<p>Contestant No.6 – PAN Yumeng</p><p>No.1 Chopin: Nocturne in B major, Op.32 No.1</p><p>-I am very impressed by the great range of sincere emotions you display in your performance of this Nocturne. You possess a natural and noble feeling for the melodic line and this flexibility in Chopin’s melodies is generally very difficult to understand. I like very much your treatment of the different sections and in general your approach to this style.</p><p>-Try to keep the left hand as supple and legato as possible. These are harmonic progressions and must be heard as such. If you play each note separately the constancy of the eighth notes can become tiring.</p><p>-Chopin repeats often with slight variations of embellishments, and it is our task to make each repetition different and interesting by using much more variety in timing and dynamics.</p><p>-You have musical ears and are very sensitive to particular beautiful moments, and you have the tendency to use a lot of “rallentando” to bring to attention these moments. Doing it too often would diminish their value. So chose carefully where to use it and use it less so these moments would come across as really special.</p><p>-The middles section could have more sound as it becomes much more contrapuntal, but be careful to make sure that the voice leadings are clear and can be followed.</p><p>-Make sure that the forte in measure 63 is clear. I like your approach to the ending cadenza. However, you should try to maintain the tension created by the succession of “sf” chords while reacting to their powerful interjection – much like a recitative.</p><p>No.2 Chopin: Etude in E minor, Op. 25 No.5 </p><p>-You have good ears, and obviously have a wonderful command of the piano. Your reaction to the E minor color is rather leaning toward the heavy and brooding mood. However, the character is “scherzo” which elicits a much lighter response. With your seriousness I think it is still possible to incorporate a little light heartedness. Try to find a natural approach that is based on elegance and charm, and avoid complex sudden “rallentandos” that often sound heavy and stop the motion.</p><p>-The middle section is nothing more than just a beautiful operatic aria, and therefore could flow with much more ease and less heaviness. Try a much lighter touch in your right hand so that it does not overwhelm the left hand. Your left hand melody sounds altogether too serious and profound, not matching or reacting to the optimistic shimmering of the right hand writing. </p><p>-In the coda, I also think reducing the thickness of the chords and a swifter approach would be more appropriate without losing the drama and the nobility.</p><p>No.3 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.12</p><p>-You have ample ability and well-equipped facilities to bring this off marvelously and there are hardly any technical problems that should be in your way. Perhaps a better understanding of the structure would improve your performance. The basic structures of the Hungarian Rhapsodies owe a great deal to the “verbunkos”, a Hungarian recruiting dance in several parts. The unique feature of this form is the use of extremes of tempos reflecting the extremes of emotions so prevalent in the Hungarian psyche. Further, Liszt kept two main elements of the typical Gypsy style — the “lassan” (slow) and the “friska” (fast) sections.</p><p>-Lovely “lassan”. I love your deep and dramatic emotional intensity. You could afford to be even freer, like real improvisation. Here it is advisable to make great dynamic changes between the sections. You need to pace this more deliberately, taking full advantage of the silence to magnify the unexpected. </p><p>-The arrival of the “Vivace” heralds the final dance, and here you could be more spirited and bring out the dance element more distinctly. The most important aspect of dance is the dependable pulse. At the same time Liszt follows the basic “verbunkos” element of getting faster and more involved, thus he has indications like “sempre vivamente”, “brioso”, “accelerando” and “il pi presto possible” which of course indicate a gradual quickening of the tempo. This only lets up when we get to the coda – Adagio. For you to follow Liszt’s advice of increasing the tempo should pose no difficulty. However, to do it gradually and without slowing down requires utmost control and determination, and this is something that you should work on for your future performance of this piece. </p><p>Pan Yumeng, You already display a great deal of maturity and I am sure you will develop into a wonderful musician. Continue your work, learn a great deal of repertoire as the next few years are most important to acquire the material that you will use for the rest of your life. At the same time listen to other works besides written for the piano as this will lead you to find the individual style of each composer. I look forward to hearing perform again soon.</p>