© Protected - Classical Music in Poland and the Europe of Chopin - Reviewer's Notebook

And so Trifonov wins the Audience Award No surprise to me.... Later.... He won! I am over the moon about this - so richly deserved - all my musical instincts correct.  [Scroll down for more detail] The jury opened their ears and more importantly their hearts to his sensibility. A great poet of the instrument. And I am going to hear him at the Duszniki Zdroj International Chopin Piano Festival in Poland in August. My emotions 'recollected in tranquillity' later...

I have been so busy with my own researches on my forgotten Australian concert pianist and writing a recreation of his life in the 1920s I have only been able to watch the competition in fits and starts. However the Archive link on ParaClassics menu is a very useful catch up but why did they remove the finalists' concerto recordings apart from the Mozart? I would love to have compared them in my own time. One cannot remember the finer details in musical interpretations of a number of supremely outstanding finalists. How the jury deal with talent of this high order I have no idea - certainly much of it must be in the final judgement one of personal taste followed by a compromise collective decision which is seldom fair but will never entirely disappoint. Alexander Romanovsky is a magnificent aristocratic presence at the keyboard with the superb technique and deep musicality we have come to expect historically from  so many glorious Ukrainian pianists. His...