Competition 2022

Liszt Utrecht 2022 takes place from 22 - 29 September in TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht. Find out all you need to know about Liszt Utrecht in the video below.

Liszt Utrecht (before: Liszt Concours) is an international piano festival centered around the music of Franz Liszt. Ten professional pianists from all over the world travel to TivoliVredenburg (Utrecht) to perform their interpretations of Liszt's music. After live selection round in January this year, an international jury selected ten pianists that will participate in Liszt Utrecht 2022. Click here to meet the ten pianists.

Timetable

View the timetable of Liszt Utrecht 2022

Celebrating, discovering and highlighting
Liszt Utrecht used to be a traditional piano competition (International Franz Liszt Piano Competition) but is now a more community-based festival. While there is still a clear competitive element, we focuse more on celebrating, discovering, and highlighting both Liszt’s music as well as the incredible musicians that perform it. All musicians get fairly paid and offered a chance to develop themselves and connect with a live audience in one of the greatest concert halls of the Netherlands.

The Schubert Edition
While the festival is centered around Franz Liszt, every edition is themed by a different composer. After the 2020 edition devoted to Beethoven (unfortunately cancelled due to Covid19), the 2022 will give attention to Franz Schubert.

The festival phase (22 - 26 Sep)

In the festival phase all pianists present their refined piano playing in different themed concerts. Each festival day has a fixed structure:

All-Liszt piano recital: Each day starts with an All-Liszt piano recital with original works of Liszt. Expect grand masterpieces full of pianistic fireworks.
Chamber music recital: Followed by a chamber music recital in which the pianists collaborate with Lea Hausmann (violin), Samuel Shepherd (cello), Judith Wijzenbeek (viola), and Roberto di Ronza (bass). They will be performing different movements of Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A Major ‘’Trout’’ and some of Liszt’s rarely performed works for cello and piano.
Song recital: After that there will be a recital, where the pianists will work with soprano Bernadeta Astari to present songs by both Liszt and Schubert as well as a new commissioned song composed by Mathilde Wantenaar.
All-Schubert recital: Each day finishes with a solo recital where the highly demanding Liszt transcriptions of the big Schubert song cycles will be performed.

The ten pianists will play on a Yamaha grand piano for the All-Liszt recital, a straight strung Maene for the chamber music recital, a Steinway for the song recital, and a Fazioli for the All-Schubert recital.

NLiszt
Every festival day, at 16.00 hrs, an extra piano recital takes place, performed by an upcoming Dutch pianist. This ‘NLiszt’ performance is excluded from the competition. However, our jury will award one of these Dutch pianists with the ‘Henk de By’ award and an opportunity to perform with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra during the finals of Liszt Utrecht. Click HERE for more information about NLiszt.

The Grand Finale (29 Sep)

After five festival days three finalists conclude Liszt Utrecht during in a Grand Finale with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. In a performance of Schubert’s Grosse Fantasie ‘Wanderer’, the three pianists get one final chance to present the best of their musical abilities. Afterwards, an international jury decides which pianist will be the winner of Liszt Utrecht 2022.

Programme:
Each finalist performs Schubert’s Grosse Fantasie ‘Wanderer’, arranged by Liszt for piano and orchestra. The winner of NLiszt performs Liszt's Hungarian Fantasie for piano and orchestra.

Prices

First prize: € 25.000
Two times a runner-up prize: € 10.000
Audience award: € 2500

Tickets

Tickets are available via www.tivolivredenburg.nl/lisztutrecht

Prices
Passe-partout voor alle concerten: € 250,-
Dagticket voor een hele festivaldag: € 49,- (i.p.v. € 73)

All-Liszt piano recital: € 19,-
Chamber music recital: € 15,-
Extra NLiszt piano recital: € 5,-
Song recital: € 9,-
All-Schubert piano recital: € 25,-

Grande Finale: € 39,-
For CJP / young adults up until 30 years old / U-Pas a ticket has a maximum price of € 10,-

International jury

Suzana Bartal
Frederic Chiu
Janina Fialkowska
Nino Gvetadze
Michael Lewin
Mūza Rubackytė
Wibi Soerjadi
Mariangela Vacatello
Cynthia Wilson (non-voting head of the jury)