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Young Taiwanese pianist plays with brio in Romania

A young Taiwanese pianist living in Berlin came in second and won the Audience Choice Award at the first International Beethoven Piano Competition in Arad, Romania, on Thursday.

This was Lu Yi-chih's (盧易之) second international award this year, having already been the runner-up at the Sendai International Music Competition in Japan in June.

Lu impressed the five Austrian and Czech judges with his playing of a Haydn sonata in the preliminary, two of Brahms' rhapsodies in the semifinal and working with a local symphony orchestra to play Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in the final round.

The 25-year-old Lu attributed his Audience Choice Award to his outstanding performance playing the Beethoven concerto, but admitted that he played a bit under par in the preliminary and semifinal rounds because of a serious cold.

"It is a pity," he said.

One of the nation's most distinguished young pianists, Lu went to study at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, at the age of 17 and moved on to the Berlin University of the Arts last year.

Lu, who has been busy performing across Europe, held a piano recital at the National Concert Hall in Taipei in May and worked with Austria's National Radio Station Orchestra performing a Mozart concerto at Vienna's Grossen Saal Musikverein in October.

Lu has won many piano prizes over the past three years, including second place at Barcelona's Maria Canals and Slovakia's Hummel International Piano Competition, grand prize at Austria's Gradus ad Parnassum and runner-up status at the third Sendai International Music Competition.
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