Chopin Competition 2025 | Blog 14: Countdown
Stage 3, Day 3: Thursday, October 16, 2025. Receive a weekly collection of news, features, and reviews.
Jed Distler, Friday, October 17, 2025, shares his impressions of Stage 3, Day 3.
Not much to get excited about this morning in the hall. Jed Distler heard Tomoharu Ushida for the first time when he blogged about the 2021 Chopin Competition and liked him a lot then.
Ushida has formidable fingers and a huge sound, and he never lets you forget it. However, his loud and undifferentiated F minor Fantasy and B minor Sonata performances were a relief to end.
Experiencing Zitong Wang in a relatively extended recital provided a little more perspective than gathered from her first two stages. For the most part, her loud playing seemed hollow and aggressive, while her softest passagework lacked body and definition.
Ushida has formidable fingers and a huge sound, and he never lets you forget it.
Author's summary: Chopin Competition 2025 review.