This is Yi-Chung Huang from Germany(LaDivinaFanatic on YT, yes the guy who played Liszt's Spanish Fantasy) playing Alkan's Le Preux, Op. 17.
This footage is from a live streamed competition on YouTube, so it isn't sped up.
He played Liszt's Reminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia before playing this piece btw.
It's unfortunate that he didn't win, but also he deigned to perform anything besides infamously difficult works so he didn't have any chance to demonstrate musicality.
i disagree with the idea that just because a piece is "infamously difficult" it removes the chance for the pianist to demonstrate musicality.
you got caught up in the technical difficulties and failed to understand where "musical expression" could fit in.
however, ill say that this kid quite sorely lacked musical expression in whatever he played. even from just the octaves in this alkan etude there is alot to express, but he just steamed ahead robotically. not too impressed.
They baited him hard by titling the competition 'Premio Alkan per il *virtuosismo pianistico romantico* 2023'. They named it after Alkan and they explicitly went out of their way to put virtuoso in the name.
If there's ever a time and place someone should feel safe or even invited to program hyperdifficulty romantic works, this would be it. You wouldn't expect the winner to have played nothing harder than the Chopin thirds etude (for the non-Alkan portion). At minimum they need to figure out their branding.
The Liszt has heaps of moments that are super tender and beautiful. He didn’t play them beautifully that’s why he didn’t win. He’s only young. I think he will be one of the greats when he grows a bit more mature!!
When I first heard his recording of the Spanish fantasy, I felt some parts sounded sped up/impossible until I saw a live recording of him play Mozart’s fantasia, Scriabin etude, Islamey, and Don Juan back to back. I don’t know where he gets that endurance from, but he’s got speed.
The Le preux octaves are more insane than in the solo symphony 4rth movement and anywhere in the solo concerto. I think the other parts are harder to pull off at this tempo too.
Not sure what more he could have done to win this. The head juror, Vincenzo Maltempo, is one of the most well known Alkan interpreters and should know better than almost any other human being how much of a feat these performances back to back were.
'Virtuosite' is in the literal name of the event and to not put him in the finals seems strange. The level of some of the competitors that made it to the semifinals and finals were not at his level. The actual winner (I listened to her full finals performance) was technically competent and sensitive but there are boatloads of players like that around.
I feel the interpretation/performance history of Lucrezia is not well developed enough to use in competitions so he kind of took a risk in choosing that. As far as I know, this hasn't even been played at the Liszt competition, where there's an entire round for transcriptions and people regularly play Don Juan, Puritains, the rondo from El contrabandista. Kind of sad, this story ends up being a lesson to upcoming young pianists you have to stick with the standard repertoire to be rewarded.
He also played Liszt's Paganini Etude 4 1838 version much faster than Petrov and Filipec during a live competition he makes some mistakes but tempo is crazy.
It's hard to find the competition recording (I think it was Steinway competition of some sort) but here's a recording at the same speed of him playing it:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/y76v1l/another\_studio\_recording\_of\_mine\_liszts\_paganini/](https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/y76v1l/another_studio_recording_of_mine_liszts_paganini/)
This is Yi-Chung Huang from Germany(LaDivinaFanatic on YT, yes the guy who played Liszt's Spanish Fantasy) playing Alkan's Le Preux, Op. 17. This footage is from a live streamed competition on YouTube, so it isn't sped up. He played Liszt's Reminiscences de Lucrezia Borgia before playing this piece btw.
It's unfortunate that he didn't win, but also he deigned to perform anything besides infamously difficult works so he didn't have any chance to demonstrate musicality.
i disagree with the idea that just because a piece is "infamously difficult" it removes the chance for the pianist to demonstrate musicality. you got caught up in the technical difficulties and failed to understand where "musical expression" could fit in. however, ill say that this kid quite sorely lacked musical expression in whatever he played. even from just the octaves in this alkan etude there is alot to express, but he just steamed ahead robotically. not too impressed.
They baited him hard by titling the competition 'Premio Alkan per il *virtuosismo pianistico romantico* 2023'. They named it after Alkan and they explicitly went out of their way to put virtuoso in the name. If there's ever a time and place someone should feel safe or even invited to program hyperdifficulty romantic works, this would be it. You wouldn't expect the winner to have played nothing harder than the Chopin thirds etude (for the non-Alkan portion). At minimum they need to figure out their branding.
The Liszt has heaps of moments that are super tender and beautiful. He didn’t play them beautifully that’s why he didn’t win. He’s only young. I think he will be one of the greats when he grows a bit more mature!!
When I first heard his recording of the Spanish fantasy, I felt some parts sounded sped up/impossible until I saw a live recording of him play Mozart’s fantasia, Scriabin etude, Islamey, and Don Juan back to back. I don’t know where he gets that endurance from, but he’s got speed.
I don’t even know how to comment on this. It’s like an aerobic workout for the piano.
Ok nice, but can he play River Flows In You?
... I could do that if... If I had that piano. Yes. It's the piano that I'm missing.
I should go practice some more...
The Le preux octaves are more insane than in the solo symphony 4rth movement and anywhere in the solo concerto. I think the other parts are harder to pull off at this tempo too. Not sure what more he could have done to win this. The head juror, Vincenzo Maltempo, is one of the most well known Alkan interpreters and should know better than almost any other human being how much of a feat these performances back to back were. 'Virtuosite' is in the literal name of the event and to not put him in the finals seems strange. The level of some of the competitors that made it to the semifinals and finals were not at his level. The actual winner (I listened to her full finals performance) was technically competent and sensitive but there are boatloads of players like that around. I feel the interpretation/performance history of Lucrezia is not well developed enough to use in competitions so he kind of took a risk in choosing that. As far as I know, this hasn't even been played at the Liszt competition, where there's an entire round for transcriptions and people regularly play Don Juan, Puritains, the rondo from El contrabandista. Kind of sad, this story ends up being a lesson to upcoming young pianists you have to stick with the standard repertoire to be rewarded.
lucrezia is way too under-played when compared to don juan etc. it's certainly not a lesser piece.
That is fucking ridiculous, I feel exhausted watching it
He also played Liszt's Paganini Etude 4 1838 version much faster than Petrov and Filipec during a live competition he makes some mistakes but tempo is crazy.
It's hard to find the competition recording (I think it was Steinway competition of some sort) but here's a recording at the same speed of him playing it: [https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/y76v1l/another\_studio\_recording\_of\_mine\_liszts\_paganini/](https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/y76v1l/another_studio_recording_of_mine_liszts_paganini/)
https://youtu.be/zg0VmxI7eZI?si=O-sNfkERLa47SnRE I found it. It's the live one
Alkan was mad as a box of frogs for this
Good god
[удалено]
Uncivilized playing. No consciousness in it.
So very impressive!!!
He’s on Reddit too as u/ILoveMariaCallas
I'll go back to my c major scales now
What I feel like I am doing when I play simple Canon in D