ENCOUNTERS AND STORIES

For the 59th time, young pianists from around the globe come together in Bolzano in order to qualify for the prestigious BUSONI PRIZE. For the last several years, the competition has been reinvigorated through a biennial formula: an international jury chooses 24 candidates who will play the following year in the much-anticipated and spine-tingling Finalissima, the final round that decides the first prize winner. The first round of the competition will be accompanied by a top-class festival, which revolves around encounters and stories this year.

Alfred Brendel will encounter the prize-winners of last year’s Busoni Competition in a piano workshop that will be open to the public. Apart from Bolzano, they are also appearing on stages at the Ruhr Piano Festival and the HARPA Concert Hall in Reykjavik. Thanks to a first-time collaboration with the South Tyrol Jazz Festival, jazz pianist Stefano Bollani will meet with young pianists and work with them on some very special points. In addition, we’ll encounter Busoni prize-holders Mikhail Lifits, from 2009, and Louis Lortie, one of the most striking winners, with a special Liszt programme.

Another focus will be stories: young pianists from the Conservatory of Bolzano will honour John Cage’s 100th birthday on 5 September 2012. Beatrice Rana, the winner of the Montreal Piano Competition, will give homage to Ignaz Friedman at the music school named for him in Seis. Lastly, Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson will set out on a quest for Glenn Gould, playing The Idea of North. The Russian piano school will be present in two different forms: After his much-acclaimed concert two years ago, audiences have been eagerly awaiting Grigory Sokolov and Daniil Trifonov has become a bright new star in the firmament of international pianists after his first prize win at last year’s Tchaikovsky Competition. The festival will also spill over to outside of the concert halls: music students passionate about piano from every part of South Tyrol will come to Bolzano and perform in the shopping galleries of the city centre and artist Julia Bornefeld will give a very personal dedication to the PIANO, the King of the Instruments, in an installation of pianos in a public square.