BPSE winner

The BPSE (Beethoven Piano Society of Europe) Eleventh Beethoven Intercollegiate Piano Competition was held on Friday 12 December 2003 at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 Rutland Gate, London SW7, UK, by kind permission of the Forum's Director, Dr Michael Zimmerman. The event featured eight competitors from British music conservatoires who each performed a set piece, Beethoven's Bagatelle in G Op 119 No 6, and a piano sonata of their choice.

The winner was Tau Wey, representing Trinity College of Music.

The Jury, Professors Diane Andersen, President of EPTA Belgium, Alberto Portugheis and Malcolm Miller, noting the very high standard of performance this year, awarded a shared second prize to Nian Jiang, of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Sam Armstrong of the Royal Northern College of Music. The first prize winner Tau Wey also received the audience prize, the Kendall Taylor prize and the first ever BPSE-Bosendorfer prize.

The BPSE prizes were presented by their generous sponsor Lady Eugenie Maxwell, who underlined the value of such events and praised the achievements of the BPSE in encouraging the nurturing of promising talent. The BPSE-Bosendorfer Prize, donated by Richard Dehn, includes money and a recital at Hurstwood Farm of which he is artistic director, accompanied by a possible recording, while all the prize-winners received engagements within various BPSE concert series, and each competitor also received music vouchers from leading publishers.

Tau Wey impressed the Jury with his stirring account of the Appassionata Sonata Op 57, while Jiang played Op 7 and Armstrong Op 111. Amongst the noteworthy runners-up was Polish Lukasz Kwiatkowski (Welsh College of Music and Drama) who played Op 110 with telling lucidity, and a colourful performance of the Sonata in A Op 2 No 2 by Russian Natalia Ossentchakova (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama). Chongrui Liu (Royal College of Music) gave a compelling reading of the Waldstein Sonata Op 53 while So-Yeon Kim (Royal Academy of Music) gave a crisp account of Op 2 No 2. Andreas Mertzelos from Greece (Royal College of Music) also performed the Sonata Op 7.

On the previous day the 2003 Beethoven Junior Intercollegiate Competition, sponsored by Alfred's Publishing, was won jointly by Jeong-Ah Ryu (Royal Academy of Music) and Jianing Kong (The Purcell School), while the Jury, Alberto Portugheis and Malcolm Miller, awarded joint second prize to Laura-Claire Howard (Chetham's School of Music) and Adam Crowther (Royal College of Music). Andrew Higgins of Alfred's Publishing presented generous cash awards to each candidate, and each competitor, including Shin Jung Lee (Wells Cathedral School) and Jonathan Musgrave (Croydon Music Centre) also received the BPSE journal Arietta.

Information: www.bpse.org

Posted: 9 January 2004

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