The jury has at last spoken, and 20 of the 52 competitors in this year's Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition will advance to the quarterfinals Saturday, June 22, and Monday, June 24, at Symphony Hall.
They are:- Oleg Marshev, 29, USSR.
- Akira Eguchi, 28, Japan.
- Anthony Padilla, 25, USA.
- Kyung Un Rhee, 22, Korea/USA.
- Jeannie Yu, 24, Korea/USA.
- Ilia Itin, 24, USSR.
- Ruei-Bin Chen, 23, Taiwan/Austria.
- Timothy Ehlen, 28, USA.
- Jennifer Hayghe, 21, USA.
- William Marsden, 31, USA.
- Benjamin Saver, 30, Yugoslavia.
- James Giles, 24, USA.
- Andrey Kasparov, 24, USSR.
- Kirill Gliadkovsky, 23, USSR.
- Violetta Egorova, 21, USSR.
- Mehmet Okonsar, 29, Turkey.
- Lolita Petrovskaya, 32, USSR.
- Armen Babakhanian, 23, USSR.
- Peter Longworth, 26, Canada/England.
- Gail Niwa, 31, USA.
The vote was announced late Friday following four days of preliminary rounds. Chen, Egorova, Giles, Gliadkovsky, Itin and Marsden are students or former students of members of this year's Bachauer jury, with two each for the two Soviet judges, Lev Vlassenko and Lev Naumov.
Still, the predominance of Russian competitors among the quarterfinalists came as no surprise. Early on in the competition they had established themselves as a force to be reckoned with, especially Marshev (with a stunning showing Thursday), Itin and Egorova. I was less taken with Kasparov, Petrovskaya and Babakhanian, finding their playing undeniably intense but often short on refinement, coherency and clarity, pretty much in that order.
In addition Longworth, Padilla and Niwa had made similarly strong showings, even if Niwa's interpretations seldom went beyond the obvious.
Nor did the local contingent fare badly, with both the Provo-based Rhee and former Utahn Marsden being advanced.
More surprising was Okonsar's selection. But for all his flamboyance and occasional liberties with the text, here is a performer of real individuality, with perhaps the most impresssive sound at the keyboard of all the competitors.
Saturday and Monday the 20 quarterfinalists, in the above order, will each play a 30-minute solo recital consisting of music of Mozart and Prokofiev. Starting times each day are 1 and 7 p.m.
The 10 semifinalists will then perform Tuesday and Wednesday, June 25-26, in both a 45-minute recital program and a piano quintet, to be accompanied by the Lark Quartet. Then Friday and Saturday, June 28-29, the six finalists will each perform a concerto with the Utah Symphony, under music director Joseph Silverstein.
The results should be interesting.