FOR GOLDEN CROWN - FINAL BATTLE OF THE CHAMPIONS No.26/23.10

Your envoy reports:

In Warsaw, everything plays. On the piano, of course. Even on the tram or subway cars. Really. In Polish, 'everything plays' means 'everything is OK'. So 'we're happy'. And that's also true, except for those who were eliminated in numerous pre-race fights. That's life.

The 2^nd massacre after stage 2 reduced the number of players to 20. Incl. 6 Chinese, 3 Japanese, 3 Polish, 2 South Korean, 2 Canadian, 1 Georgian, 1 Malaysian. Among them, 4 excellent ladies from China & Japan. Again, the computer decided by averaging scores of 17 jurors.

The Senior Pianist Panel Evaluates

A few words about this distinguished body, composed mainly of pianist-pedagogues, prize-winners of previous ChComps.' editions, mainly from the last century. They represent nine countries. Six of them are Polish, 3 from the US, 2 from China, one each from France, Japan, Argentina, Russia, Vietnam & RSA.

The Chairman of the Jury is American Garrick Ohlsson (winner in 1970). The average age of about 67 years is corrected by two c-a 40-year-old young ladies because most of the jurors are over 70.

It's a Hard Job to Judge

The jury begins hearings at 10 am to almost 3 pm and resumes in the afternoon from 5 pm to almost 10 pm. There is an opinion that 'a juror's dream' when they listen to the same piece for the 30^th time in a row is to hear it as for the first time! In this ChC, the jurors are like parachutists: they'd make a mistake only once. Every score goes straight to the computer. No correction is possible.

Observations show that jurors judge the first players more harshly.

The Chosen Ones of Heaven Are Only Human

Pianists fear that jurors are hungry before dinner, sleepy after, exhausted in the morning, and tired in the evening. That they believe that 'the young still have time' or 'the old has no chance longer'. 40% of the participants were juror trainees. However, jurors cannot judge their own pupils.

The professor whose student won the last ChC is the most desirable. This year it is Dong Thai Son after the success of Bruce Liu in 2021. Years before, it was Catherina Popova-Zydroń, Master of Rafał Blechacz. (NB Our piano & vocal star in Kuwait, Mrs. Kinga Masternak, was her student too. :)

Marathon With Many Checkpoints

The program of all four stages of this edition takes c-a 3 and a half hours of playing for one candidate.

1^st stage took c-a 30 min. with obligatory Etude, Nocturne, Ballade.

2^nd stage - c-a 1 hour with a cycle of Preludes, Grand Polonaise plus own choice piece.

3^rd stage - 1 hour with Sonata, cycle of Mazurkas & own choice piece.

4^th stage - c-a 1 hour with Polonaise – Fantasy and Concerto with orchestra.

An extremely demanding marathon. Choice up to pianist discretion resulted in the presentation of Chopin's wonderful, youthful works, almost unknown or forgotten.

Maintaining such repertoire in memory and in the fingers requires constant practice.

Before and between stages, participants practice on Chopin University pianos.

The 3^rd Massacre

The 3^rd and final computer massacre of the innocents left 11 young pianists alive on stage: 3 Chinese, 2 Japanese, 2 US, 1 Canadian, Georgian, Malaysian & Polish.

The level is incredibly high and balanced. The Machine was supposed to select 10 persons only, but the 10^th and 11^th candidates had identical hundredths of a point. The same second digit after the decimal point! The jury protested against the drawing or alphabetical order, and the 11^th lucky person landed in the Final. Who was the 11^th one, not even the Jury Chairman knows.

Now the Fight for Gold

1^st Prize – 60,000 Euro (and concert tour around the world, record contracts, etc.)

2^nd - 40,000 E, 3^rd – 35,000 E, 4^th – 30,000 E, 5^th – 25,000, 6^th – 20,000.

All other Finalists – Special Merit & 8,000 E each.

There are also Special Prizes for The Best Performance of: Mazurka, Polonaise, Concerto, Sonata, Ballade. And Audience Prize.

For all performers - great splendor of participation in World Championship. It's true!

The Battle Is Over. The Night of Waiting

The final note has sounded on Monday, Oct 20^th at 9:30 pm. For the first time, the Jury will know the order in all stages and will have the opportunity to argue about the results. The final score will consist of: 35% of the points for the Final, 35% for 3^rd, 20% for 2^nd, and 10% for 1^st stage.

The great foyer of Nat'l Philharmonic was filled with cameras and a crowd of people eager for results supposed to be before midnight. They were before...3 am! It was a terribly long and short night at the same time.

Backstage, the jury battle raged. Jury and Finalists finally appeared somehow sad. Only the Chairman was beaming. They disclosed results as follows:

1^st Golden Prize – Eric Lu (USA),

2^nd Silver Prize – Canadian Kevin Czen,

3^rd Prize – Chinese Zitong Wang (excellent young lady),

4^th Prize ex aequo – Chinese Tianyao Lyu (the youngest & celebrating 17^th birthday during ChC, called 'Magic Princess') & Japanese Shiori Kuwahara (a complete mature pianist, the oldest young lady in Final {30y})

5^th Prize ex aequo – Polish Piotr Alexewicz & Malaysian Vincent Ong

6^th Prize – William Yang (USA).

The remaining 3 finalists received Honorable Mentions

The crowd kept silent. My personal first comments you'd read from short notes above. I was not alone. That's a pity. The Sieve Loses Diamonds.

Eric Lu (USA) winning the 1^st Golden Prize of the 2025 Chopin Competition

Sweetening the Bitterness

To sweeten the bitterness of the 'losers', ChC was 'supplemented' with a new delicious 'competition'. Thirty of Warsaw's best confectionaries are competing for the most exquisite dessert 'Chopin'. Apparently, Chopin had a taste for refined sweets. The idea matured for a long time: in 1960, Artur Rubinstein proposed awarding such a medal while eating his 13^th doughnut in a row, as his colleagues on the jury calculated!

PS. In the Battle of the Pianos, the initial order remained until the end: 1. Steinway, 2. Kawai, 3. Fazioli. (And that's big business: some cost up to a million USD).

Enough words.

Let us play: Finals performance by Eric Lu

🎵 https://youtu.be/GFTHzzFA-TQ?si=KUKxDKUF5vKoH9kC

Written by

Cezary Owerkowicz

Co-founder of Kuwait Music Academy and

Director of Treasure of Talents Festival in Kuwait