Search - Stanislav Ioudenitch, Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Johann Sebastian Bach :: Stanislav Ioudenitch: 11th Van Cliburn Int'l Piano Competition 2

Stanislav Ioudenitch, who shared first prize with Olga Kern in the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2001, is the most deserving Gold Medal winner in Fort Worth since 1989. The winner then was Alexei Sultanov, another Russian-trained native of Tashkent, the capital of what is now independent Uzbekistan (but was then part of the former Soviet Union). The 29-year-old Ioudenitch, however, bears little resemblance to Sultanov, a fire-and-brimstone player who disemboweled pianos. Ioudenitch's Liszt playing (in the Rhapsodie espagnole and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6) is not particularly thunderous, but is filled with ravishing color effects and fascinating detail. His Schubert (Nos. 2, 3, and 6 of the Moments musicaux) luxuriates in the composer's evergreen lyricism. And his performance of Rachmaninov's Sonata no. 2 (Ioudenitch courageously chooses the treacherous and dense 1913 edition instead of the composer's much-simplified, dumbed-down 1936 version) is expansively lyrical as well as grandly scaled. He can become carried away in his quest for meaningful detail, as he does in an affected reading of Bach's Partita No. 2. But Ioudenitch is more than just a pianist to watch; he is a refined and subtle virtuoso who deserves attention now. --Stephen Wigler