Announcing the winners of this year's Wallace National Piano Competition, adjudicator Andrew Ball addressed all four finalists individually. He praised third-placegetter Jane Sohn for courageously confronting Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata, the galvanising highlight of her performance.
He singled out the freshness of runner-up Modi Deng, and the growth of her confidence, from eliminations to Sunday night's Grand Final. Although Deng's Mozart Sonata was too brutal for my taste, there was no gainsaying the 18-year-old's unflinching immersion in the heady trifecta of Scriabin, Debussy and Liszt.
Ball related some moments of real magic experienced during the event. One was the gracefulness and fluency of the fourth-placegetter, Bradley Wood, playing Mozart on Friday.
Delvan Lin, who took top prize, had interpreted Bach on Saturday with such intelligence and depth that Ball felt he was listening to a pianist of 60 rather than 16.
The Englishman also stressed that final placings reflected the musicians' contributions over all three sessions. The good news for us is that the entire competition, including 16 pianists playing a New Zealand work, can be viewed on YouTube, beautifully filmed by Bill McCarthy.
