The Classic Piano International competition brings together the world's most promising and talented pianists, each vying for a share of the overall prize money, totalling €250,000. We find out who the winner of this two-year-long journey is, as the final plays out in Dubai.
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00:00 It's not an audition, it's not an examination of who can play better than the other pianist
00:07 or who's academically more prepared.
00:09 It's actually the luck of striking the tastes of 15 jury members who represent the broad
00:18 public.
00:22 70 virtuosos chosen from 14 preliminary competitions over two years now competing in Dubai.
00:35 The Classic Piano International Competition brings together the world's most promising
00:39 and talented pianists, each vying for a share of the overall prize money, totaling 250,000
00:46 euros and the winner embarking on a 10-day concert tour.
00:51 I think competitions are important in general.
00:54 I think it's very hard to figure out who the future stars are because many people have
01:01 very big reputations but you don't often get to see them play.
01:05 So it's very hard to kind of cut through the noise and figure out who you should focus
01:11 your attention on.
01:13 Jury members from Austria, France, Germany and Italy joined counterparts from China,
01:18 the US, the UK, Turkey, South Africa and South Korea to judge the competitors on technical
01:25 capability as well as flair and style.
01:28 What I'm looking for at least is somebody who speaks to me, somebody who moves me, somebody
01:34 who has something genuinely interesting to say, somebody who knows how to engage with
01:38 an audience and communicate their love of music.
01:41 That goes a very, very long way.
01:44 The final two stages also tested the pianists' adaptability as they performed a mix of classical
01:51 and contemporary repertoire.
01:56 I mean my view on contemporary versus classical is that it's a really good way to demonstrate
02:03 that the full skill set of the musicians that we're hearing.
02:06 A modern musician has to be versatile, has to be adaptable, they have to be able to excel
02:12 across multiple different genres.
02:14 So question that Alexei's concerto which we've heard is an eight movement piece which is
02:19 full of stylistic differences, a huge stylistic range that you have to tap into, you have
02:26 to really engage with the characters and the styles of each movement to bring it to life.
02:30 And it's been fascinating to see how some of them have really risen to that task and
02:34 others have maybe been a little bit overwhelmed by it.
02:38 Yuanfan Yang thrived on the challenges and collaborations that the competition brought
02:42 with it.
02:52 I think one of the challenges has been the pacing of it, you know, keeping the concentration
02:56 between the rounds.
02:57 I think playing with any orchestra is always such a dream, you know, when you're collaborating
03:01 with so many musicians and often, you know, in a wonderful acoustics with a great conductor.
03:05 It's a very, very special experience, very special journey of kind of everyone coming
03:09 together to create this wonderful piece of music and bring it to life.
03:13 Marek Kozak meanwhile opted for what he believes was a risky choice.
03:21 I played the first piano concerto by Friedrich Chopin and I think every piece is challenging
03:29 but this is very difficult because you can hear every note and it's very clear.
03:36 So it's in some way it's more difficult than 3rd Prokofiev or 3rd Rachmaninoff but it's
03:43 a different kind of music.
03:45 And it's almost the moment of truth.
03:48 The final piece of the competition is being performed on stage by Artem Kuznetsov who's
03:54 performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1.
03:58 But is it enough to walk away with that winning title?
04:03 After over an hour's deliberation, the winner was announced, Andrei Gubnin.
04:08 I didn't really expect it and of course, I mean, I did hope that I could win but it's
04:17 still hard to put in words.
04:18 Despite the enormous feeling of stress and being nervous, I could feel that I still have
04:26 a connection with music that still despite being in a competition, I could do the music.
04:34 I felt the collaboration with the orchestra and just the feeling of playing the beloved
04:38 music was a really, really precious moment.
04:43 And the hard work isn't over yet as Andrei will embark on a tour of 10 concerts after
04:48 hitting the right notes and being crowned winner of Classic Piano International Competition
04:53 2024.
04:54 [Music]
04:58 [MUSIC]