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Listened a bit of Ferro. I found that he completely missed the waltz. Well average playing but nothing outstanding. Candotti was much better in the same piece. Very good session by Armellini.

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This is the consequence, not the cause.

I'm partial to Op. 26 so this didn't bug me, but rather I found this vastly refreshing after hearing only Op. 22/44/53 - but what you say would be impossible to my understanding. The competiton regulations stipulate that if you choose to go with Op. 26, you have to play both back to back. He had no choice but to join them if he wanted to play them.

Anyone else like Gagliano's performances as much as I did? Sometimes I'd like to hear more tone from her and there's some over-precious phrasing occasionally, but I thought her Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise was terrific! I saw quite a bit of chat about her being expressionless. Just because people don't gesticulate and make faces and noises does NOT mean they aren't being expressive!

I liked it - it was on the understated side, but she made it work more than others who have taken this interpretive route do.

Furumi was excellent and improved over her first round.

Listening to Eva now and it again reinforces my feeling that it's not my cup of tea. Just overall too aggressive and the standing off the bench is distracting. Same with Garcia Garcia - overall too harsh and not a lot there to balance the sound on the other end of the spectrum.

I hate the standing. I loved her in Cliburn Junior, but she seems to have lost ground rather than gained it.

I felt just the opposite. She made some mistakes and slips in the Polonaise-Fantasy and in other places. I thought she was lacking physically for these thick textured pieces.

Rubinstein himself used to stand sometimes

For anyone interested, there are a few review blogs running: Jed Distler for Gramophone and Alessandro Tommasi for (he's doing the Chopin Talk interviews with Naomi Kudo; use google translate to read).

https://www.gramophone.co.uk/blogs

https://www.quinteparallele.net/202...-ACzdy9lTSbOZ6xmqPTlLLvyVJxoaf4nA11-yfLo

Just listened to Kobayashi, which I found rather disappointing given her reputation. It is difficult to say that, given the very high level of playing of all these competitors. All in all I found Eva Gevorgyan to have a real distinct personality and individual musical world. I did not like her that much in the first round, but in the second one, she definitely stands out from the mass uniformity of many other candidates.

I liked her and thought she was more relaxed than the first round. I'm not sure if she'll win the gold medal, but she has a better chance at a top prize this time than she did last, IMO.

Khozyainov definitely gets the programming award - lots of interesting choices there, and probably the only time we'll ever hear Chopin's Fugue in public (and certainly at this competition). He seems to be going for an "authentic" Chopin interpretation, free of excess, emphasizing ideas over gestures, trying to find the core of the music. It was a lot more inward than I expected, and I'm not 100% sure if it was his real interpretation of the music or if he's playing it like this to distinguish himself from the others, but it worked. Also, it was nice to hear the Heroic Polonaise played as an overture rather than a finale for a change.

Grazie!! I didn't know that Quinte Parallele was covering the event. It's a wonderful online magazine, by the way. So much to read and learn.

I doubt I'll be able to catch up on all the performances, but it will be interesting to see if the jury stick with the 20 contestants for Stage-3, or if they will exercise flexibility ("in principle"), as they did for Stage-2 by selecting 45.

From section XII-2 of the competition rules:
In principle, 40 participants will be passed into the second stage, 20 into the third stage and no more than 10 into the Final.

I'm hoping for 25. Looking back, there have been so many strong performances and personalities, especially in the last few days.

Will the slip at the end of op.38 Ballade cost Khozyainov?

I have not heard him aying this ballade, but I was listening to the comments after his recital and there was no complaints about false notes. Everyone makes them.

In times of young Rubinstein, Corton and so on no-one was thinking about false notes the same way as we think today. I think (unless this is complete stop or completely failed series of bad notes) much more important is how pianist will handle it than whether they were wrong or correct.

1. Mr Piotr Alexewicz, Poland
2. Ms Leonora Armellini, Italy
3. Mr J J Jun Li Bui, Canada
4. Ms Michelle Candotti, Italy
5. Ms Yasuko Furumi, Japan
6. Mr Alexander Gadjiev, Italy/Slovenia
7. Ms Avery Gagliano, U.S.A.
8. Mr Martin Garcia Garcia, Spain
9. Ms Eva Gevorgyan, Russia/Armenia
10. Mr Nikolay Khozyainov, Russia
11. Ms Su Yeon Kim, South Korea
12. Ms Aimi Kobayashi, Japan
13. Mr Mateusz Krzyżowski, Poland
14. Mr Jakub Kuszlik, Poland
15. Mr Hyuk Lee, South Korea
16. Mr Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, Canada
17. Mr Szymon Nehring, Poland
18. Mr Kamil Pacholec, Poland
19. Mr Hao Rao, China
20. Ms Miyu Shindo, Japan
21. Mr Kyohei Sorita, Japan
22. Mr Hayato Sumino, Japan
23. Mr Andrzej Wierciński, Poland

Quick quoting straight from the Institute FB page:

1. Pan Piotr Alexewicz, Polska
2. Pani Leonora Armellini, Włochy
3. Pan J J Jun Li Bui, Kanada
4. Pani Michelle Candotti, Włochy
5. Pan Yasuko Furumi, Japonia
6. Pan Alexander Gadjiev, Włochy/Słowenia
7. Pani Avery Gagliano, Stany Zjednoczone
8. Pan Martin Garcia Garcia, Hiszpania
9. Pani Eva Gevorgyan, Rosja/Armenia
10. Pan Nikolay Khozyainov, Rosja
11. Pani Su Yeon Kim, Korea Południowa
12. Pani Aimi Kobayashi, Japonia
13. Pan Mateusz Krzyżowski, Polska
14. Pan Jakub Kuszlik, Polska
15. Pan Hyuk Lee, Korea Południowa
16. Pan Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu, Kanada
17. Pan Szymon Nehring, Polska
18. Pan Kamil Pacholec, Polska
19. Pan Hao Rao, Chiny
20. Pani Miyu Shindo, Japonia
21. Pan Kyohei Sorita, Japonia
22. Pan Hayato Sumino, Japonia
23. Pan Andrzej Wierciński, Polska


All of my favorites are here, which I'm really excited about. And Osokins didn't go through after all.

I'm very happy for Avery Gagliano, Leonora Armellini and Hao Rao here.

Edit: shoot, Brendan was faster. Sorry for double post then.

A few observations: Nehring and Garcia yes but Ushida no? Osokins out, most of the Italians still in, as well as 5 Japanese and 6 Poles. Part of me says that they're looking at previous resumes/competition successes going forward.

I miss Ushida and Gad Crema, but I'm not really surprised about Garcia Garcia too much. Funny enough, the competition page is now flooded by comments of a scandalous decision on Osokins. People get extremely emotional about these things. I remember the 2005's competition, there was no coverage as good as this one. We also had a much longer thread here then! And now, with social media, it's very busy and fierce.