Netherlands Liszt Utrecht Piano Competitors 2026 [1] – Pageant Part: Thomas Kelly, Kang Tae Kim, Alexander Kashpurin, Chia-Yang Hsu, Alberto Ferro, Minkyu Kim, Rune Leicht Lund, Sunah Kim (piano), Amatis Trio (Lea Hausmann [violin], Sam Shepherd [cello], Mengjie Han [piano]), Dana Zemtsov (viola), Ib Hausmann (clarinet) and Alberto Navarra (flute). TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, 18–21.1.2026. (LV)
Composers – Liszt, Weber, Liszt/Weber, Liszt/Beethoven, Mahler/Friedman, Bartók, Prokofiev, Martucci, Lyadov, Chopin, Kapustin, Ustvolskaya, Stravinsky and others
After per week of grueling focus and 32 recitals, the Liszt Utrecht Piano Competitors has reached its decisive level. Eight pianists appeared throughout 4 competition days at TivoliVredenburg in a demanding sequence of solo, chamber and thematic packages, the competitors testing not solely endurance and approach however creativeness, judgment and stylistic breadth. Alongside the best way, every of the eight semifinalists contributed illuminating – at instances genuinely gorgeous – moments, earlier than the jury chosen Thomas Kelly, Kang Tae Kim and Alexander Kashpurin because the three pianists who would advance to the Grand Ultimate.
The competitors’s construction is as exacting as it’s revealing. Every pianist performs Liszt’s B minor Sonata, a program dedicated to Weber and Liszt’s transcriptions of Weber, a chamber-music recital that includes each composers and a free-form thematic recital of every contestant’s personal devising below the banner ‘Liszt Tales’. One other distinctive characteristic of Liszt Utrecht is using totally different assigned pianos for the assorted rounds – Bechstein, Fazioli, Bösendorfer, Steinway and Yamaha – including one other variable to be negotiated. Heard in shut succession, these packages create not repetition however accumulation: a composite portrait of how every pianist builds massive and small types, collaborates, curates packages and, in the end, defines Liszt for themselves.
On the primary day, Thomas Kelly distinguished himself with nearly classical authority in a B minor Sonata that unfolded in a single, coherent, enormously highly effective arc, notable much less for show than for inevitability. The opening emerged with firmness fairly than drama and, because the work progressed, difficulties have been absorbed seamlessly into the musical cloth. Tempos remained steady, transitions rigorously judged and the ultimate pages arrived not as an eruption however as a structural decision. In an period when pianists usually emphasize seen depth, Kelly’s Liszt was inward, monumental and targeted.
That very same self-discipline carried into Kelly’s Weber. His account of Liszt’s association for solo piano of Weber’s already gorgeous Konzertstück recalled Donald Tovey’s assertion that Weber’s pianistic writing ‘conclusively proves’ him among the many nice instrumental virtuosos. And Kelly’s personal brilliance by no means obscured the music’s chills and thrills. Kelly’s ‘Liszt Tales’ recital, ‘Pastoral’, was superbly proportioned and intellectually coherent, although it additionally revealed a possible limitation. The very management that served him so nicely elsewhere often muted the sense of hazard Liszt invitations. In Les Préludes and the Liszt/Beethoven Sixth Symphony transcription, the soundworld was bigger than life, but at moments felt rigorously managed fairly than risk-embracing.
Kang Tae Kim approached Liszt from a special angle. His B minor Sonata started with volcanic vitality – forceful, pushed and pressing – earlier than settling right into a extra fluent, poetic and comparatively steady trajectory. Because the work progressed, Kim discovered a persuasive narrative movement, shaping lyrical episodes with heat and suppleness. The closing sections achieved coherence by momentum fairly than architectural inevitability.
Kim’s ‘Liszt Tales’ recital, ‘Music of the Metropolis – a competition of on a regular basis life’, was dedicated to Venice – actual, remembered and imagined. From Canzona Napoletana and Rossini/Liszt preparations to Venezia e Napoli, La campanella and Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Petrouchka, this system unfolded as a sequence of atmospheric scenes. Coloration and character have been central strengths. At instances, nevertheless, the abundance of floor imagery risked blurring the bigger dramatic arc; and Petrouchka, whereas brilliantly executed, briefly pulled focus away from the Lisztian narrative fairly than deepening it.
Alexander Kashpurin’s trajectory was essentially the most surprising. A final-second substitute, he rapidly turned one of many competitors’s most arresting presences. His B minor Sonata, like Kim’s, started volcanically – however not like Kim’s, it remained largely unrelenting. The opening was explosive and the depth scarcely abated. The end result was thrilling dedication, although at the price of distinction: moments inviting repose or transformation have been usually pressed ahead, leaving much less area for structural respiratory.
Kashpurin’s Weber Sonata No.2, Op.39, revealed a extra diverse palette. The opening was mysterious and inward, progressively unfolding right into a concluding Rondo that felt genuinely transcendent – a reminder that his volatility can serve poetry in addition to pressure. His ‘Liszt Tales’ recital, ‘A Story of One Life’, pushed that volatility to its limits. The efficiency of Galina Ustvolskaya’s Piano Sonata No.6 was ferocious and unsettling, performed with uncompromising depth. It was gripping, however its extremity often overshadowed the encircling works, giving this system a confrontational weight that challenged narrative steadiness.
The chamber music spherical proved quietly decisive. Faraway from solo dominance, pianists have been required to hear, mix and reply. The general degree was excessive, however the Amatis Trio – Lea Hausmann, Sam Shepherd and Mengjie Han – stood out for cohesion and generosity. Hausmann performed with heat and poise; Han anchored the ensemble with authority; Shepherd accomplished the feel with eloquence and steadiness. Clarinetist Ib Hausmann’s look in actions from Weber’s Grand Duo Concertante provided a reminder of Weber’s wit and theatrical ease.
Chosen for the finals by a world jury – Andrea Bonatta, Suzana Bartal, Mariam Batsashvili, Severin von Eckardstein, Janina Fialkowska, Saskia Giorgini, Pierre van der Westhuizen, Yingdi Solar and chairperson Cynthia Wilson – Kelly, Kim and Kashpurin will seem on 24 January with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, performed by Stéphane Denève, within the Grote Zaal of TivoliVredenburg, the place prizes of €25,000, €12,000, and €8,000, together with a €2,000 Viewers Prize, can be awarded. Kang Tae Kim will play Liszt’s Concerto No.1 on a Fazioli, Thomas Kelly will do Liszt No.2 on a Fazioli and Alexander Kashpurin Liszt No.1 on a Steinway.
Liszt Utrecht 2026 has succeeded in presenting three sharply outlined creative identities – architectural management, narrative fluency and volcanic depth – every illuminating a special side of Liszt’s legacy, and every posing its personal questions and options to how that legacy is being carried ahead right now.
Laurence Vittes
Featured Picture: The three finalists at Liszt Utrecht 2026: (l-r) Thomas Kelly, Kang Tae Kim, Alexander Kashpurin © Allard Willemse
