Cliburn Competition medallists: 10 recommended recordings
Monday, May 19, 2025
10 outstanding albums from 10 Cliburn Competition medalists, including Yunchan Lim, Beatrice Rana, Radu Lupu and Yeol Eum Son
Chopin Études
Yunchan Lim (Decca)
Gold Medal - 2022
'His Chopin is as flexible and feather-light as it is fluent and fiery, as compelling in its sense of structure as in its relishing of detail. The whole experience radiates joyful, youthful exuberance.' David Fanning
JS Bach Goldberg Variations
Beatrice Rana (Warner Classics)
Silver Medal - 2013
'Her detailing is one of the aspects that makes this performance so compelling, be it the bringing out of a new line in the repeat, subtle changes in phrasing, a touch of pedal – examples are to be found in every single variation.' Harriet Smith
Schubert Piano Sonatas – No 21, D960; No 13, D664
Radu Lupu (Decca)
Gold Medal - 1966
'Lupu's D664 is purely and simply delightful. There's a refined lilt to the phrasing (as in the first and third movements of D960), the finale begins with a lovely, light flourish on the descending semiquavers, while in parts of the central Andante he finds a truly Schubertian depth of sadness which I'd hardly suspected in this music.' Stephen Johnson
Beethoven Variations on a Russian Dance, WoO71 Kurbatov Three Last Minutes Rzewski The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
Vadym Kholodenko (Quartz)
Gold Medal - 2013
'This is far and away the best recording that Vadym Kholodenko has made, and the superb engineering does his committed artistry full justice.' Jed Distler
Villa-Lobos Bachianas brasileiras No 3
Cristina Ortiz pf New Philharmonia Orchestra / Vladimir Ashkenazy (Warner Classics)
Gold Medal - 1969
'All are surpassed by Cristina Ortiz, with the New Philharmonia Orchestra in one of Vladimir Ashkenazy’s earliest recordings as a conductor, her playing a model of balance between the warm and the cool, the Romantic and the Classical, the Brazilian and the Bachian.' Guy Rickards
Beethoven The 5 Piano Concertos
Haochen Zhang pf The Philadelphia Orchestra / Nathalie Stutzmann (BIS)
Gold Medal - 2009
'One might well ask what we’ve done to deserve yet another brilliant collaboration in the Beethoven concertos. Yet Zhang/Stutzmann/Philadelphia is precisely that, and I urge you to not miss it.' Patrick Rucker
Mozart Piano Concerto No 21. Sonata, K330. Variations in C on ‘Lison dormait’. Fantasy, K475
Yeol Eum Son pf Academy of St Martin in the Fields / Sir Neville Marriner (Onyx)
Silver Medal - 2009
'This is an uncommonly fine Mozartian debut.' David Threasher
Mozart Piano Works
Christian Zacharias (Dabringhaus und Grimm)
Silver Medal - 1973
'Zacharias beautifully captures the 'sentimental' tone and provides a performance of great delicacy and refinement, again drawing the full depth of expression from Mozart's harmonic subtleties.' Stanley Sadie
'11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition'
Olga Kern (Harmonia Mundi)
Gold Medal - 2001
'Bold and omniverous‚ she swallows everything whole‚ her towering technique‚ character and passion giving a hypnotic force and intensity to every page.' Bryce Morrison
Chopin Piano Works
Jon Nakamatsu (Harmonia Mundi)
Gold Medal - 1997
'This is a delightful Chopin recital, one of rare refinement whose inner radiance and expressive subtlety continue steadily to reveal its secrets.' Tim Parry
