Japanese pianist Yukine Kuroki is the winner of Liszt Utrecht 2022 with her elegant playing ★★★★★

It’s a bit part of it, after a competition: the jury’s sentence that this wasreally an exceptional edition, because the level of the candidates was sohigh, often followed by ‘perhaps higher than ever’. At the final of LisztUtrecht, Thursday evening in TivoliVredenburg, this was again the tenor of thestory prior to the award ceremony. But for a change, the statement could alsobe true.

Liszt Utrecht? That is the new name of what will probably remain the LisztCompetition for the public, the normally three-yearly piano competition (theprevious edition was in 2017) around music by Franz Liszt, one of the fewDutch competitions with international allure. The competition wanted toprofile itself more as a festival, the word would have acquired a negativeconnotation. This year, in line with the zeitgeist, no distinction was madebetween second and third prizes: there were two ‘runner-ups’.

The three pianists in the final were Derek Wang (United States), Yukine Kuroki(Japan) and Yeon-Min Park (South Korea). With the Radio Philharmonic Orchestraconducted by Christian Reif they were all allowed to Wander fantasy tointerpret; actually a Schubert piece, but adapted by Liszt for piano andorchestra. Each finalist was also allowed to choose their own encore.

Yeon-Min Park, winner of the audience award, during the final of LisztUtrecht 2022. Image AllardWillemse

Yeon-Min Park, winner of the audience award, during the final of Liszt Utrecht2022.Sculpture Allard Willemse

Three times in one night the Wander fantasy : that seemed a bit muchbeforehand, because the piece isn’t that interesting. All the more handsomethat it never got boring after all. Wang characterized himself in a pre-screened film as a pianist who wants to balance the physical, emotional andintellectual in Liszt, yet the drive in his playing got the upper hand. TheEncore, Liszt’s arrangement of the final movement of Beethoven’s SeventhSymphony was especially spectacular.

What a contrast was the entrance of the much more modest Yukine Kuroki. Sheknew how to give the tones the right weight in every chord and naturally buildup tension. Much more than the other candidates, she succeeded in the Wanderfantasy in the sounds of the grand piano and the orchestra. Her playing wasinescapable in her solos.

If Kuroki was already a 10+ when it comes to technical control, Park surpassedthat. The orchestra, grown in the competition, played in its round withoutreservations. Especially during Park’s encore, the Paganini adaptation Lacampanella , did you sometimes have to pinch yourself: is this reallyhappening, here, in front of my eyes? Whoever can play such a finger crusherwith such playful ease that the stardust rises from the strings, cannot gohome without a prize.

She received the audience award. And yet the deserved winner of thecompetition-that-no-competition-may-be was Yukine Kuroki, because thatelegance is just that little bit rarer. The pianists will be supported by theorganization for three years and will be heard a lot in the Netherlands.Something to very much look forward to. Wonderful piano careers lie ahead.