“(An) artist is someone who creates first of all… and for me this comes from something much deeper… it’s not created from something which already existed. It’s creating something completely new. That’s what is different between what entertainer would say and artist.”   ~Sasha Grynyuk

The Honens International Piano Competition started here in Calgary yesterday. Ten semi-finalists are vying for the top prize of $100,000 and a prestigious career development package. Each competitor plays a solo recital and a collaborative recital, then 5 finalists advance and play a concerto with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sasha Grynyuk is one of the competitors. From Ukraine but living in London for the last decade, he is already on his way to a successful career. I have the privilege of turning pages for him at the collaborative recital on Saturday. Earlier this week I was at his rehearsal with cellist Johannes Moser and violinist Geoff Nuttal. Sasha is a gifted, sensitive pianist and a very pleasant person.

His solo recital was last night. I couldn’t go, but all recitals are streamed live and then archived so I watched it this morning. The recital started with the Busoni transcription of Bach’s Chaconne from the D Minor Partita for Violin (starts at the 9:30 mark; there is a loss of signal for about a minute at the 14:00 mark). I guess I’m not a purist – I happen to quite like these transcriptions. And Sasha played it well. Also worth watching and hearing is his performance of the Haydn B Minor Sonata (28:00 mark).

The video is available – as are all performances – for viewing on the Honens website (2nd video down), and I have posted it on Tumblr. (I swear my lack of success at posting it here is not me – this time.)

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• So you think you can turn pages* (ladonasmusicstudio.com)