Page 284 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

This grand finale left many of us in no doubt of who deserved the first prize. But there was also a good chance
that it would go to the most audience-engaging of the five, Chinese Junyan Chen, who chose the unorthodox
fireworks of Rachmaninov’s Fourth Piano Concerto (praise be, no Second or Third, no Chopin, no Liszt!). The
vivacity was outstanding, but the greatest joint achievement of soloist, conductor and orchestra was to convince
us that the noodling central movement can be profoundly involving with the right cowled colours and expressive
intensity; what often sounds threadbare theme-wise came across as vintage Rachmaninov in its obsessive
melancholy.

That was the big surprise of the two evenings, and given this year’s festival move to highlight gender equality, I
wouldn’t have begrudged Chen the top place. But in the end the very distinguished jury – chair Imogen Cooper,
artistic director Adam Gatehouse, Eleanor Alberga (whose Piano Concerto the 2021 winner, Alim Beisimbayev,
recently premiered with Hindoyan and the RLPO), Mariam Batsashvili, Adrian Brendel, Sa Chen, Till Fellner,
Ingrid Fliter and Pavel Kolesnikov – went for Izik-Dzurko, with Chen (pictured below) taking second place.