What began on March 2, 2025 with the performance of many promising young talents reached its triumphant conclusion on Saturday at DeSingel. The winners of the biennial Cantabile Youth Piano Competition took the stage.
The event was organized by Lions Club Kontich-Zuidrand, once again living up to their motto 'We serve'. This time, the entire proceeds from the evening, €7,500, went to the non-profit Zonnekamp, which organizes a ten-day summer vacation each year for young people with disabilities under the slogan 'Everything for our guests', giving parents some much-needed breathing room.
Mia, Raffaello, Bill
The first to take a seat at the Bechstein before the Limburg Youth Orchestra and Music was the delicate Mia Zhou. From her participation in the under-13 category, we noted that besides piano, swimming is high on her agenda. And yes, Mia took to it like a fish to water, performing the first movement of Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 11 Hob. XVIII/11 in D—a work that might have been composed with her in mind—finishing with a playful coda. With a bit more attention to dynamics, more contrast between forte and piano, this promising teenager has a bright future ahead.
If Mia Zhou left the stage somewhat nervously, Raffaello Giannini radiated considerably more confidence. This slender prize-winner in numerous national and international competitions, who has already performed on stage with Martha Argerich in Lausanne, played Chopin's first concerto. And in his black velvet vest, he even resembled Chopin. Sergei Redkin is his teacher, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden his mentor; he is a student at the Brussels Conservatory, the Heilig Hart College in Tervuren, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Overijse—plus he's gifted with languages and a math whiz.
Calmly and in control, he concentrated during the introduction on the slow tempo that conductor Wouter Lenaerts set for the orchestra, which brought out the various themes beautifully. And when Raffaello came in, decisive and perfect as marked, allegro maestoso. Wouter Lenaerts, brother of..., did credit to his impressive track record through his empathy and smooth collaboration with all that youthful energy, with cellist Mattias Windmolders distinguishing himself now and then.
Rachmaninov
When soprano Anne-Marie Segers announced the winner of Category C (ages 16-19), she referred to what Bill Dewispelaere had told Klassiek Centraal: "Music means everything to me." And that was especially Russian music, Rachmaninov in particular. Young as he is, Bill didn't succumb to the popularity of Rach 3. Nor to Rach 2. No, he deliberately chose Rachmaninov 1, which is performed far less often. Meanwhile, it turned out that Valère Burnon, third in the previous Elisabeth Competition, thinks the same way: this lesser-played concerto is full of energy and deeply emotional.
Beautiful as this work is, it's still somewhat less accessible and full of treacherous passages. From the sometimes complex orchestral passages, Bill managed to distill sublime melodies. Thanks to his versatile cultural family background and his teachers Nikolaas Kende and Aäron Wajnberg.
Apotheosis
Mia Zhou, Raffaello Giannini, and Bill Dewispelaere can already dream of as brilliant a career as that of the star after intermission, Roberto Giordano. When he came fourth in the KEW in 2003, he literally knocked my socks off. Whether repertoire or transcriptions, he's a master of all trades and impresses through his interpretive freedom. As the apotheosis of the evening, he performed Liszt's Second Piano Concerto. Here too, he proved himself a true 'poet at the piano'.
