My Father’s Son: How becoming a father inspired tenor Nicky Spence’s upcoming recital
- Wednesday, June 11, 2025
‘Fatherhood made me rethink everything – including how I hear and sing’
‘Fatherhood made me rethink everything – including how I hear and sing’
'Aristo Sham took command of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No 2 and ran away with it, infusing the gnarly solo part with purpose, direction, structural awareness, technical finesse and mature artistry'
'With the Final Round performances fresh in my inner ears, the verdict at first surprised and disappointed me'
On a performance-free day of this year's Cliburn competition, Jed Distler reflects on the tumultuous, short life of a previous winner: Alexei Sultanov
'Carter Johnson commandeered the complex and unwieldy textures with minimum effort and maximum suppleness and sophistication'
'Evren Ozel’s precise alignment of accents and phrase groupings in rapid passages created a ballet of the mind'
On a rest day for the competition, Jed Distler looks back at some of the new music commissioned specifically for The Cliburn
'Philipp Lynov proved to be an undisputed master of Ravel’s domain, where technical hurdles simply didn’t exist'
'A win/win performance for all parties concerned, including Mozart!'
'Aristo Sham displayed a sensitivity and genuine collaborative spirit throughout the A major Concerto, K488'
'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'
'Aristo Sham’s march rhythms in the final piece were akin to a chorus line of lightning bolts'
A rest day in the competition gives Jed Distler time to reflect on Van Cliburn – American icon, cultural ambassador, and formidably gifted pianist
This year's competitors have a rest day, so Jed Distler looks back 20 years to The Cliburn medallists of 2005: Sa Chen, Joyce Yang and Alexander Kobrin
'The freedom and sheer fun that Chaeyoung Park conveyed in Brahms’s Paganini Variations, Book 2, almost made me forget about her effortless technical mastery'
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