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Hey Everyone,
What a fantastic year for the Cliburn! The level of artistry was simply off the charts—and I want to give a special shoutout to Carter Johnson, who many of you will remember as one of our very own tonebase coaches last year. His performance of Ravel’s Left Hand Concerto in the finals was not only stunning, but also historic—the first time this piece has ever been played in a Cliburn final!
I have to say, as someone who’s studied the score of Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto, I never imagined hearing it in a competition setting. But Vitaly Starikov delivered it with such power and authority—it was jaw-dropping. If you haven’t seen that performance yet, do yourself a favor and watch it. It was easily one of the biggest highlights for me.
Aristo Sham, another familiar face who worked with tonebase a few years ago, was equally incredible. He’s one of those rare pianists who can play anything—from the complete Rachmaninoff Op. 39 Études, to Mendelssohn’s First Concerto, and even Brahms’ towering Second Concerto. His versatility and command are just remarkable. Also take a look at our tonebase video where he is "teaching himself" below :)
Of course, there’s so much more to say about this year’s Cliburn, but I think we can all agree—this year’s competition gave us something truly special. No matter who your favorite was, we all got to witness unforgettable artistry, moments of awe, and plenty of goosebumps. Huge congratulations to all 28 competitors for sharing their music with the world!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es0scC29YOM&t=67s
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Hi all, Assistant Head of Piano here! I was very fortunate to be present at the Cliburn for the finals and half of the semifinals; what a privilege to hear these amazing artists playing at the highest level. It was an electrifying experience and also a heartwarming one: not only the music-making, but the good friends who made it all the way the finals-- and beyond!
Dominic and I have been comparing notes, seeing how competitors sounded live in the hall versus on recordings, and what a pleasure it was to reflect on how that affected our impressions, and to hear that in many cases artistry transcended the medium and communicated directly.
Carter Johnson is a dear friend of mine for many years, and I fondly remember competing in the same competitions with him and volleying back and forth program ideas, endlessly exploring and refining. We followed the 2022 Cliburn remotely, but when the finalists were announced on the spur of the moment we decided to fly from our respective schools to the Cliburn to experience the incredible phenomena of that year in the final round: Anna Geniushene and Yunchan Lim. Those were moments to remember, and perhaps helped him be determined to make it all the way to the final the next time around.
Back in 2025, Dominic already mentioned one of Carter's three wonderful collaborations with orchestra, and I'll highlight his spellbinding semifinal recital. I found myself moved to tears more than once by his deep understanding of Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze-- music of love and loss, and a narrative of many sudden discursions. I remember fascinating conversations discussing some of my research on Schumann with Carter and him finding new angles into this extraordinary piece. All his rounds pointed in new directions of creative and emotionally rich programming: resolute and virtuosic sonatas by Clementi, Bartók, and Hindemith (a tour de force!), miniatures by Brahms, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Scriabin. We'll be hearing a lot more from Carter on the world stage in the years to come.
Aristo Sham is a totally deserving and outstanding first-prize winner: a consummate professional of seemingly limitless technical capacity -- and according to his remarkable teacher Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist, who was also present at the competition, he has essentially infinite repertoire ready at a moment's notice, something any first-prize winner needs to sustain their success. His soaring and brilliant sound carried him through to a confident victory and a notable career ahead. His playing has a truly enviable comprehensiveness, a total assurance that grabbed the attention of the jury (and mine too!).
On that note, my impression of Vitaly Starikov is the same as Dominic: a truly unforgettable Bartók 2 that not only achieves the highest artistic ideals, but actually raises the bar of what is possible . This for me was the single greatest performance in the competition, a shining moment of sheer breathless excitement and trance-like immersion in this extraordinary music. His playing had an elemental quality, as if it was not a man playing the piano, but a channeling of something beyond. I felt graced to be able to witness this in person and feel the visceral energy and hair-raising focus in real life. The livestream doesn't represent the elegant balance between piano and orchestra where trills melted perfectly into the orchestral writing, and it made his playing sound less even and shapely than it was in the hall. It was a game-changer.
More thoughts soon!
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Noah Alden Hardaway Noah and Dominic, I totally agree with both of you. I was especially excited as well to hear Carter play the Ravel Left Hand Concerto. It's long been in my top 5 of all concertos in the whole repertoire! It's a total compositional masterpiece. And so infrequently performed. It's brutally difficult if you don't have the technique already built up to play it, and most pianists don't if they haven't already worked on the piece -- it's demands such different focus on technique than most of the piano repertoire. I got injured playing this piece like 20 years ago while trying it out on different pianos, one of which had only a low chair instead a bench, and I aggravated by back trying to do the reach up to the upper registers in the martial section of the piece, from a low place. Lang Lang also got injured on this piece! Carter's performance was really great, and I may go back and listen to it a second time. There's a shortage of good recorded performances of it! It was one of the highlights of the competition for me, along with Aristo Sham's performance of the set of Rachmaninoff Etudes Tableaux, which was fantastic. Man, those pieces are tough, and he demonstrated mastery of all of them. I loved his tone colors in the Ocean and Seagulls one; the voicing has to be perfect, and it was. I also liked Aristo's performance of the Brahms Concerto -- I felt like he was warming up a bit in the first movement and really got in the zone as he went along. Dominic, I love that video above, so thank you for posting it! It was awesome to see kid Aristo playing the Chopin G-flat major waltz and jumping up and down the piano. Good to talk about the competition! Hope you both are well!
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The overall level of musicality and technical ability was simply astounding. I attended the three-day preliminary round so heard all 28 competitors live, and followed many of them (not all) through to the finals on the Cliburn's streaming channel. A few of my highlights:
Alice Burla's Haydn Sonata in G, Hob. XVI:6 in the prelim: As she started to play, I thought: An early Haydn sonata to open her recital?—terrible idea, and she'll never recover from the puny impression it makes. But she played it with such unexpected verve, shapely phrasing, and musicality that it demonstrated a remarkable creative mind at work—both Haydn's and her own—and helped propel her at least into the quarterfinal round.
Aristo Sham's Gaspard de la Nuit in the prelim was simply transcendental, and served notice that he was one of several that could go all the way to the gold—which he did. I was disappointed, though, that Gaspard appeared three times in the opening recitals, while most of the rest of his superb piano oeuvre was bypassed. The Sonatine, Valse Nobles et Sentimentales, and Le Tombeau de Couperin all provide ample opportunities to blast through technical minefields while making great music.
In the semifinals Jonas Aumiller played the finest Brahms Op. 118 (complete) that I've ever heard, along with his own totally convincing transcription of Liszt's Les Preludes. Aumiller played superbly throughout all three rounds he remained in, and if I'd been a juror, he probably would have had my vote for the gold.
The only sour note of the competition, for me, was the frequency of pointlessly bombastic virtuoso showpieces; most of the competitors unfortunately seemed to think they had to include at least one among
their three solo recitals. I never, ever want to hear the Liszt Reminiscences de Don Juan again. Busoni's transcriptions (I use the term loosely now) of the big Bach organ preludes and fugues should have remained in the dustbin of music history. Even Aumiller, who elsewhere demonstrated impeccable musical taste, succumbed to the imagined pressure in the semifinal round and hammered out one of the Bach-Busoni monsters. I like to think that if he'd played the Italian Concerto instead, the jurors would have advanced him into the finals; one can play Bach far more musically without the intervention of Busoni.
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I love all the tonebase connections to this event. I also found Ben Laude's blow-by-blow reviews really compelling. I would have loved to hear more from Magdalena Ho and David Khrikuli. And agree,, Starikov's Bartók was this year's highlight—deserved to medal for that alone, which isn't a given in the context of these events. So many fine performances. It's so hard to narrow it down to three.
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I'm still mourning the fact that Chaeyoung Park did not advance. Her lovely tone, dynamic range, and fluid playing reminded me of one of my favorite pianists Claire Huangci.
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Leecia Price totally agree. Park should have been in the finals.
Here are my thoughts:
I loved hearing repertoire with which I was unfamiliar.
I agree with Jack vreeland that Ho should have advanced.
Vitaly was clearly a judge’s favorite from the beginning. I thought at some points during some rough patches during his early recitals that he might be eliminated.
I’m disappointed that Angel Stanislav didn’t medal. He and Carter were definitely two of the more interesting pianists in the finals.
