I’m going to report on Thursday evening’s four Mozart Concerto performances first, before circling back to the two Semi-final solo recitals we heard in the afternoon.

Purely in pianistic terms, the four Semi-final soloists played as well as one would expect under these circumstances, which is to say that Mozart Concerto performances in major international competitions hardly allow a wrong or split note. Mozart leaves you nowhere to hide, and no bushes to cower under when the slightest phrase goes awry, or when ensemble attacks and releases are not absolutely in sync. As such, one could take issue with a pianist’s upward scale getting ahead of the beat. Or when Carlos Miguel Prieto and his stalwart ensemble culled from the Fort Worth Symphony set a perfectly judged pace in a first movement ritornello, only to have the pianist enter with a different tempo.

Philipp Lynov’s solo work in the E flat major Concerto, K279, was all there, so to speak. No revelations or surprises, except perhaps for his brisk basic tempo in the Rondo finale.

Philipp Lynov:

The D minor Concerto, K466, provides more opportunities for dynamic contrasts and dramatic inflections, and Chaeyoung Park took full advantage of them, albeit within the bounds of good style and taste. Sometimes her tiny ritenutos at phrase-ends grew increasingly predictable and precious, but she truly interacted with the orchestra, responding to rather than correcting what they gave her. Although no cadenzas were credited, Park bypassed the usual Beethoven option for something more stylistically fitting. Several astute online viewers correctly identified the cadenza as Robert Levin’s.

Chaeyoung Park:

The orchestra particularly shone throughout the A major Concerto, K488, and I want to give special kudos to the fantastic bassoon soloist: please identify yourself! Vitaly Starikov’s witty and extroverted passagework in the outer movements contrasted to his trying a little too hard to make expressive points in the slow movement’s right-hand cantelinas.

Vitaly Starikov:

As a Mozartean, however, Carter Johnson proved the evening’s star. Throughout the E flat major Concerto, K482, his timing of phrases, his contrapuntal acumen and his constant awareness of harmonic inferences were on par with such Mozart luminaries as Artur Schnabel, Rudolf Serkin, Leon Fleisher, Murray Perahia and Richard Goode. Believe me, I’m not spinning hyperbole; listen for yourself.

Carter Johnson:

Angel Stanislav Wang’s afternoon recital got off to a shaky start. His Beethoven Appassionata Sonata was all over the place in terms of tempo relationships, with sundry finger slips and muddled textures that may have been due to nervousness. Still, I’ve heard famous pianists both dead and alive do far worse with this piece in front of an audience. Fortunately, Wang got it together and then some in two selections from William Bolcolm’s 12 New Etudes. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition started with an overly aggressive opening ‘Promenade’; why can’t these kids just play it steady and straight, without editorialising. Wang projected an easy and tender lilt in ‘The Old Castle’, although in ‘Tuileries’ he subscribes to the newfound ‘tradition’ of speeding up and slowing down certain phrases for no apparent reason. He undermined ‘Bydło’s grim momentum by frequently desynchronising his hands, Paderewski style. But Wang’s gorgeously sustained textural layering and focused mindset in the ‘Catacombs’ and the following ‘Con mortuis’ section created magical effects.

Angel Stanislav Wang:

Jonas Aumiller opened his recital with the best Bach-Busoni D major Organ Prelude and Fugue, BWV532, I’ve heard in concert since the salad days of Marc-André Hamelin and Sergio Fiorentino. This pianist understands how to build up Busoni’s gothic grandeur with attentive bass lines, while his long-line/big-picture conception minimises the Fugue’s repetitiveness. Back in October 2024 I heard Aumiller play Brahms’s Klavierstücke, Op118, while adjudicating the Rina Salo Gallo Competition in Monza, Italy. Aumiller had me in tears from the outset. I had to put my pen and paper away and simply listen with rapture to this gifted artist share his heart and soul through Brahms. If I didn’t cry this time, it’s because I more or less knew what expect. His delicacy in the final pages of Chopin’s F sharp major Impromptu moved me as well. Having heard Aumiller play his brilliant and resourceful transcription of Liszt’s Orpheus in Monza, I was curious what he’d do with the once-popular Les Préludes. The pianist takes the music seriously, while also using Lisztian virtuoso devices to achieve expressive ends, such as the cyclonic octaves that relate to similar passages in the B minor Sonata and ‘Vallée d’Obermann’, and fluttering butterfly-like trills. I frankly prefer Aumiller’s Les Préludes transcription to August Stradal’s for both musical intelligence and pianistic understanding.

Jonas Aumiller:

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