Poom Prommachart Wows the 2nd Thailand International Piano Competition

Young Thai Pianist Poom Prommachart Wows the 2nd Thailand International Piano Competition

Nakhonpathom, Thailand. September 10, 2011. There are so many musical competitions around the world that no web site keeps track of all of them. The closest is http://www.wfimc.org/, but even that valuable resource didn’t list Thailand’s 2nd International Piano Competition, which took place September 3-10 at Mahidol University College of Music. Piano competitions have been around for a long time. For instance, the important Chopin Competition has been going strong since 1927. The very famous ones (e.g., The Tchaikovsky, Van Cliburn, Queen Elizabeth) are often gateways for the winners to enter the rarefied atmosphere of international performing and recording careers, but such is not always the case, as many competition champions fade back into the locales or regions from which they came. Much the same can be said of the Nobel Prize in Literature, where many winners have no books in print and whose names have entered into the black hole of oblivion. And, many famous pianists have not gone the competition route. Evengy Kissin comes to mind.

With the focus of Western classical music increasingly turning to Asia and Asian artists, Thailand has thrown its hat in the piano competition ring with a bi-annual competition, this year being the second time it has been held. It has a lot going for it: a large and talented body of young pianists not only in Thailand, but throughout the region, the support of a major institution, Mahidol University, and its excellent piano faculty, which includes such notables as master pianist and pedagogue, Eri Nakagawa, the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and some important corporate support, which this year made possible substantial prize money and a Yamaha grand piano. A very professional international jury was attracted to give the competition further cache. Competitors entered from about four countries in the region.

I was able to talk briefly with Poom as the audience milled around for the 15 minutes the judges said it would take them to vote.

There were two finalists: 17-year old Chinese pianist He Ren, and 21-year old Thai pianist Poom Prommachart, who is now based in London and has several competition wins and orchestral performances under his belt. I liked the format of the final round, which was markedly different from other similar competitions I’ve attended, where the finalists, usually three, play concertos on the same night. In Thailand’s version, each of the two finalists played on separate days, the first half of the each program being solo selections, and the second half, a concerto performance with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra under Gudni A. Emilsson. Ren selected the Rachmaninoff 2nd piano concerto and Poom chose Beethoven’s Fifth, while preceding it with Chopin’s Second Piano Sonata prior to the intermission. Although I didn’t hear Ren, it is predictable that she played very well inasmuch as the pool of talent in this region is remarkable. Poom, on the other hand, played magnificently.

I’ve heard Chopin’s Sonata No. 2 played so many times this past year, which was the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, most notably Marizio Pollini’s Carnegie Hall performance, that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to another performance. While Pollini in his 60’s played with grandeur, Poom in his early 20’s, played with passion. There’s great danger in playing Chopin “with feeling,” because it’s easy to get carried away and lapse into sheer sentimentality like Liberace and Lang Lang at his maudlin worse. Only a keen musician with iron internal control can bring that blend of classic structure and romantic beauty that we associate with the best Chopin playing. In this regard, Poom excelled by having a sense of how the smaltz (if you will), fits it with the classic sonata form. There were no rhythmic excesses, no overwrought forte passages, and no jarringly underplayed piano passages---just beautiful playing in the classical tradition, with a touch of youth.

A quick word about technique. Any of today’s young pianists performing in recognized competitions have phenomenal techniques. They can and do play everything with seeming ease. A virtuoso-like technique doesn’t win a competition any more, it is simply an entry-level requirement, and without it, the competitor would have been sent home packing long before the final round. Poom’s technique is as impressive as many of his contemporaries that I have heard over the last decade. The important point is that it is more than adequate for him to play the way he wants to play.
I don’t know if a special competition prize can be given for courage, but any competitor going into a final round playing Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto (“Emperor”), a fete that is far more difficult to bring off than playing, say, Rachmaninoff’s 2nd or 3rd concerti, or Prokovief’s 3rd, deserves special mention for courage. Many commentators who criticize today’s competitors for playing it “safe” in both their choices of music to play, and in their performances, should have attended Poom’s performance---he was clearly going for broke.

With the opening arpeggios, Poom firmly established his authority over the Emperor. He followed with moments of clarity, smoothness of line, sensitivity, and power. It was an altogether convincing performance, indeed moving. His coordination with the orchestra, impressive given the short rehearsal time, was assisted by the expert conducting of TPO’s chief conductor Gudni A. Emilsson. The applause from the audience indicated to me that I was not alone in believing that we had heard the winning performance.

There is a reciprocal relationship and interdependence between the competition itself and the winner. To gain stature, the competition needs credible winners, and for the winner to gain stature from his or her victory, the competition needs stature. In this case, happily, both the Thailand International Piano Competition and Poom Prommachart are winners.

Poom, after a unanimous vote of the judges, accepts his well-deserved first prize.