{"id":7506,"date":"2026-09-27T14:24:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T19:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alzand.com\/?p=7506"},"modified":"2026-10-02T11:52:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:52:04","slug":"hammers-and-tongs-premiered-at-enescu-international-piano-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alzand.com\/?p=7506","title":{"rendered":"Hammers and Tongs<\/i> premiered at Enescu International Piano Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hammers and Tongs<\/i>, 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<\/a><\/i> is a short and lively moto perpetuo<\/i> for solo piano. The work also forms a \"\"<\/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.<\/br><\/br>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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., \u201cWhen he starts a di\ufb03cult job, he goes at it hammer and tongs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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pianist Jeongwoo Lee<\/p><\/div>The piano jury (Lilya Zilberstein, Vovka Ashkenazy, Dana Bor\u0219an, Anthony Fogg, Marie-Ange Nguci, Rena Shereshevskaya & Raluca \u0218tirb\u0103\u021b) awarded first prize in the competition to South Korean pianist Jeongwoo Lee<\/strong>, 18, whose dynamic and powerful performance of Hammers and Tongs<\/i> also earned him the \u20ac2000 award for “best performance of the imposed work.” Lee studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston with HaeSun Paik. <\/p>\n