<<  -- 3 --  Malcolm Miller    BEETHOVEN WINNERS

The winner of the 2005 Beethoven Junior Intercollegiate Piano Competition held one day earlier on 15 December 2005 was Joseph Sloan. The BPSE's annual Junior competition was again held at the Austrian Cultural Forum thanks to the hospitality of its Director Dr Johannes Wimmer, and attracted talented young pianists from four of the UK specialist schools, who each played Beethoven sonatas and, as in previous years, a compulsory Bagatelle Op 33 No 4 in A. BPSE Vice Chairman Alberto Portugheis introduced the event and the distinguished Jury of Professor Deborah Sobol from Chicago and Professor Raphael Terroni, announced the results and decided to award just one prize, commending the generally high standard. The winner received a cash award and a recital in the BPSE series, and copies of the Society's journal Arietta No 5 were given to all four participants.

The first competitor Huw Morgan (Chetham's School of Music) played the sonata Op 31 No 2 The Tempest, showing much finesse in his handling of textures and details of articulation and dynamics. The young Fumi Sakuma (Croydon Centre for Young Pianists) played a sparkling account of the first movement of the Sonata Op 14 No 1 in E, and this was coupled with a playful reading of the Bagatelle. Next came Joseph Sloan (Junior Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) who projected a dramatic performance of the Sonata Op 90 in E minor and a compelling Bagatelle, while the final participant, Leo Nicholson (Junior Royal Northern College of Music) rounded off the programme with an ebullient Waldstein Sonata Op 53 in C.