Chinese flair wins at Busoni

He has one of the most common names in China, Yifan Wu, and yet he has managed to stand out: first prize at Busoni, in Italy's most important piano competition, history and international visibility. The sixty-fifth edition ended a few days ago in Bolzano, after a two-year marathon of selections, spread throughout the world. The slim twenty-year-old, studious glasses, hands consumed by studying at the keyboard, highly mobile and infallible, beat not only the 648 contestants entered in the first hour, but also the numerous Orientals who, like him, had managed to enter the coveted final. The piano today, it is known, lives in the East. Yifan comes from Shanghai and, with the Busoni shield, is ready to conquer audience and fans alike.

Voting for him, but not unanimously, the jury clearly made it clear that they preferred his sparkling extrosity to the more structured virtuosity of the second prize-winner, the 24-year-old Georgian Sandro Nebieridze, from Tbilisi and with studies in Munich (already in his career, a Harmonia Mundi disc and well-known in piano circles). The choice is understandable. Though strictly speaking not entirely agreeable. Wu played a Beethoven 'Third' ignoring the traditional idea of sound that we associate with the key of C minor, so important and with a specific dramatic significance for the composer. He detached free tempos, without too much relation of form; he quietly engaged the faster march when it came to tackling the more prominent passages, testing the gesture of conductor George Pehlivanian (fortunately steadfast in experience and character) and the Haydn Orchestra, in good form, particularly the strings, but clearly displaced by the little acrobat's somersaults.

His independence, in addition to the fireworks of the previous solo tests - online, on the Busoni Prize website - also infected the audience who wanted him in first place. The final was live, both in Italy on Rai5 and RadioTre, and around the world, and seemed aimed at tapping into eastern audiences at the unusual time of the performance, starting at 10am. Wu plays 'à la Radu Lupu', sitting on an ordinary low chair, and displays an infallible confidence. When he does not touch the keyboard, he seraphically crosses his arms. And it is he, blissful recklessness of the twenty-something, who even gives the conductor the go-ahead: 'Go ahead', he seems to tell him with a hasty wave of his hand. Pehlivanian, like a good grandfather, calmly smiles.

Certainly he is much more in tune with the third comer of the morning and the prizes, Christos Fountos, Cypriot and London-educated, twenty-eight years of experience to be heard. His 'Primo' by Rachmaninov is a great musical tale. Perhaps a tad quiet, to be on a competition trampoline. But of absolute reliability. While the one who sticks in the memory the most, again with Rachmaninov, with the "Rhapsody" on the theme of Paganini's last "Capriccio" is Sandro Nebieridze: stupendous the variety of colours, in the three different parts of the composition; very sensitive the historical plot, the ability to restore meaning to the motto of a "Dies Irae" that breaks into Hollywood swing. With a very original and gifted hand, moreover. Let the piano festival continue, then. And thank you to the Busoni, who arrived at such a qualified parterre. Also precious for the fifth place to an excellent Elia Cecino. And with the gift of a double winner: one official, one from the heart.