Unparalleled Georgian pianist takes top honours at Honens competition

After 10 days of competition rounds, interlaced with festival performances, the 2018 International Honens Piano Competition and Festival has a winner in Georgian pianist Nicolas Namoradze.

It is frequently the case that there can be a measure of controversy surrounding these events when the audience and jury don’t see eye to eye. But this was not the case here.

As with the two previous winners of the competition, Namoradze is not the conventional competition pianist, but his individuality was evident from the outset. While he certainly has the virtuosity to spare, he gained the top spot through his remarkable clarity of execution, refinement and variety of tone, and his uncanny ability to make even the most ordinary passage work sound meaningful and distinctive.

These aspects of his playing were evident immediately from his first semifinal round — the chamber music recital. Performing with baritone Phillip Addis and violinist Jonathan Crow, Nemordze quickly established himself as a frontrunner in his magic treatment of Rimsky-Korsakov’s songs and Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 1. Although there were other interesting chamber performances in the competition, it ultimately proved impossible for the other contestants to catch him in the race for top spot.

But it was definitely a race, and the other finalists also had outstanding moments, too: American Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner impressive in his selection of Transcendental Etudes by Liszt, and Han Chen wowing the audience with his account of the Liszt’s Don Juan Fantasy, just to instance two occasions from the solo rounds.

And there was also much to admire in the work of many of the pianists who did not ultimately progress to the final round, including two personal favourites: excellent performances by Tzu-Hin Huang from Taiwan and Philip Scheucher from Austria.

But in the end, the first prize went to Namoradze, who might be called a pianist’s pianist. The refinement of his playing was of international standard, and everywhere his interpretive skills commanded attention and admiration.

The two final rounds included a performance of works with a woodwind quintet from Spain, the Azahar Ensemble, as well as the obligatory concerto, without success in which no one can win a piano competition.

As with the earlier chamber music round, Nemoradze was outstanding here — unbeatable, really — both in the Beethoven Quintet and the frisky modern work by short-lived Jean Cartan, each impressive for the precision and delicacy of the playing.

The presence of the competition is a feather in Calgary ’s artistic cap and stands as a symbol of the city ’s commitment to all that is best in classical music. One can only now wait for the return to the city of the laureates of this and previous competitions as a reminder of Calgary ’s favoured position in Canada’s classical piano world.