andrzey Jasnski from Poland, Boris Berman from the United States, Nojima Minoru from Japan, conductor Chirstain Ehwald from Germany and piano professor Arie Vardi from Germany.