Curtis grad wins Liszt competition

Curtis grad wins Liszt competition

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norman lebrecht

October 23, 2017

The Utrecht International Liszt Competition has been won by Alexander Ullman, 26, a Curtis graduate from the UK. He wins 20,000 Euros and ‘a career development programme’.

Runners up were Minsoo Hong (South Korea) and Dina Ivanova (Russia).

 

Comments

  • Alaric Balth says:

    Congratulations. This would appear to be roughly the 185th “International Piano Competition” listed in the Alink-Argerich database, meaning there are likely to be 200 by the end of the year. So good luck with career development to this gentleman and his co-winners in the company of hundreds of other “laureates”.

    But doubtless we can look forward to the 250th performance of the B minor sonata on CD with a cover photo sexier than Khatia’s.

  • Robert Hairgrove says:

    “But doubtless we can look forward to the 250th performance of the B minor sonata on CD with a cover photo sexier than Khatia’s.

    Liszt’s B minor, I presume?

    R. B. Prior, who has a YouTube channel, told me in a private email conversation that he has over 700 recordings of this piece! Many of them are from radio broadcasts and are not commercially available. Some of his more interesting Liszt Sonata recordings are on YouTube; I was particularly fascinated by those of Martin Berkowitz and Leonard Pennario, to name just two.

  • Jeffrey Biegel says:

    It is always a plus in one’s career to capture a prize, because they become the ‘hot item’ for the moment, which can attract many different components of the industry at the moment. What is his repertoire list? What are the short term goals (outside of winning the Liszt competition and the engagements which come with the prize–which managements will soon want to take him on to service), and the long term goals of 5 years, 10 years? It is always great to have a solid Liszt b minor Sonata in the arsenal, and wow, 700 performances stored by R.B. Prior? That is amazing. For me, two of the best renditions heard are Earl Wild’s from a ‘live’ Carnegie Hall performance, and Adele Marcus playing pretty much the entire piece while teaching it in her studio. She studied this with Josef Lhevinne and it helped win her the 1928 Naumburg Prize in NYC. Re Alexander, will keep an eye on this young pianist!

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