Szuyu Rachel Su

The XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition (XVIII Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fryderyka Chopina) was held from 2 to 23 October 2021 in Warsaw.

Originally scheduled for 2020, the quinquennial competition was twice postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

87 pianists from 18 countries took part in the main stage of the competition, which was divided into three stages with 87, 45 and 23 participants each, and a final with twelve pianists.

The first prize was awarded to Bruce Liu of Canada.

The competition was originally scheduled to take place from 2 to 23 October 2020, with the preliminary round to be held from 17 to 28 April.

In May 2020, the competition was postponed to the same dates in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was decided by Poland's Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Piotr Gliński, together with Artur Szklener, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, after additional consultations with Poland's Ministry of Health.

In January 2021, Szklener announced that the preliminary round would be postponed to July.

The jury awarded eight main prizes to the finalists of the competition.

The first prize went to Bruce Liu of Canada.

The second prize was jointly awarded, ex aequo, to Alexander Gadjiev and Kyohei Sorita, while the third prize went to Martín García García.

The fourth prize was shared, ex aequo, by Aimi Kobayashi and Jakub Kuszlik, the fifth prize was awarded to Leonora Armellini, and the sixth prize went to J J Jun Li Bui.

Artur Szklener, director of the Chopin Institute, announced that three pianists had identical scores, leading to very long debates among the jury.

The winner of the competition, however, was unambiguously decided.

In addition, three of the four special prizes were awarded.

The preliminary stage was held from 12 to 23 July 2021 in the Chamber Hall of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw.

Participants were required to perform the following works:

Ultimately, 151 contestants performed in the preliminary stage, of which the jury admitted 78 to the main stage.

They were joined by an additional nine pianists, who qualified to the main stage directly by winning major piano competitions.

An additional nine pianists qualified to the main stage directly by winning major piano competitions:

The main competition from 3 to 20 October consisted of three stages and a final.

An inaugural concert was held on 2 October, and the prize-winners' concerts took place from 21 to 23 October.

Stage I was held from 3–7 October 2021 and was contested by 87 participants.

Stage II was held from 9–12 October 2021 and was contested by 45 participants.

Stage III was held from 14 to 16 October 2021 and was contested by 23 participants.

The final was held from 18 to 20 October 2021 and was contested by twelve participants.

The first pianist to perform in Stage I was Xuanyi Mao of China.

The letter "M" was drawn with a lottery machine by Piotr Gliński, the Polish Minister of Culture, at a press conference a week earlier.

Polish Radio commentators described Szymon Nehring's playing as "extremely mature", completely different than the previous competition, where he had been a finalist.

Jed Distler from Gramophone noted that Georgijs Osokins' performance was "strikingly individual", with an "epic sense of time scale" akin to Emil Gilels.

Japanese pianist Sohgo Sawada was called the best performer of the first day's evening session, possessing "disarmingly sincerity" in his performance of the Ballade in G minor.

On the second day, the performance of Talon Smith of the United States was unanimously praised by the Polish Radio, and he was described as a "very musical pianist with a great imagination".

Distler called Smith one of those youngsters who sound "wise beyond their years", approaching Chopin as "a master pianist with an old soul".

On Day 3, commentators highlighted the "Italian dominance" of the day, with Leonora Armellini, who made the greatest impression, particularly in her performance of the Etude in C-sharp minor, and Michelle Candotti.

Distler praised Armellini's "liquid sonority" and "flexible phrasing", in complete command of her chosen Fazioli piano.

Italian-Slovenian pianist Alexander Gadjiev drew attention on the fourth day.

Róża Światczyńska of the Polish Radio remarked: "He is coming here because he has something to say from himself, a very coherent vision of music, and he wants to pass it on to us regardless of how he is judged."

Gadjiev's performance of the études was particularly praised.

Distler described 17-year-old Yifan Hou as having "power, personality, style, technique, communicative immediacy and natural musicality", noting the "shocking" impact of his "compact, dramatic and kinetically fervent" performance of the first Ballade.

From the first stage, 45 pianists were admitted to the second stage, five more than originally prescribed in the competition format.