YOUNG ARMENIAN SCORES TOP PIANO PRIZE
Arthur Kaptainis, akaptainis@sympatico.ca

The Gazette (Montreal)
May 28 2008
Canada

Best of 23 musicians in Montreal contest

Youth might not be much of an advantage in the Stanley Cup final this
year, but it did not hurt last night in the finals of the Montreal
International Musical Competition as Nareh Arghamanyan, who turned
19 last Jan. 21, easily took the $30,000 Grand Prize.

The slim and long-tressed Armenian, currently studying in Vienna, was
not only the youngest of the six finalists playing over two evenings
in Place des Arts but the youngest of the 23 pianists from around
the world who gathered in Montreal last week for the annual contest.

Dramatically enough, Arghamanyan was the final candidate last night
and delivered a songful and fresh-sounding performance of Tchaikovsky’s
familiar Piano Concerto No. 1. Her fingerwork, if not fault-free, was
brilliant, and the Orchestre Metropolitain under Jean-Marie Zeitouni –
a less-than-great combo on Monday – made a positive contribution.

Second prize was shared by Alexandre Moutouzkine, 27, of Russia,
for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and Masataka Takada, 30,
of Japan, who played Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 on Monday. Both
offered exciting if sometimes percussive accounts of these virtuoso
scores. They each take home $11,250 – half the combined second-
and third-prize purses.

There was no third prize and non-finishers won $4,000 simply for
being finalists. Other honours, including the $5,000 award for the
best performance of the Canadian piece and ballot-driven $2,500 Prix
du Public, will be announced tomorrow night at the gala winners’
concert in Salle Wilfrid Pelletier.

The finals this year were not so hotly contested. Sergei Saratovsky,
26, a Russian-born Canadian resident, started the session Monday
with a bland and faulty Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5. He was
followed by Sara Daneshpour, 21, of the United States, who applied
some interesting ideas and varied dynamics to the same Tchaikovsky
score that led Arghamanyan to victory.

Elizabeth Schumann, 26, also of the U.S., brought a lyrical style
last night to Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, but put herself out of
the running with a memory lapse in the finale.

All six finalists chose the same Hamburg Steinway, which needed
frequent retuning in the Theâtre Maisonneuve. The sold-out night was
carried live on both CBC Radio 2 and Espace musique, the FM music
network of Radio-Canada.

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