Electric start to the concerto finals

There was an air of excitement due to the large audience at Finlandia Hall alone as the first three players in the concerto finals took the platform. I have to start by saying what an inconceivable acoustic disaster that hall is! I was sitting in the middle of row seven, some 10-15 metres from the piano, yet even so it sounded like some cheap electric piano. Though the descant notes tinkled ok, the tone of the instrument was not very warm. This was something over which the player had no control. The players did, however, differ in the way they handled the situation and coaxed out different tones. The orchestra played really well throughout. Leif Segerstam is a terrific conductor and his orchestra both accompanied and upheld the pillars of the concertos. An unusually magnificent competition finals accompanist!

The finals began with Yoonjung Han, whose Liszt E flat major concerto was really professional and note-perfect. Her playing was very polished and her collaboration with the orchestra excellent. Yet I still felt that it lacked something. Maybe the truly personal touch that spoke to me at some deeper level was what I felt was missing. Even so: a very good performance of the Liszt concerto. The glittering figures towards the end sounded particularly fine.

Violetta Khachikian was once again captivating! Her very first piano phrase was already so genuinely touching that it was only now that I realised what was slightly missing from the first performance. Khachikian fashioned the first movement superbly. Even the difficult climax was perfectly synchronised with the orchestra. Her tone was carrying in a solid way, and not noisy even at the loudest points. There were a few mistakes in the second movement, but it was nevertheless possible to hear the idea she was trying to express. And the ideas were interesting. The mistakes were of only secondary importance to the intensity of the music. The last movement was also a demonstration of how to make the piano ring without violence and how to construe even virtuoso passages in a way that is musical. Khachikian did not at first appear to be entirely satisfied with her performance. Maybe she was still annoyed at the minor mistakes or the tiny memory lapse at the end of the second movement. The audience were clearly not worried about these, judging from the heated applause.

Roope Gröndahl played Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto with a strong will. He has exceptional solo ability. He synchronises with the orchestra the whole time while nevertheless interpreting the music just as he pleases. An art worth its weight in gold! Gröndahl had clear interpretive objectives and achieved them in an admirable way for someone of his age. Nor is he lacking in motoric capacity – what alternating octaves! I did, however, notice certain features in his playing that could do with slight improvement. First, his tone control. Roope’s fortissimos are certainly great alright, but they lack the controlled firmness of, say, Khachikian. Then again, the more lyrical phrasing could be more logical and controlled. There were some fine samples of Gröndahl’s pianissimos in a few places, but it seemed to me that he could have constructed the overall form with an even more varied tone palette. Another thing I noticed and one that was, I have to say, a rather disturbing factor was at times the very large number of wrong notes. In any case an extremely promising future soloist, this Roope Gröndahl. The audience rewarded the young talent with wild applause.

Risto-Matti Marin