The 2nd International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments (ICCPI 2023) “The Real Chopin” took place in Warsaw from October 5 to 15, 2023, organized after the success of the first edition in 2018 by the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute headed by the Director of NIFC, Dr. Artur Szklener. The initiator of this extraordinary Competition is Stanisław Leszczyński – Artistic Director of ICCPI and Deputy Director of NIFC. The project is part of the constantly developing trend of historically informed performance, and the Chopin Institute is becoming a pioneer in the field of competitive performance on period pianos.
Why is the word “piano” missing?
Despite the growing number of products, more or less successful, signed with the “Chopin” brand, the name of the greatest Polish pianist and composer – Fryderyk Chopin, is fortunately still (also by people not connected with the world of classical music) primarily associated with the piano. New artistic projects, intriguing and revealing, such as: the performance of the Fryderyk Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 on the guitar (during the 19th International Music Festival Chopin and His Europe 2023) or the provocative project “Chopin without a piano” by Michal Zadara (where the piano part in both of Chopin’s Piano Concertos was transcribed into a literary text) are still incidental initiatives. Chopin, although musically brought up by the violinist Wojciech Żywny, was from an early age an exceptionally talented pianist-performer, and then also an extremely conscious pianist-pedagogue (as evidenced by Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger’s books “Fryderyk Chopin. Sketches for the piano playing method” or “Chopin: pianist and teacher – as seen by his pupils”, but also the latest publication of the Chopin Institute “Friederike Müller: letters from Paris 1839-1845. The teaching and environment of Fryderyk Chopin” by Uta Goebl-Streicher), and in his compositional output he left almost exclusively works for piano. Therefore, the event called the Chopin Competition must be synonymous with the Piano Competition. However, almost a hundred years older, the Grand “International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition” contains not only “Chopin” but also „Piano” in its name. So what made the word “piano” missing from the name of the Chopin Competition on Period Instruments? Terminological doubts related to the period piano are dispelled in the first paragraph of the Competition Invocation (published in the ICCPI 2023 program book) by its author, Prof. Benjamin Vogel – an outstanding instrumentologist, author of numerous publications on not only the piano.
The differences between both competitions do not only concern period instruments. Unlike the Grand Competition, this ICCPI is not monographic. In the first stage of ICCPI 2023, in addition to the early Polonaise and the Ballade or Barcarolle by Fryderyk Chopin, the participants had to perform the following Works by: Johann Sebastian Bach (one of the selected Preludes and Fugues from Das Wohltemperierte Klavier), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Fantasia in D minor K.397 or the Rondo in A minor K.511), as well as one of the polonaises given in the Competition Regulations by: Karol Kurpiński, Michał Kleofas Ogiński, Maria Szymanowska or Józef Elsner. The Artistic Director of the Competition, Stanisław Leszczyński, writes about the idea of expanding the Competition repertoire: „To assess the competence of a pianist playing on a period instrument, the music of a single composer is not always enough; it does not allow one to quickly diagnose flaws in playing, which may result from a lack of musicality, of technique or of knowledge about the instrument. The music of Bach or Mozart, thanks to its unambiguous and disciplined form, clearly shows a pianist’s ability to cope with the complicated material of the sound of a given piano, because the performer cannot ‘hide’ behind the ‘poetical-romantic’ music of the composer of the ‘Revolutionary’ Etude. And where Bach and Mozart, in their fantasias, for example, give greater freedom, they draw on Baroque rhetoric. The texture of those works is like an X-ray for the pianist, where every note is ‘visible’ and so constitutes a clear object allowing for an objective appraisal.” (https://iccpi.pl/en/2023/aktualnosci/308/)
What should be the approach to the expanded repertoire so that the Competition remains a Chopin Competition?
Of course, it is not necessary to perform only Fryderyk’s works at the Chopin Competition (even though the Grand Competition has accustomed us to this). However, the idea of expanding the repertoire raises questions about how to approach non-Chopin works in the context of issues related to historical performance. During the Competition, there were opinions that Bach should only be played on the harpsichord, and if on the piano, only Silbermann piano – a constructor, whose instruments Bach accepted, but not from the very beginning. It was also mentioned that the obligatory piece is Mozart’s Fantasia in D minor K.397 or the Rondo in A minor K.511, and there is no Anton Walter piano to choose from on which these pieces could be performed according to their real sound. But the ICCPI Competition is not “The Real Bach” or “The Real Mozart” but “The Real Chopin”. When Chopin in the winter of 1838/39 composed the cycle of 24 Preludes, Op. 28 he studied Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier intensively. We know that in Valldemossa he had a Pleyel piano at his disposal. Therefore, the real sound world for Chopin was Bach performed on the Pleyel instrument. It was similar to the work of Mozart, whose Trio in E major Chopin performed on a Pleyel instrument during his last concert in Paris. In my personal opinion, at the Chopin Competition, the works of Bach or Mozart should be approached through the prism of Chopin’s own experience. These were the conditions created by the organizers when selecting the competition instruments. This is also how the Polish part of the non-Chopin competition repertoire was selected. The participants could choose between the works of Karol Kurpiński (who, as a conductor, premiered Chopin’s Concerto in F minor with the composer in 1830), Michał Kleofas Ogiński and Maria Szymanowska, who were particularly role models for Fryderyk in his youth, and finally Józef Elsner, who as Chopin’s teacher was not afraid to call his student a genius who opened a new era for the piano.
Competition Participants
Fryderyk Chopin’s role as the greatest ambassador of Polish culture in the world is confirmed by the interest in the 2nd International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments, to which as many as 84 pianists from all continents entered. The jury of the qualifying stage for ICCPI 2023, consisting of: Lech Dudzik, Tobias Koch, Janusz Olejniczak, Ewa Pobłocka and Wojciech Świtała, qualified 35 participants from 14 countries to the main competition. The largest group were pianists from Japan (14), then from Poland (6) and from Italy (4). The jury also qualified two participants from: China, South Korea, the USA and Russia (the participants were admitted after recognizing the apolitical nature of the Competition and signing a special declaration unequivocally condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine and all actions of the Russian Federation constituting a violation of international law) and one participant from Australia, Austria, France, Spain, Canada, Germany and Hungary.
An Extraordinary Inauguration for six or even eight hands
On the day of the Press Conference on October 4, 2023, it seemed that everything was already finalized and all we had to do was wait for the Inaugural Concert with the participation of, among others: Tomasz Ritter (winner of the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments, 2018) and Bruce Liu (winner of the 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, 2021) Stanisław Leszczyński, the Artistic Director of the ICCPI, surprised everyone (not for the first time).
At 2:29 p.m. CET, information that Martha Argerich would play during the Inauguration was published. The performances of the Argentinian pianist – winner of the Grand International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 1965, always evoke great emotions. This information electrified music lovers even more because the artist decided to play Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 by Ludwig van Beethoven (which she performed with great success in Wrocław in April) on a period piano.
It was not the first time that the Warsaw audience had the opportunity to hear Martha Argerich’s interpretation of this Beethoven Concerto on a period piano. In the NIFC discography you can find the world’s first recording on historical instruments of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 featuring a sensational performance given by Martha Argerich with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under the baton of Frans Brüggen during the “Chopin and his Europe” Festival (2012). The 2023 performance on Erard’s instrument (Paris, 1858) was thrilling, and the Inauguration of the ICCPI 2023, thanks to the electrifying personality of Martha Argerich, was extraordinary. The rest of the program also sounded beautiful:
Dai Fujikura Bridging Realms (for solo period piano) performed by Naruhiko Kawaguchi on Graf Vienna 1819 (2007)
Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 performed by Tomasz Ritter on Graf Vienna 1819 (2007)
Ludwig van Beethoven – Fantasy for piano, choir and orchestra in C minor, Op. 80 performed by Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu on Erard Paris 1858
The whole thing was completed by a charming encore for six hands: Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Romance. Andante sostenuto in A major performed by Martha Argerich, Bruce Liu and Tomasz Ritter. The Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Choir with Violetta Bielecka (Choir director) also performed in Beethoven’s Fantasia, and in the Concertos the pianists were accompanied by the {oh!} Orchestra conducted by Vaclav Luks, who was a member of the Competition Jury from the next morning.
ICCPI 2023
On October 6, 2023, the first stage auditions of the 2nd International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments began in the Chamber Hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic. The jury, chaired by Professor Wojciech Świtała, consisting of: Paolo Giacometti, Yves Henry, Tobias Koch, Václav Luks, Janusz Olejniczak, Olga Pashchenko, Ewa Pobłocka, Andreas Staier, Wojciech Świtała, listened to the interpretations of 35 participants (in alphabetical order from the letter “w” drawn at the Press Conference):
Alice Baccalini, Italy
Aleksandra Bobrowska, Poland
Aleksandra Hortensja Dąbek, Poland
Simone El Oufir Pierini, Italy
Joanna Goranko, Poland
Eric Guo, Canada
Yuina Hayakawa, Japan
Yukino Hayashi, Japan
Satoshi Iijima, Japan
Oscar Jiang, Australia
Saya Kamada, Japan
Song-Ha Kim, South Korea
Hyunji Kim, South Korea
Mariia Kurtynina, Russia
Nicolas Margarit, Australia/Spain
Danilo Mascetti, Italy
Yuya Nishimoto, Japan
Martin Nöbauer, Austria
Shun Oi, Japan
Madoka Okada, France
Arisa Onoda, Japan
Piotr Pawlak, Poland
Kamila Sacharzewska, Poland
Takahiko Sakamaki, Japan
Viacheslav Shelepov, Russia
Mana Shoji, Japan
Dávid Szilasi, Hungary
Nao Takahashi, Japan
Jannik Truong, Germany
Ludovica Vincenti, Italy
Derek Wang, USA
Andrzej Wierciński, Poland
Chaojun Yang, China
Angie Zhang, USA
Yonghuan Zhong, China
Even before the auditions began, the Jury qualified 6 of the 21 period pianos prepared for the Competition by the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute:
Pleyel (1842, collection of Edwin Beunk)
Pleyel (copy of the instrument from 1830, collection of Paul Mc’Nulty)
Erard (1838, collection of Edwin Beunk)
Broadwood (1846, collection of Andrzej Włodarczyk)
Graf (1835, collection of Chris Maene)
Buchholtz (copy of the instrument from 1825, collection of NIFC)
Each participant performed the first stage program on at least two different pianos.
A report on the course of the first and second stages auditions of the Competition should appear here. However, since I only participated live in the final stage auditions and the Prize winners’ Concert (and followed the auditions of the first and second stages via online streaming), I will limit myself to a short general report (from the first and second stages), because the differences in the online and live sound were so clear that a report from the auditions followed via online streaming would not fully reflect the competition impressions and emotions. The online streaming was, of course, at the highest level and thanks to it the audience from all over the world could follow the Competition and share their impressions with the constantly growing community of Fryderyk Chopin’s music lovers. In addition, the organizers have prepared a number of additional materials presenting the idea of the Competition and Polish collections of period pianos (Opatówek and Ostromecko Collections).
As I mentioned earlier, in the first stage (October 6-8, 2023), in addition to Chopin’s works, the participants had to perform works by Bach (Prelude and Fugue), Mozart (Fantasia or Rondo) and one polonaise by a selected Polish composer (Elsner, Kurpiński, Ogiński or Szymanowska). The repertoire showed a broad Chopin context, also contributing to the popularization of less known works of Polish composers.
The jury decided to qualify 15 participants for the second stage:
Alice Baccalini, Italy
Joanna Goranko, Poland
Eric Guo, Canada
Saya Kamada, Japan
Hyunji Kim, South Korea
Mariia Kurtynina, Russia
Nicolas Margarit, Australia/Spain
Martin Nöbauer, Austria
Piotr Pawlak, Poland
Kamila Sacharzewska, Poland
Jannik Truong, Germany
Ludovica Vincenti, Italy
Derek Wang, USA
Angie Zhang, USA
Yonghuan Zhong, China
The second stage (October 10-11, 2023) was monographic and required the participants to perform one of Fryderyk Chopin’s Waltzes, an opus of the Mazurkas and one of the three Sonatas. Perhaps paradoxically, it was the monographic stage that revealed more truth about the participants’ capabilities. It was, of course, more difficult also because of the need to perform Chopin’s great form.
The competition posed a bit more difficulties, which the participants coped with brilliantly. Choosing a piano, at least two in the first stage, was even more difficult than in the case of the Grand Competition. Period instruments differ from each other much more than contemporary pianos. They are also more delicate and do not forgive any mistakes. For the participants, who on a daily basis do not have the opportunity not only to regularly practice on period instruments, but also to confront a period piano in a concert situation, not to mention a competition, this was an additional difficulty they had to face. In the Final, the bar was set even higher. The participants had to face not only the new acoustic reality of a large concert hall, but also the orchestra.
On October 11, 2023, we learned the names of the 6 finalists selected by the Jury chaired by Prof. Wojciech Świtała:
Eric Guo, Canada
Martin Nöbauer, Austria
Piotr Pawlak, Poland
Kamila Sacharzewska, Poland
Angie Zhang, USA
Yonghuan Zhong, China
The first day of the final auditions (October 13, 2023) began with the performance of Angie Zhang, who already has extensive experience in playing with an orchestra. She also showed it in the Concerto in E minor, Op. 11 by Fryderyk Chopin, cooperating very well with the {oh!} Orchestra conducted by Vaclav Luks. She chose a Pleyel piano for her performance. From the first bars of the piano part it was noticeable that Pleyel’s choice fully reflected her way of playing and understanding of Chopin’s style, although it was not the happiest choice when it came to performing Chopin’s First Concerto. Her interpretation was extremely delicate and filled with lyricism. However, the idiom of style brillant was missing a bit. The interpretation of the second finalist, the Chinese Yonghuan Zhong on an Erard piano, was dominated by the virtuoso idiom. The narrative was more fast-paced, there were fewer breaths, slowdowns, suspensions and romantic raptures in his interpretation, but the technical certainty and stability of the sound were impressive. The performance of Canadian Eric Guo on a Playel piano was a synthesis of a lyrical and virtuosic approach to Fryderyk Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1. From the very beginning, the pianist played very suggestively, dominating the orchestra. The Pleyel piano itself also sounded better in the brillant parts, which was due to his proper approach to this instrument.
The second day of the final auditions (October 14, 2023) began with a not very convincing interpretation of the Concerto in E minor, Op. 11 by Martin Nöbauer on the Pleyel piano, who showed greater temperament and commitment only in the third part of the piece. In accordance with the competition order, two Polish representatives appeared at the end of the final stage. Piotr Pawlak (Erard 1838) played brilliantly and at the same time with great finesse. The rousing coda caused a standing ovation from the audience. The last finalist, Kamila Sacharzewska (Erard 1838), had a difficult task. But unfortunately, cooperation with the orchestra turned out to be even more difficult for the pianist. As she stated in an interview after the performance, she played Chopin’s Concerto in E minor with an orchestra for the first time. Such situations force us to reflect on the system of educating musical talents. Not everyone has the opportunity to play with an orchestra during their school education, and often even during piano studies, but they should have such an opportunity. Since it is possible to perform one Piano Concerto six times during competition auditions, it is also possible during academic concerts with the participation of piano students performing the same piano concerto with an academic orchestra. For every student, such an even one-time experience, would certainly be better than no experience at all. The final auditions showed that the same Piano Concerto, with the same orchestra and under the baton of the same conductor, can sound completely different. And this is not only due to the clear differences between the period pianos: Erard (1838, collection of Edwin Beunk) and Pleyel (1842, collection of Edwin Beunk).
Late in the evening of October 14, the Jury chaired by Prof. Wojciech Świtala announced the verdict, which was read by the Competition Director, Dr. Artur Szklener:
Prize winners
Main Prizes:
1st prize (25.000 €) – Eric Guo, Canada
2nd prize (20.000 €) – Piotr Pawlak, Poland
3rd prize ex aequo (15.000 €) – Angie Zhang, USA
3rd prize ex aequo (15.000 €) – Yonghuan Zhong, China
Special prizes:
Prize for the highest-ranked Polish pianist funded by the ORLEN Foundation (7.000 €) – Piotr Pawlak, Poland
Prize for the best performance of Mazurkas funded by the Polish Radio (3.000 €) – Eric Guo, Canada
The jury’s verdict was not a surprise, and the Prize winners’ Concert in the Concert Hall of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw on October 15, 2023, led by Monika Orzeł and Aleksander Laskowski, was a beautiful culmination of this unique event. The third prize winners performed: Ballade in G minor, Op. 23 – Angie Zhang, and the Ballade in F major, Op. 38 – Yonghuan Zhong. The winner of the 2nd prize, Piotr Pawlak preceded Barcarolle in F sharp major, Op. 60 by the performance of the Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17 combining everything with beautiful improvisation. The winner traditionally performed the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 by Fryderyk Chopin accompanied by the {oh!} Orchestra conducted by Vaclav Luks, and as an encore, Mazurka in A minor, Op. 59 No. 1. All winners played on the winning Pleyel piano from 1842 from the collection of Edwin Beunk, which was chosen most often by the participants in almost every stage of the competition (only in the final stage it was ranked equal to the Erard 1838 piano – collection of Edwin Beunk, in terms of the number of participants’ choices).
The 2nd International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments (ICCPI) 2023 was perfectly organized thanks to the visionary personality of the ICCPI Artistic Director, Stanisław Leszczyński, and the organizational determination of the Fryderyk Chopin National Institute with its Director, Dr. Artur Szklener, also ICCPI Director, as well as the Executive Producer, Joanna Bokszczanin.
We hope that this extraordinary idea will be continued and that subsequent generations of young musicians will be able to explore the real sound’s world of pianos from the Fryderyk Chopin era.
Marta Polanska