Jul 3rd 2013

Deljavan drops out of Cleveland Competition

by Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson is a music critic with particular interest in piano. 

Johnson worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London over his journalism career. He covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He is the author of five books.

Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian.

You can order Michael Johnson's most recent book, a bilingual book, French and English, with drawings by Johnson:

“Portraitures and caricatures:  Conductors, Pianist, Composers”

 here.

Alessandro Deljavan, the promising young Italian pianist who emerged as a major contender at the recent Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, has decided to pull out of the Cleveland International Piano Competition just a month before it opens July 3O. He finished at the Cliburn as a semifinalist.

 “After the Cliburn experience,” he wrote in his withdrawal letter,  “… I feel the need to end being part of events where, in most cases, the performance and the talent are in the background.” He did not elaborate. 

Fei-Fei Dong of China, a Juilliard student and a finalist at the Cliburn, has also withdrawn from the Cleveland. Her reasons were not made public.

Deljavan praised the Cleveland Competition as “an important musical event of the highest level” and said he was sorry not to be part of it. He delayed his decision to withdraw, he said,  “to be sure this is the right decision for me.” 

Alessandro Deljavan

Deljavan sparked a lively following at the Cliburn and was praised by fans who heard him on Cliburn webcasts. In Russia there was a reported surge of “Deljamania”. His elimination was considered by many critics to have been controversial. He said he received hundreds of messages of support from across the globe.

Withdrawals from piano competitions are not unusual, but such strong contenders usually persevere.

Related articles below. Please click the title to proceed.

For comments please use the space below.



Piano competitions: rhinoceros hide required

by Michael JohnsonAdded 16.06.2013
Young pianists who decide to go into major international competitions will need much more than musicianship from now on. They are already accustomed to being insulted by the closed-door decisions of jurors. They may crack under the strain of massive repertoire requirements. Some will quietly withdraw and go into insurance.   But probably the most wrenching strain on a competition pianist today is the public battering they are exposed to by...

Young Italian pianist at ease with Scarlatti

by Michael JohnsonAdded 24.03.2013
The young Italian pianist Mauro Bertoli, now based in Ottawa, Canada, displays considerable hubris in leading off his recent solo CD with three well-known Scarlatti sonatas. If he felt he had something to say that Horowitz and Pogorelich hadn’t already said, he was right. These Scarlattis call upon his proficient technique and Italian finesse to bring out their excitement and subtleties. Bertoli is very much up to the task. The CD (Mauro...

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