18th Chopin Piano Competition: 3rd Stage: Hayato Sumino

In the Japanese interview, he said, ‘I feel like being in Chopin’s world rather than me playing it. As I proceed to the second and the third round, nervousness disappeared. I became nothing and simply enjoying the moment’.

Q1: What are your impressions after your third performance? Sumino: I used my full power for today's performance and I am so exhausted now. And I was really into the music, I was in music, and yeah it was a really good experience for me. Q2: And was it more stressful than previous performances? Sumino: No, far from stressful. Until the first round, the preliminary and first rounds, I was quite nervous but now I just play my program in the hall and that’s it. Q3: Okay and could you tell us about the program which you decided to play for this performance and why did you change the order of the pieces? Sumino: I changed the order so many times. At first, one month ago, I was quite into playing Sonata, and then Mazurka, Polonaise-Fantasy and then I changed my mind and changed my mind so many times...there was a Salon concert yesterday in Złota 44 and I performed the third round (program). My performance ended with Scherzo No. 3 and the audience was so satisfied with that so I thought it would be better to end with Scherzo No. 3. With this order, Scherzo No. 3 is like an encore of my program while the main program is Sonata No. 2 as it's the biggest piece and then as an encore I play Scherzo No. 3…that’s my feeling. Q4: Okay and what are the challenges preparing a big music piece like sonata? Sumino: Challenges…I think about construction - that’s a difficult part of big pieces. When I play like 2-3 minute pieces, I don’t so much care about the whole construction but when I play big pieces we have to consider the whole construction eg. where is the strongest part and where is the weakest part or something like that [not sure what he means in the next bit but I think he might be referring to exceptions in music when this philosophy doesn't apply as much]. Q5: Which movement for you was the strongest in the Sonata? Sumino: First movement is the strongest in terms of…literally strongest [I think he said]. Third movement is strongest in terms of feeling…when I play and this is a little bit different from ‘strongest’. Best point of the piece is the middle of the third movement - the melody [I think he said]. Q6: Do you improvise sometimes on Chopin's pieces? Sumino: Yes, sometimes. Some pieces are good for improvisation while some pieces shouldn't be improvised like big pieces like Sonata No. 2, Ballade, Scherzo - these should not be improvised…it cannot. In terms of Waltz and Mazurka, Chopin improvised on his Mazurka himself. I often play improvisations on Minute Waltz and maybe some Nocturnes like Op. 9 No.2. But improvisation is not good in later pieces like Op. 55, 61, 62. It depends on pieces but yeah just for fun. Bravo Sumino Hayato! Loved the third stage performance and always a pleasure to listen to your interviews - always very insightful! This is a pretty much word for word transcription. Parts I didn't quite catch or unsure of are in square brackets [ ]. Hope this helps :)

Thank you for sharing this interview! Let me translate this into Japanese for his fans in Japan☺ 日本語訳です。（ご参考になれば嬉しいです。少し意訳もあり、又ご本人の意図と異なるかもしれませんがご了承いただければ幸いです） -3次予選の演奏を振り返ってどうですか？ 持てるだけの力を出し切って今はとても疲れています。完全に曲に入り込んでいました。とてもいい経験でした。 -2次予選の時より緊張しましたか？ いいえ、全然緊張しませんでした。予備予選、1次予選までは結構緊張していたんですが、今はただこのホールで演奏することだけ考えています。 -今日の曲目についてと、曲の演奏順を変更した理由を教えてください。 曲順は何度も変更したんです。当初、ソナタから始めてマズルカ、幻想ポロネーズにしようと思ってたんですが、それから何度も変えました。最終的には、昨日出演したサロンコンサートで3次予選の曲を弾いたんですけど、最後スケルツォ第3番で終わった時にお客さんがすごく喜んでくれていたので、今日もその方がいいかなと思って最後に弾きました。個人的な感覚ですが、スケルツォ第3番というのは、だいたい僕がアンコールで弾く曲なんです。第2番のような大曲はプログラムのメインにしています。 -ソナタのような大曲を弾く時はどういうことに気を付けていますか？ 構成ですかね。2、3分の曲を弾く時は曲全体の構成はあまり考えないんですけど、こういう大曲を弾く時は、（曲の魅力を損なわないよう）曲全体の構成、強弱部分などを考えてないといけない 。 -では、一番力強いと思うのは何楽章ですか？ 第1楽章ですね。その名（Grave）の通りです。感覚的には第3楽章もです。力強いっていうのとはちょっと違うんですけど、第3楽章の中間部分がやっぱりこの曲の中で一番好きなところですね。 -ショパンの曲を即興演奏したりしますか？ はい、時々やります。即興演奏に向いている曲もあるし、逆にソナタ 第2番、バラード、スケルツォなんかはできないですね。ワルツとかマズルカに関してはショパン自身も即興で弾いていたみたいです。よくやるのは子犬のワルツとか、ノクターン はOp.9-2です。晩年に作曲されたOp. 55, 61, 62等はやらないですね。曲によります。楽しんでやっています。

It doesn’t matter who wins or loses. His performance was absolutely wonderful.

Hayato idealnie czuje muzykę Chopina. Wspaniały dźwięk, jakie piana. Wielka wrażliwość, delikatność. Wielka przyjemność słuchanie tak granej muzyki.

Super talented guy.

Hayato is a superb Chopinist, really quite remarkable.

I've been following Sumino's channel since last year. He made some lives during the pandemic and this performances showed how good he is. His technics are exceptional and I couldn't believe when listening to him improvising. Without hesitation, without errors, playing music from Michael Jackson, games, movies, popular songs... all then in the "Master Mode". Sumino is a master. I wish him the best of lucky on this competition.

Mr Sumino was totally immersed in Chopin! It must have been very exhausting.

His Funeral March was so emotional and so powerful! Well played!

Sumino-san is such a pure talent! I love his Jazz improvisations.

I saw his interview in Japanese. He said he was nervous during the first stage, but he was not nervous at all this time, and actually experienced like he was just existing in the Chopin’s music world, instead of playing piano himself, and he felt great joy from being surrounded by Chopin’s music! I thought that was a very spiritual experience, like near-death or something! (Oh yeah, Funeral March!😂) Anyway, this comment convinced me that his performance was Godsent.

In my opinion, he's only getting better, and better, and better throughout the competition; he's awesome.

A humble,yet so strong boy,who seems coming from another planet,the one in which Music rules...

Genius,music very good 👍

Gra i wyglada jak sam Chopin !😄👍

Wish you Final so much

What a heroic fighter, he put his souls and body into the competition. Well done. Good luck.

Third round just gets better! Really looking forward to him in the finals!!! “Funeral March” was soooo sooooo sooooooo good.

やはり角野さんは、ソナタのような大曲の場合には、曲の構造をきちんと把握して弾いているのですね。 即興演奏に長けた人は、作曲家的に、瞬時に曲の構造や和声進行などを耳で把握しながら全体像を見据えて弾くことができるのだと思いますが、そうした長所がよく現れていた演奏だと思いました。