Hammers and Tongs premiered at Enescu International Piano Competition

Hammers and Tongs, a new work for solo piano, received its world premiere at the 2026 Enescu International Piano Competition. Each of the twelve pianists that advanced to the second round presented an hour-long recital, which included the newly commissioned “imposed work” of the competition. Hammers and Tongs is a short and lively moto perpetuo for solo piano. The work also forms a study on the musical interval of a second, with a focus on an idiosyncratic piano technique in which the thumb is used to play two adjacent pitches. The title derives from the old English idiom “hammer and tongs,” a reference to both the vigorous character of the piece, and percussive mechanism of the piano.

hammer and tongs | adverb (colloquial): with great force, vigor, determination, or vehemence; with the greatest possible strength or force; an allusion to a blacksmith repeatedly hammering a hot piece of iron held with tongs. E.g., “When he starts a difficult job, he goes at it hammer and tongs.

The piano jury (Lilya Zilberstein, Vovka Ashkenazy, Dana Borșan, Anthony Fogg, Marie-Ange Nguci, Rena Shereshevskaya & Raluca Știrbăț) awarded first prize in the competition to South Korean pianist Jeongwoo Lee, 18, whose dynamic and powerful performance of Hammers and Tongs also earned him the €2000 award for “best performance of the imposed work.” Lee studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston with HaeSun Paik.