FORT WORTH — The 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition reached its final round the week of June 3-7. Performances are scheduled Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evenings and Saturday afternoon at Bass Performance Hall.
Each of six finalists is performing two piano concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, led by guest conductor Marin Alsop. Three concertos are scheduled for each day, with a 20-minute intermission between the second and third. We will be updating performance reviews each day.
Three medalists and winners of other awards will be announced at a 7 p.m. ceremony Saturday. Total value of prizes including cash and concert management is estimated around $2 million.
This final round is a heroic challenge for the FWSO, an excellent orchestra these days but shown in the worst possible light with the Cliburn schedule. In the course of the final week it’s having to rehearse and perform 10 different piano concertos, by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Ravel and Bartók.
That’s after the previous week’s semifinal round, when the orchestra collaborated on seven different Mozart piano concertos with the 12 semifinalists. It’s hard to imagine any other orchestra performing under such demands.
One of the world’s highest-visibility classical music competitions, held quadrennially in Fort Worth, the Cliburn is open to pianists 18 to 30. This year’s competition, the 17th, drew 340 applicants. Thirty pianists were selected in advance screenings to come to Fort Worth for the contest, although two withdrew beforehand. In the first three rounds, a jury of distinguished pianists, chaired by Paul Lewis, narrowed the 28 to 18, then 12, then six.
The first two rounds comprised only solo recitals, the semifinal round a solo recital in addition to a Mozart piano concerto.
For complete schedules, check the Cliburn website: cliburn.org.
Tickets for all competition performances are available at 817-212-4280 or cliburn.org. In addition, free video streams are available live and on demand at cliburn.org and the Cliburn’s YouTube channel. Video presentations are hosted by Buddy Bray and Elizabeth Joy Roe, with commentary and behind-the-scenes interviews.
Saturday afternoon, June 7
In Saturday afternoon’s last three concertos, performances earlier in the competition prompted high expectations from all three finalists. At least to my ears, none of these performances lived up to its promise.
The Cliburn is such an endurance contest, with its three solo recitals and, for finalists, three concertos, that I wondered if fatigue weren’t catching up with the players — maybe also the seriously overworked orchestra. Maybe my ears were tired, too.
Vitaly Starikov, Israel/Russia, 30. In the Schumann concerto Starikov interpreted the first movement’s affettuoso marking — warmly, or tenderly, or expressively — as license to tug at the music’s sleeves at every opportunity. The result was too much of a good thing, the music too often going slack, losing direction and coherence. Alsop did a good job of getting the music back in motion each time, but she couldn’t do it alone.
The opening of the middle movement could have used a little more playfulness, but there was less self-indulgence until the reprise of the cellos’ big tune. The finale was adequately energized, but lacked clarity.
Carter Johnson, Canada/United States, 28. Johnson has a real following here, and the best of his playing has been very fine indeed. But his choice of the Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand seemed odd for a competition, and I’m not convinced it advanced his cause.
His left hand produced the requisite notes, with a fair bit of nuance. But a piece rarely programmed by any orchestra — with necessarily short rehearsal time at a competition — found Alsop and the FWSO in less than top form.
The cellos-and-basses opening was too soft to in the hall, although the contrabassoon did. Brasses and timpani sometimes obliterated piano parts that needed to be heard. Balances in general seemed a bit haphazard. Overall, the performance sounded a rehearsal away from locking securely into place, let alone creating magic.
Philipp Lynov, Russia, 26. After Lynov’s extraordinarily well-organized and finely nuanced Liszt Second Concerto on Wednesday, and ravishing Ravel Miroirs in the semifinal round, I expected great things of his Prokofiev Second. It was a surprise then to hear an opening needing a bit more momentum. By contrast, some big moments got pretty ugly — more noise than music.
Modern pianists tend to think of Prokofiev as calling for maximum sonic assaults, but recordings of the composer, himself a superb pianist, evince nothing of the sort. Lynov proved he could produce a massive sound without banging, but he kept giving in to undue aggression.
In the second and fourth movements Lynov also proved the fastest possible tempo isn’t necessarily the most exciting. All told, neither he nor Alsop seemed to be enjoying the performance.
Friday evening, June 6
Evren Ozel, United States, 26. Ozel’s fresh, deftly inflected of the Beethoven Fourth Concerto was one of the highlights of the final round so far. Part of what made it so was fine-tuned interaction among pianist, orchestra and conductor.
Ozel and Alsop were in frequent visual , but even if they hadn’t been, you could tell they were on the same wavelength. Piano and orchestra advanced and receded as their roles shifted, with suave taperings of phrases by all concerned.
The slow movement became a virtual tone poem, the orchestra’s gruff octaves answered by the piano’s tender entreaties and dreamy musings. The finale did a happy dance.
With an impossible schedule in one week of rehearsing and performing 10 different concertos, with six different pianists, the FWSO has been maintaining impressive standards. With a previous performance of the Beethoven Fourth under its belt from Tuesday, with Angel Stanislav Wang, the orchestra sounded especially spiffy and responsive here.
Angel Stanislav Wang, United States, 22. Long a Cliburn Competition cliché, typically programmed by multiple contestants, the Rachmaninoff Third Concerto is appearing only once in this year’s final round. Wang’s performance started with promise, with a mobile, forward-directed tempo suggesting familiarity with Rachmaninoff’s 1939-40 recording of the work.
Both Wang and Alsop had a natural feeling for when the music wanted to linger lovingly — although never sentimentally — and when to press eagerly ahead. With so many pianists now showing off with the fist-busting alternate cadenza, it was refreshing to hear the more quicksilver version that Rachmaninoff always played.
The second and third movements were less convincing. Wang sometimes seemed unaware of ages when the piano is just texturing more important orchestral material. Too rarely did he dip below mezzo-forte.
The finale took off at a vertiginous pace, impressive in its way. But structure was increasingly sacrificed to propulsion, and climaxes were delivered with disagreeable banging. (Rachmaninoff should never be banged.) Play fast and loud, though, and you’ll get a roaring ovation, as this performance did.
Aristo Sham, Hong Kong, 29. Noble. That’s the adjective that kept coming to mind in Sham’s performance of the Brahms Second Concerto. It’s one of the noblest of all piano concertos, but rarely is it as wisely paced and proportioned, and lovingly shaped, as it was here.
Alsop appropriately gave the horn-led opening more motion than most conductors, and the slow movement’s sublime cello solo was closer to Brahms’ surprisingly mobile metronome marking than any other performance I’ve heard. It was beautifully played by FWSO principal cellist Allan Steele.
Sham and the orchestra occasionally got louder than necessary — fortissimo for Brahms doesn’t mean what it does for, say, Prokofiev. But in general dynamics were carefully scaled, with real pianissimos from piano and orchestra. Sham was always attuned to the piano’s shifting relationship to the orchestra, adjusting accordingly.
Above all, it was the nobility of Sham’s conception and execution that made this a special performance of a great work. At least one listener was deeply moved by it.
Wednesday evening, June 4: Afterthoughts
Perplexed that pianists I respect had impressions of Vitaly Starikov’s Bartók Second Concerto quite different from my own, I went back and listened to the livestream. There the piano is much more forward than in the hall, the orchestra much more recessed. With the focus so much on the piano, Starikov’s finely machined, rhythmically taut pianism is impressive indeed, but he also lends appropriate lyricism in brief moments it applies.
Alsop and the orchestra do an amazing job with a very tricky work, from what would have been minimal rehearsal. But this is a piece that needs click-track precision from the orchestra, and it was that lack here and there that to my ears kept smudging the effect in Bass Hall’s lively acoustics. So I now understand the enormous enthusiasm of pianists who really know the score, but also my reservations with the effect in the hall. Given limited rehearsal time at a competition, I still think the Bartók wasn’t the best choice.
Wednesday evening, June 4
Philipp Lynov, Russia, 26. I remain unconvinced that Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 is great music, but Lynov — whose semifinal recital was one of that round’s most elegant — played it as if it were. The piano stole oh so subtly into the opening chords of winds and strings, and ensuing upward arpeggios and swirling runs were beautifully shaped.
There was plenty of ferocity when needed, but dynamics throughout were fastidiously graduated. Reflective music was given generous but always organic rubato; nothing was imposed from outside.
In an irably interactive performance, Lynov and Alsop were in frequent visual , and very much on the same wavelength. Alsop seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself, and the FWSO gave a very impressive performance as well. Audiences for the concertos have been large and enthusiastic, giving standing ovations to every performance. This one was well deserved.
Vitaly Starikov, Israel/Russia, 30. Starikov’s semifinal round recital luxuriated in subtleties of color and texture. But his choice of the Bartók Second Piano Concerto struck me as unwise for a competition. It’s a work of great rhythmic complexity, with a lot happening very quickly, and it’s hard for the piano to project through some patches of brassy orchestration. Not often played in concert, it’s hardly a work to be assembled in a competition’s limited rehearsal time.
Starikov had the requisite technique — no small accomplishment — and he played with determination. A tendency to press tempos in the outer movements sometimes harried the orchestra, sometimes at the price of rhythmic incisiveness — and what should be a certain feeling of dance. Alsop wasn’t always able to keep the orchestra from overpowering the piano. Pianists whose opinions I greatly respect were thrilled by this performance. I found it frustrating.
Carter Johnson, Canada/United States, 28. The Prokofiev Second Concerto is standard rep, with some good tunes as well as razzle-dazzle. Johnson’s performance started with great promise, with nicely shaped phrases, apt playfulness and then rhetorical grandeur as the first movement proceeded. But it got disagreeably bangy in climactic ages — this for a composer who was a superb but never bangy pianist. (There are recordings.)
The second and fourth movements whizzed along with perhaps too little vertical impulse, the feeling of underlying pulses, to balance the horizontal hurry. If this wasn’t a consistently compelling performance of the piece, it did demonstrate impressive pianism.
Tuesday evening, June 3
Aristo Sham, Hong Kong, China, 29. The final round started with great promise, with a lively, personable performance of the Mendelssohn G minor Concerto (No. 1). Lighter-textured concertos like this tend to be done with smaller orchestras these days, but a pretty full complement of the FWSO was onstage for all three of the first evening’s performances.
In the 2022 Cliburn, for reasons unknown, Alsop kept shushing the orchestra, yielding strangely muffled performances. This time she let it play out at appropriate levels, and she did a good job of coordinating with the pianists’ conceptions — for better and for worse. Occasionally fuzzy attacks from the orchestra were understandable under the circumstances.
Sham seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, vividly characterizing music both stormy and tender. Music louder and softer was tellingly tapered, the piano always fitting just so in roles alternately soloistic and texture-filling. Rubato was aptly balanced between expressive lingering and pressing ahead.
Angel Stanislav Wang, United States, 22. Wang’s of the Beethoven Fourth Concerto started at a surprisingly relaxed pace, and the first movement never achieved essential urgency. Longstanding evidence suggests the slow movement — marked Andante con moto — should move quite a bit more than this. At least the finale got energized. In general, Wang’s performance seemed more prosaic than poetic, without enough energy or dynamic subtlety — and not always secure.
Evren Ozel, United States, 26. At least to me, the opening of Ozel’s Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto felt just deliberate enough never to take off — more andante than the marked allegro moderato. He kept slowing even more for piano solos.
A pianist friend watching the livestream at home said balances there of piano and orchestra sounded fine, but in the hall Ozel too often kept too much in the spotlight when the orchestra had the melodies.
The strings’ big opening tune was barely audible under the piano’s beefy punctuations (marked merely forte), and cello and oboe solos were similarly muffled early in the slow movement. Ozel is an accomplished pianist: I liked much in his semifinal round recital, and what I heard of his Mozart Concerto No. 25 on the livestream was elegant. But for me his Tchaikovsky seemed a kit of pieces that never quite came together.
