Dmitry Ablogin opened the musical gala with Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto together with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic under Gerald Mair. Ablogin, who studied at the Gnessin Academy in Moscow as well as at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt, had competed in the two previous days in a top-class field of participants: seven other pianists had been selected and nominated from around 100 applicants, who showed their extraordinary skills in three rounds in Frankfurt: Jean-Selim Abdelmoula from Switzerland, Hyelim Kim from Korea, Jung Eun Séverine Kim from South Korea, Yeontaek Oh from Korea, Ilia Papoian from Russia, Youngho Park from South Korea and Philipp Scheucher from Austria. In Beethoven's fourth, Ablogin proved that he is a very fine interpreter with great personality and depth. And with the romantic cadenza by Nicolai Medtner, he added another individual touch. The award, endowed with 20,000 euros, has once again received a very worthy recipient.
JeungBeum Sohn, winner of the 2019 award, won the evening's audience prize of 3,000 euros with a brilliantly powerful interpretation of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. And Dmitri Levkovich, winner of the 2013 award, closed the round, now conducted by Josep Caballé Domenech, with Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto.
As both the first two rounds of the competition and the prize-winners' concert were broadcast live on the Internet, they can still be listened to via YouTube.
Photo © International Piano Forum
