The Tchaikovsky winner has to be a fine Mozart player Why this title? While listening, I suddenly realised: at this year's Tchaikovsky Competition, eight semifinalists play a Mozart concerto and then the jury chooses the five finalists. At other major competitions, where both classical and romantic concertos have to be played, the classical concerto is always linked with either some more solo repertoire (e.g. Brussels), or with the other concerto (Tel Aviv, Fort Worth, Sydney, Pretoria, ...). Now, however, the Mozart concerto stands on itself, and the jury has to choose the finalists. Therefore, if you don't play Mozart well, your chances of getting into the finals of this year's Tchaikovsky Competition become slimmer.

Back to this glorious evening. It started with the arrival of Van Cliburn himself at the conservatory. He was cheered outside, and when he entered the Great Hall, the audience gave him another warm welcome. He is indeed a living legend. The evening started with two sublime performances: by Seongjin Cho (only 17) from South Korea and Daniil Trifonov.

Cho's KV466 was poetic and refined. Also Trifonov performed at very high level, quite romantic. The orchestration in the slow movement of this concerto (KV488) is so wonderful: it resembles part of Mozart's Requiem. I found that the orchestra was playing better than the day before. Were they extra inspired by the presence of Van Cliburn? Or by the soloists? Then, another thought: competitions must offer fair conditions. But if you greatly admire Van Cliburn and you know that he is in the hall .... could this affect your playing? You might suddenly become more nervous. Well, let us not take this too seriously. All contestants here in Moscow are already very experienced professional musicians.

After the short break, Yeol-Eum Son with KV491. She made clear why she is already a laureate of the Van Cliburn Competition: she combines a mature interpretation with energetic playing and well-dosed virtuosity. And then Alexei Chernov: he was initially not selected for this competition, but, together with the other three of this evening, he has now entered the finals! From the first evening, only Romanovsky could pass. The audience was upset that Lubyantsev is out. And so we see again: there is no competition without surprises.


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