The last day of the Final Stage seems to make people restless. 　The photographer who shoots group photos of the jury got dressed up just now and left the room. 　Everyone is going into action toward the last day of the final, which naturally braces me up.  
　Today Huh Jae-Weon performed first, followed by Elmar Gasanov as second and Kim Hyun-Jung as third.  Every one of rendition was wonderful.  It was difficult to say which was better than the others since each performance convinced me that this person would win. Eventually I ended up with a conclusion that anyone could be the winner. 
　The first performer of the last day was Huh Jae-Weon (Korea: age 22).  The opening sound of the bell by piano was gradually echoing.  We started from the world of sound only by piano and were gradually lured to the world of concerto by Rakhmaninov, in which we found ourselves completely immersed.  Sometimes his rendition was dynamic and other times it was fully expressive as whatever the score instructed.  As surprised to see a man of slender built bringing such a strong expressivity to the piece, I couldn’t help thinking this should be the way of masculine concerto.  In contrast, the second movement was disconsolately romantic, which proved he could exploit a characteristic of each movement.

  
29　 Huh Jae-Weon (Korea: age 22)
 To tell the truth, it was the first time to perform Rakhmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 in c minor Op.18 with orchestra in public.  I wasn’t even prepared for the concerto before the competition as it never crossed my mind that I could advance to the final.  I was about to cry toward the end of my performance without any mishaps because I was so worried if I could remember the score.  I had to enter the competition without confidence.  I thought about other pieces, but I decided to choose this one to expand my repertoire.  I was tense at the rehearsal right after the 3rd Stage, but the conductor encouraged me by saying that I could do it.  The sound of orchestra has been already perfected so that all I had to do was to play to its accompaniment.  The conductor took the lead at the very beginning with excellent orchestra, which enabled me to feel relaxed throughout the performance. 

 Elmar Gasanov (Russia: age 26) was the second performer.  He chose Rakhmaninov‘s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in a minor Op.43.  He was the only contestant who had no others to render the same program.  It lasts for slightly longer than 20 minutes, only the half of the other pieces.  Gasanov made a strong impact on the audience during such a short period of time.  The program perfectly fitted to him who was outstanding in rhythmical and tense expression.  He seemed to practice it repeatedly and listened to the orchestra through his playing.  Neither overly romantic nor intrusive rendition was comfortable with a taste of playful touch, wild accent and melancholy, which showed us its different aspects in 20 minutes.   
A big round of applause with bravo brought him back to the stage three times. 　
　At last the last performance at the Final Stage started.  Kim Hyun-Jung (Korea: age 18) rendered “Emperor”, which was performed for the third time on that day.  She seemed a little tense, but her native spontaneous sound was still going strong.  Her Beethoven was moderately classy with a beautifully romantic and yet modest, grounded feature.  It sounded even more spontaneous toward the latter half of the piece.  Before her performance, she said “I want to perform this as if I were an emperor although I’m female.” From her ”Emperor”, lightly rendered with her arms lithely moving , I pictured her as an empress, enthralled in her early years who had both an inner fortitude and fragility.    
　This was the end of 15-day competition to which the young contestants turned all their energies.

  
20　 Elmar Gasanov (Russia: age 26)
 “During my performance, I concentrated on expressing all emotions rather than keeping some image in my mind. The final was better than the 2nd and 3rd Stages. Of course there are some areas that I could have done better. It is Emil Gilels who I respect as a pianist. He is more than a mere pianist but a very serious musician. Today I ate spaghetti instead of meat before the stage!”

 
 
36　 Kim Hyun-Jung (Korea: age 18)
 “A male could have demonstrated more robust performance and there was a limit to me as a female, but I think I could render it in a powerful manner. This was my first performance with orchestra.  I appreciate that Conductor Otomo was very nice and encouraged me at the rehearsal.  After spending 3 weeks in Japan, what I want to do now is to go back to South Korea soon to see my dog at home and my friends.  But above all, I want to eat Kimchi or Korean pickle (laugh)”.