Claire Huangci - Ballade in G minor, Op. 23 (second stage, 2010)

[@Mr3lusion]

One of the best codas I’ve heard, bravo!

[@BKlett]

Danke, danke, liebe Claire, für diese vollendete Interpretation!!!❤❤❤

[@VipiModel-nk3ce]

ESPECTACULAR👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@rickartdefoix1298]

Ballad nr. 1 is also played in a mesmerising, delicate and powerful way. Really, she is something else. Brilliant. Honestly, think we are face to a prodigy. What she certainly was!! 🤔🙄😔❤️🙏

[@PianistStefanBoetel]

Claire unites everything a good pianist should have: Technical Brilliance, great passion and serious devotion to music. Hope her career to flourish.

[@rickartdefoix1298]

Think the same. Excellent, fantastic pianist. My best discovery of past year.

[@JokeIsOnYouHaHa]

This is up there with the top performances of this piece. Truly outstanding.

[@hannastaszak1684]

Cudowna muzyka genialnego Chopina, boskie wykonanie ❤️

[@Hiroshima49]

Formidable and beautiful technique

[@stefanskytt650]

Claire is outstanding!!

[@owendavidmalicsi5900]

My new favorite performance😁

[@isakhungnes4416]

This is a truly magnificent performance

[@yantan7709]

直入人心。。。。。。。:( ;-; soo touched so elegant, delicate, ,,, sigh cohesive

[@PianistStefanBoetel]

She stands out of the already very good Chopin Competition's participants.

[@ronl7131]

Beautiful Chopin.

[@BernardTheArtiste]

This was PHENOMENAL!

[@TheZamora666]

beautiful

[@ivanlozano5949]

Que melodía tan esplendida....llega a lo mas profundo del espíritu

[@jorgeson3586]

She’s gorgeous, I noticed she also picked up her German,what a talent!

[@ijustretired]

When I told someone years ago that I sometimes listen to the balades over 3 months about 1200 times and then leave it and come back and do the same , that person could not understand why , yet everytime you hear it- there is no perfect- just the attempt at perfection

[@lenayukimura6523]

AWESOME

[@purpleowl2075]

I love the uniqueness of her interpretation

[@yantan7709]

excellent planning of dynamic!!!

[@Desireyso58]

Strange. This ballade has two performers that I follow most, Claire Huang Ci and Natalie Schwamova. Even when there are renditions with Valentina Lisitsa, Yuja Wang and other famous pianists. This is a Superb rendition!!! Bravo Claire!!!

[@BABOSHIM]

Magnifico!

[@hanaohanada4425]

It is a very exciting future. After a while it may be missing about two heads.

[@jackalbeast0511]

Bravo~~~~~~~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing fingers !!

[@vladimirhorowitz]

Starting from 8:36, it sounds like she played that whole run in 16th notes - but only the last half or so are 16th notes, the rest being in 8th notes. No accelerando or other tempo markings, either. I wonder if she was just taking some creative liberties there.

[@vladimirhorowitz]

@MonstR - HDiOS My Alfred score has the whole thing in 8th notes but I checked around and have seen a few scores with 16th notes for the second half. Strange.

[@purpleowl2075]

The Competition usually has people play from a particular Urtext edition

[@HaroldKurt_Escritor]

¡Extraordinaria!

[@staffanolofsson8201]

Shall I spell it: H-U-A-N-G-C-I. This is the most ashaming moment for all of us europeans, we dont know how to pronounciate it. But allthesame, We try to say Claire, thats OK, your playing is just wonderful, Without trying to say anything else. Because her playing puts my playing my homepiano and your playing, your piano in the corner. Isn´t it what we all vant?

[@tandavid9016]

Nice choice to choose yamaha cfx piano very good sound 👍

[@reginaldodasilva2459]

very good

[@piergiorgiofrati3511]

Quanta bravura sprecata!..

[@elenajehrlich3796]

Klass!

[@benji1570]

最後面是不是沒彈裝飾音？

[@lal7103]

I don't play piano, but I found more people chosen Yamaha in last competition than before, in 2010, there were still some competitors play Kawai and Fazioli. So how does the piano effect the performing? Does one brand clearly sound better than others? Or it depends on commercial support?

[@colinlevins4110]

+Leo Every piano is different. They vary in touch, tone, dynamic range, etc. My favorite pianos to play on are from the Yamaha or Shigeru Kawai brands. Honestly, the best pianos in the world (not exaggerating) are probably from either Japan or Austria's Bosendorfer pianos. I've never had the opportunity to play on a Bosendorfer before, but I've heard they are very nice, and they're sound is perfect whenever I hear one being played. Unfortunately, after the 11th International Chopin Competition (the info to that is on the Chopin 2015 app), they stopped providing their pianos for the competition. I own a Kimball grand, which is great but not the best, and Bosendorfer was the "parent" piano company of Kimball if I recall correctly. Steinway is okay but overrated, in my honest opinion. While Steinways are certainly great, they're overpriced and aren't as good as the previous mentioned (it's probably better than my Kimball grand). I've also heard good reviews about Fazoli. Also, pianos from China, like Baldwins made after 2000, shouldn't even be considered for buying a new piano or performing on (I learned that the hard way). Also, it should be noted that it's not just the piano that can effect the performance. The age of the piano, condition of the piano, the atmosphere or the stage, etc. should also be considered.

[@lal7103]

+Colin Levins I have the wonder, because to me, they all have the same "piano sound" : ) Maybe it's the youtube compression. I'v got to be in Poland once in my life time : ) Hope the competition being held every couple years rather than 5 years. Many people wouldn't make it for another 5 years : )

[@benjaminsmith2287]

The Yamaha CFX, the piano in this competition, is not the usual Yamaha people encounter. They usually encounter the older C series grands, a brighter sounding piano and sometimes percussive sounding. Or an older CFIIIS, more refined, but still a bit percussive. This is a different piano, much more expensive and hand-built in a different factory than the C-series piano was built. It was introduced in 2010, took 19 years to complete, and represents a different direction for Yamahas sound where they focused on resonance and singing and clarity of projection. It is a hand-built model and very expensive. By 2015 more people were familiar with it and more chose it for this competition. I'm not sure why Shigeru Kawai (the more sophisticated, refined, expensive Kawai) and Fazioli weren't chosen more, they certainly are great instruments too. Does one clearly sound better? No, that's personal IMO. I think people are brainwashed into believing Steinway is the only concert grand, or maybe one or two German brands, but it is one great concert grand. Others give a different experience. If you listen to someone play the same piece on each piano, you'll start to hear how they are different. How they sound depends on the hall, the particular piano, the technician that prepared it, the musician playing it. How it sounds to ones ears and how much they like it is personal. My personal opinion is Shigeru Kawai, Yamaha CFX and Fazioli are all newer designs that benefitted from computer analysis and modeling. Steinway D is an old design and to me, doesn't offer the variety of characters and colors and textures that the others offer. Still, it is a grand sounding piano.

[@rickartdefoix1298]

Steinway remains the more used, think. And it is the sound we are all acoustumed to hear in Classical music. The Fazzioli are expensive heard, but have a terrific, impressive sound. Lortie uses it in his Liszt. The Yamaha ones are the closer in sound to the Steinway ones. The Bossendorfer ones are the classical Steinway competence, and yes, they sound differently. Think Tatiana Shebanova plays a Bossendorfer in her Chopin. It's not rare that many artist sign exclusivity contracts for using Bossendorfer (think Badura Skoda was a Bossendorfer artist) or whatever other trademarks (as Bolet with Bechstein) because they prefer that sound for their playing. And so, in exchange of whatever advantages, they become a Yamaha Artist (Claire Huangci) or a Bossendorfer artist or whatever. From then on, the signing artist shall appear performing on pianos of the under contract trademark. It's an artist choice to be provided of his favourite instruments.

[@jeanfrey1503]

It s a shame that she was not with the last finalists... at least for her technical level

[@Ernesto7608]

Here I find what I have found before in Claire's playing: excellent technique, brilliance, refinement.... and very little soul. She plays... to be heard. And she is better heard than seen, like Lang Lang and others.

[@alaaobaid3363]

audience were so amazed they forgot to clap , we may have a virtuoso here

[@cinnamonsteakhaus9013]

bro, this is literally a competition filled with virtuosos.

[@alaaobaid3363]

@@cinnamonsteakhaus9013 I see , But I believe that virtuosity have levels , from clapping to standing ovation , to completely silencing any audience ...... music is very beautiful

[@cinnamonsteakhaus9013]

@@alaaobaid3363 okay first of all... the definition of virtuoso is a person who is exceptionally good with their instrument. what you said earlier is the "reaction of the audiences from the music that the perfomers played" You should be aware of the fact that clapping isnt allowed for audiences in the video as its a competition.

[@alaaobaid3363]

@@cinnamonsteakhaus9013 I know that, it seems that you don't get what I mean.... Audience reaction is a measure to the player's skill, for example, you play a piece in front of audience and they clap, it means you are good, you play the same piece and then you hear nothing then they clap hardly, it means you are amazing..... The ability to make people speechless or not is how I look at virtuoses and good players

[@cinnamonsteakhaus9013]

@@alaaobaid3363 Thats very very VERY subjective, but I get where youre coming from. Can I iterate that clapping is not allowed during the competition??? if you wanna hear applauses, go watch the prize winner concerts.

[@patrickbrouillette2034]

I'm studying this song now, just got inspired to work evenharder!👍

[@viano9541]

+Patrick Brouillette SAME CUZ

[@eveinwonderlands4585]

same here :)

[@stefanskytt650]

Its not a song!

[@levim.3505]

Studying the Ballade and refering to it as a song...

[@BernardTheArtiste]

Makes me never want to learn this piece haha