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  • Musicianship wins in Montreal piano comp

    Barre Montpelier Times Argus, VT
    June 1 2008


    Musicianship wins in Montreal piano comp

    June 1, 2008

    By Jim Lowe Staff Writer


    How can an international piano competition be won by the candidate who
    is not the best pianist?

    That's just what happened at the 2008 Montreal International Music
    Competition last week. Pianist Nareh Arghamanyan took first prize with
    her charismatic performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. A
    stellar jury, as well as the public chose her over more virtuosic
    players - and they were right.

    Arghamanyan, at her winning performance Tuesday, played with a
    personal excitement and musicality that proved contagious to audience
    and judges alike. While there were discernible wrong notes, they were
    quickly lost in the unfettered passion.

    The slim and agile Arghamanyan swayed and bobbed with the music, not
    theatrically but as if she were lost in it. Arghamanyan and the music
    were one, and this is what music-making is all about. At some
    competitions, precision outweighs artistic values, but here musicality
    prevailed. Closing the competition, Thursday's gala finale at Place
    des Arts packed 3,000-seat Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Arghamanyan
    repeated her bravura performance to rapturous applause.

    Rather than second and third places being awarded, two were tied for
    second. On Monday, Japanese pianist Masataka Takada, 30, in
    Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2, played with far more precision and
    refinement than Arghamanyan, but without the flair and natural
    musicality. On Tuesday, Russian pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine
    delivered the bravura passages of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3
    with flair, if not always accurately, but the poetic passages proved
    lackluster. The two second-prize winners reprised the final movements
    at Thursday's gala concert.

    The contestants were accompanied by the Orchestre Métropolitain du
    Grand Montréal, the city's second orchestra, through the finals
    Monday and Tuesday and Thursday's gala. Under the direction of
    Canadian conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, the performances were adequate
    but not inspired, save for Thursday's final performance of the
    Tchaikovsky with Arghamanyan, which brought the house down.

    Arghamanyan not only won the first prize of $30,000, she won another
    $5,000 for her performance of the required solo work, Canadian
    composer Alexina Louie's "Fastforward," and $2,500 as winner of the
    People's Choice Award, chosen by the audience. More importantly, she
    will make a recording for Canada's Analekta and receive a series of
    engagements that will help her begin her career.

    The Montreal International Music Competition, presented annually by
    Jeunesses Musicales, is growing in stature among world music
    competitions for young professional musicians. Unusually, the
    competition alternates between voice, violin and piano. This year it
    was piano; next year it will be voice.

    Twenty-three young piano virtuosos, from 19 to 30, were culled from
    130 applicants from around the world. The quarter-finals reduced the
    number to 12, who competed, each playing solo recitals May 23-24. Six
    were chosen to perform an individual concerto of their choice May
    27-28. From this, Arghamanyan emerged, reportedly by a substantial
    margin, as the winner.
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