The Long Night of the Piano took place in the well-filled Carl Bechstein Hall in Spandau

Yumeka Nakagawa, who had already been supported by the foundation for three years as a teenager, opened the series. Yumeka, who won the Clara Haskil Competition in 2021 and is now studying with Grigory Gruzman in Weimar, “demonstrated transparency and virtuosity,” as Michael Maier described it in the Berliner Zeitung.

Marie Rosa Günter, who was supported by the Carl Bechstein Foundation during the coronavirus pandemic and now works as a “Profesor Pianista Acompañante” at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, “interpreted Schubert’s late Sonata D 960 in pastel colors and weightlessly,” Maier continued.

Aaron Pilsan, another of the Corona scholarship recipients, stepped in at short notice for his fellow recipient, Wataru Hisasue, who had won second prize at the renowned Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels the previous week. Pilsan, himself a sought-after pianist with his recordings for Alpha, humorously introduced himself as the “substitute,” moderated his performance, and won the hearts of the audience with his outstanding piano playing. Paying homage to the grand master Bach, he performed two preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier and three chorale preludes by Busoni and Hess in a manner that was as analytical as it was melodious. He then sang out the ravishingly undulating melody in Chopin’s Barcarolle, and, according to the Berliner Zeitung reviewer, he “transformed the piano into an orchestra” with Schumann’s Carnaval.

The next “Long Night of the Piano” will take place on June 20, 2025, at the Westphalian Music Festival in Hamm. Corona scholarship recipients Cunmo Yin, Wataru Hisasue, and Raúl da Costa.