HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 3RD HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2011

Chairman of the Jury Vladimir Ashkenazy with the 1st Prizewinners of all three editions of the Hong Kong International Piano Competition. From left, they are Jinsang Lee (Korea, 2008), Ilya Rashkovskiy (Russia, 2005) and Giuseppe Andaloro (Italy, 2011). With them are the organisers of the competition, Dr Anabella Levin-Freris and Dr Andrew Freris of the Chopin Society of Hong Kong.

The Prize-giving Ceremony and Gala Concert on  31 October 2011 featured a recital by the three 1st prizewinners. Here they are performing the Waltz and Romance for 6 hands by Rachmaninov.

The Gala Concert on 2 November 2011 was a "Mother of all piano concerto concerts", featuring four piano concertos performed by members of the competition jury with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Here the maestro applauds Cristina Ortiz who gave a glittering performance of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No.2.

Russian juror Tigran Alikhanov played Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto.

The Hungarian-born Peter Frankl was a revelation in Liszt's Second Piano Concerto.

The ageless Gary Graffman only performs works for the left hand these days. On this evening, he put the polish on Ravel's Left Hand Piano Concerto.

Chamber music also figured in the Gala Concerts. On 1 November 2011, Pascal Rogé performed Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor on this fiery red Steinway with violinist Andrew Haveron and cellist Pierre Doumenge.