2th Prize ex-equo officially... the first divinely...

Hamelin did way better.

Sadly, unless a contestant is utterly useless, the kind of verdicts given these contestants reflect more of what the jury "want or expect" them to be or to do during the entire competition, which begs the question under what or which canon are the contestants supposed to be judged on? Is it on the basis of their being "general listening public friendly" or is it on their originality of approach, superfluous technic, or uncanny/uncommon musicality? I always have my reservations when it comes to these competitions because of the premise alone that the judges themselves do not necessarily have any preeminence over each and every individual they behold because each one possesses an individuality that no one has a right to control or influence.

I saw Garrick Ohlsson play the B Minor Sonata in person. incredible. I thought about it for days

asal j: Garrick Ohlssohn got it right! 😎🎹

Have you listened to Pogorelich's performance? You might like that one too if you enjoyed this one. /watch?v=h9mgxKKfCJw

Amazing, I bursted into tears when watching this.

I’m firmly convinced she IS an angel

+classicalalways That's because her heart is in it. And still masterful.

Please bear with me, dear Pauline Tang, ...but I will build upon your comment to show that Miss Liu is SO much more than "masterful", or a human with "her heart in it." Decades ago, when I was about the age that Miss Liu appears in this recital, a group of us, composed of three or four young men would meet at the homes of two older, more experienced pianists (the only two friends any of us had that owned good Steinway Grands!). Over another decade of years, all I seemed to ever hear about Chopin was the Sonata, as being a competition for my "warhorse", the Fantasia in f minor. When time dissolved our group, still more decades of years passed me without my noticing this Sonata. As Kate Liu played it, just now, all the praise to the Sonata I ever heard, has been fulfilled. And, everybody was right. Watching her hands, it seemed impossible that such small amount of motion and flexion of fingers could produce such magic. Then I earnestly surveyed this girl. And, suddenly the hair at the back of my neck prickled up, and then I didn't see Kate, I saw something blazing gold; and if ever I had beheld spirit possession, or genius so great as to represent to me the explaination of my cold shivers .... there it was! A Bronze medal, or any thing less than a large, precious diamond, would be a insulting offering! And my impression of the contests, and the Political judging of said contests, has reduced the whole affair, except Artist Kate Liu, considerably in my estimation! I know of no method to tell the artist about this spiritual, or "psychic" ttransference of information, but I wish I did! K. McIntire-Tregoning, concert composer.

classicalalways I love her lyrical playing, but in terms of technique, she was slipping quite a lot towards the end, and wasn't fully in control.

@@ganjamozart1435 other than a few wrong notes i thought the coda for the 4th movement was great

i do not know why she did not win the competition

@@jamesqiu7860 seong jin cho was too excelent

Meijke Balay. Thx

scherzo

@@pianising what about it

@@pianising hey

@@nat91307 maybe it was a typo

as good as Ashkenazy

I've heard her live... One of a very few things that can be moving to me.

can be said of almost everyone

whatever

@@alexgu177 Maybe everyone can say it but not everyone can do it that easy. Remember words and actions are different.

It's up there for sure. This Chopin for me, and the Liszt in B minor, Scriabin No 5, and a few of Beethoven's greats: Wildstein, Appassionata, and Hammerklavier

yes im learning the fourth movement right now and in taking a lot of inspiration from her interpretation

@@nat91307 good luck mate, i heard this is like chopin's second most difficult piano solo piece lol

@@8beef4u you have great tastes!

No Jeff L.... No " one of the best" but "THE BEST....." Insuperata ed insuperabile...

공감합니다..여자이고말랐는데 그 손의 파워가..ㄷㄷ

O! Chyba nie słyszałeś czwartej!

Wow writting chopin like that makes you look extra smart

yes i agree. My favourite interpretation even though it has some mistakes but she play so wonderfully in comparison to everyone else

@@pianoten clearly you haven't heard Daniil's.... better than this one in my opinion!

Try Cyprien Katsaris

Daniil trifonov

Andrew Lee: You can hear her perform Bach’s P&F in C# Major from the Well-Tempered, Bk 1. She played it in 2013 at the 1st round of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. It’s here on KZfaq: just search ‘Kate Liu Bach’ and it should come up. She’s a great Bach player. I hope she’ll perform more of his music. 😎🎹

I was scrolling down the comment section to find if somebody had the same reaction. I went back to see this video after several months and suddenly had tears falling down my face from that 15th minute. It is like touching the stars, like reaching divinity for a moment. Blissfully amazing!

+EpigeneticAlteration Should be FIRST...sorry, I love her.

Her sonata is cold af. I can't feel it. She deserves top 5 in terms of technique. But overall she should not be in the finals.

uuuuubetcha So who do you think should be gold, silver and bronze?

+Vette gaddia Gold is hamelin. Silver is seong. Bronze is yike.

+uuuuubetcha Well we are all entitled to our opinions. Mine is that I like Kate Liu's playing of the sonata very much. Her bronze medal win was well deserved and maybe she deserved better than that.

분석이 ㅎㄷㄷ하시네요

Moi aussi c’est Fou Ts’ong qui m’a donné le baptême de cette sonate. Je ne l’ai jamais oublié.

wow wowow!!! some one finally speaks the truth!!

She has already Yuja's impeccable posture and control when sitting on the piano. That's a start!

I believe she only missed the prize cause of a flaw in the Scherzo. To my taste, she is the best. I just listened to Trifonov, and I like her even more. The way she looks before and after her play might matter to stage performance, but it should not matter for the music.

She should be left, to be who she is and sees fit to be.

@@andresgunther -- Kate has the purity of heart, untouched by marketing. She is a high priestess of Music.

I completely agree. I also think her performance of the fourth Ballade alone was enough to separate her from the rest of the pack. Unfortunate the judges seem to care more about a few minor technical mistakes than musicality. Though Cho's performance of Etude Op 10 No 1 is probably the best I've ever heard. They did say it was an extremely close battle for gold. Had this been 2010 or 2005 Kate might have very well won.

@@8beef4u 2005 was Rafal Blechacz's time, and I think the results from then make it rather clear how outstanding of an artist he was compared to his competitors. While this merely is hypothetical at best given that we don't know what would have happened given that they competed together, I'd think that Kate's technical errors already would have left her behind Rafal in terms of points, but not to mention his performances were enough to get him the special awards in all of the categories compared to Kate who maybe could compete with him when it came to the Mazurkas or Sonatas. I am no professional musician, so perhaps I am undeserving to judge. I also do not mean to downplay the other great musicians who have competed in their respective competitions but it seems to me unlikely that Kate, if she performed in the 2005 competition just like she did in this 2015 competition, would win 1st prize over Rafal. I am not trying to say one is strictly better than the other. However, given their performances in their respective years of competing in the Chopin Competition (which is the only thing we can base any comparison on), I think that while Kate's musicality and sensibility demonstrate both her unique character as an artist alongside an understanding of Chopin, Rafal's lack of technical flaws in addition to his own musical ingenuity and connection to Chopin (which is a testament to his musicality and sensibility as well) would put him over the edge from Kate. Had she no technical errors, perhaps she could have triumphed over him. That said, both Rafal and Kate are outstanding musicians of this generation in their own right. This also holds true for anyone who has qualified for the main competition whose careers we can all only hope will blossom and enrich not only our generation but future generations of classical music which is a genre that is practically off the grid at the moment within mainstream music.

Why do I have a feeling you wouldn't be saying the same thing if there was a male playing.

That is exactly what I mean. I agreed.

@@raphaelcoelho4366 yes, I do. Music is subjective

@@raphaelcoelho4366 what is considered a "most emotional moment" is also subjective, and honestly who cares about what Chopin experts think, "truthful" does not equate "emotional" in any way to say this sonata is only a "demonstration of power" is not only insulting to Chopin but music in general, music no matter, whether it is intended to trigger emotions, triggers emotions in people, every music triggers some kind of emotional response from people

Pierdolicie Hipolicie

yes, the changing dynamics, the build-up, the slightly delayed and emphasized motif just gets me every single time

+Mwk I'd be happy if she wins.... But I suspect Aimi Kobayashi might take the first prize, while Kate and Eric would tie at second....

Sun Thathong I think Kate is a lot better then Aimi. For me she is unbeatable!!!

+Sun Thathong (Sunny) You forgot about Cho. He has a lot of Concerto experience. You must hear him play the Tchaikovsky 1st concerto in the Rubinstein competition where he should have won.

+Mwk My only criticism of this is her pauses are soooo long. I hope she does not do this in the Concerto. She should win a medal, but if the jurors don't like the pauses in the Concerto. there are other geniuses who is right there.

+Images Oubliées , "There is life after (Yuja) Wang" LMAO

+J Gamez yes

+connie rahim Yes, and that is exactly as great playing should be. The complete absence of self-consciousness and total immersion in the music, itself, is the mark of a truly great artist.

connie rahim Si è un Trance Quando la Melodia è Divina solo un Mistico Trance può interpretarla. Marco Rotondi

I bought her double CD and put it on my phone. It includes the sonata. Her playing is so sensitive. My favourite pianist

조성진의 쇼팽 소나타 3번 들어보기 강추 합니다

@@andrewsoh1488 소나타3번은 케이트가 더 잘친거같음

I think no one tops William Kappel. That's just my opinion. I've never heard anyone play the way he did in his recordings.

to me, never tops maria jao pires . listen to maria's interpretation and judge then

No!!! Adam you are wrong.

강형숙 It depends.

Commento che condivido pienamente....oggi non ascolto nessuno suonare la 3 se non Lei, diletta Kate, anima serena in grado di farci vivere l'essenza dell'Autore . Grazie Maestra Kate! Marco Rotondi

fialkowska

@18107863 -- You can substitute technical perfection for the emotional and intellectual richness of Kate's playing. Kate is the true start of this competition. Her interpretation of Sonata No 3 is epochal. we are lucky to know her incredible talent.

I thought it was Seong Jin Cho

I truly loved Charles-Richard Hamelin, her, Cho and Shishkin equally

And ritcher

just unreal! the tone clarity combined with perfect tempo and minimal embellishment... kate's interpretation, as always, unpretentious and straightforward while still retaining its grace. this is music stripped down to its purest, most natural form. i truly cannot describe it in words...it's just sublime

makes me feel like I’m in the 1800s wearing a ball gown and walking down a grand marble staircase into a royal gathering.