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On August 13th, Russian pianist Konstantin Shamray and Steinway Piano Model D582419 debuted on the stage of the Perth Concert Hall. The two were a match made in music heaven, each the perfect complement to the talent of the other and each outshining the competition in their journey to the Perth stage.
For Konstantin Shamray, the contest began in Moscow, one of 12 cities to hold auditions for the 9th Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia. In total, the 12 auditions hosted 240 aspiring pianists, of which just 36 were invited to perform in the Sydney competition (Shamray was one of three chosen from Moscow). Once in Sydney, Konstantin competed in five stages over two weeks, playing pieces that ranged from traditional Mozart concertos to contemporary Australian compositions. At the contest’s end, Shamray was named not only the Judge’s winner, but also the People’s Choice, the first ever contestant to claim both titles. Konstantin was then invited to play the Winner’s Recital at Perth Concert Hall.
For the Steinway, the journey to Perth Concert Hall began with the granting of a wish, in this case the Perth Theatre Trust’s wish for more funding. That wish was granted by the State Government Department for Culture and the Arts in the form of a $3.7 million pledge, of which $221,350 wwas allocated to Perth Concert Hall to purchase the Steinway. Concert pianist Victor Sangiorgio, Concert Hall GM Andrew Bolt and local Steinway agent Walter Haas travelled to Germany to personally select the piano from among 7 Steinways at the Hamburg factory (one of only two Steinway factories in the world). The selection process took 6 hours of playing and listening for clarity and evenness of tone before the final selection was made. The winner is now the resident classical piano at Perth Concert Hall and a testament to the legendary hand-made craftsmanship of the brand and the quality of sound it can produce in the hands of a master.
On August 13, concert goers had a chance to see the piano in the hands of a master as Konstantin sat at the keys to play Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Wagner, Liszt, Chopin and Scriabin. The Steinway practically filled the stage on performance night, as the audience waited for Konstantin to take the stage. The piano body curved in elegant black lines, the embodiment of notes flowing effortlessly from one to the other, perfectly tuned to the instructions of its player. When Konstantin finally did take the stage, he played as though he were a blind man. His eyes focused nowhere in particular and his fingers struck the notes without needing so much as a glance to find them. His body was rigid, leaning only ever so slightly into the notes as he played. There was little flourish to his movements, as though any extraneous movement would take away from the precision with which he played. His timing was impeccable, with hesitation at just the right moment to build anticipation and then a rush forward in tempo to match the music’s crescendo and let it overwhelm the audience. When a piece finished, Konstantin would subtly collapse in his shoulders, take a breath, and return from whatever place the piece had taken him to an enraptured full concert hall. Then, Konstantin Shamray would sit up again, stock still, face blank and re-enter that world where only his fingers and the notes exist.
