VOA常速英语:Asian Pianists Sweep Van Cliburn Competition

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A young, blind pianist from Japan and a newly turned 19-year-old from China both claimed gold medals in the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. A South Korean woman took the silver medal in the prestigious competition that ended Sunday night [June 7].
 
Every four years, the top young pianists in the world converge on Fort Worth, Texas - home of the Van Cliburn Foundation - for its prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. It is a grueling three weeks of competitive music-making many liken to both a marathon and a festival. And this year, it had a bit of drama, as judges broke from the expected routine for the second time this decade.

A surprise announcement

After the three runners-up out of the six finalists were named, Van Cliburn Foundation President Richard Rodzinski took the microphone and announced, "The third prize is not awarded."

There were gasps and excited whispers from the packed audience in Fort Worth's Bass Hall, as the crowd wondered if higher awards might be withheld. But based on precedent established in 2001, when two players earned gold, many expected the same this time.

And that's exactly what happened.

South Korean Yeol Eum Son, 23, was named the second place silver medalist. Then Haochen Zhang, who turned 19 last Wednesday, was named the gold winner. A few seconds later, 20-year-old Nobuyuki Tsujii - who has been blind since birth - was named co-gold medalist.

Veda Kaplinsky, one of the judges, praised the Japanese pianist and stressed, "He did not win because he's blind. He won based on his playing. We were instructed very clearly to judge him exactly the way we judge everyone else. He himself requested that he be judged the way everybody else did."

Kaplinsky said she and others had to be impressed by anyone who could sit down and play the Chopin etudes as he did. (Click to listen to Tsujii play Chopin.)

Youngest participant a seasoned performer
 
Kaplinsky called the other gold medalist, Chinese musician Haochen Zhang, "a pure, honest pianist, who's all about the music."
 
"Everything flows naturally, good taste, amazing facility and the ability at the age of 19 to withstand the grueling aspects of this competition and to play his best at the very end."

Zhang's last piece was Prokofiev's challenging Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16. (Click to listen.)

Zhang, who gave his debut recital at the Shanghai Music Hall at the age of 5, says this competition was so tough that little from here on out will seem tougher. He's looking forward to returning to a normal life, but he knows it will not be the same because of this award.

"Even though I'll get a lot of attention, I hope I can be myself," he said. "And I hope this would not do anything to change me negatively. I want to have a good attitude to music. Be always humble before music, before the great masters."

Zhang says only if you are humble can you improve yourself and continue to learn. Tsujii and Son made similar comments. All are looking forward to the next three years of concerts, the biggest part of their prize.

Everyone's a critic

But many critics, some of whom didn't want to be named, aren't so eager to hear these winners. Gil French, concert editor for American Record Guide, was disappointed. He disagreed with the judges. He says they picked the safe players, who were note perfect but lacked that special something, "something that sweeps me away, that changes my pulse and by breathing, hits my heart, and when it's over I realize I can't talk, because I'm choked up."

French says Zhang did that for him, but only once.

That's one critic's assessment. The public can decide on their own. The gold medalists will play a concert in Germany later this month and go on to Aspen, Colorado, Poland and Beijing as they begin their three-year-long series of performances.