Alexander Lubyantsev

At this competition, a notable outcry and vivid protests by audience members and music critics after Lubyantsev's exit led the critics to institute their own additional prize with the support of the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation for Cultural Initiatives. Lubyantsev won this new award with the most votes. This Special Prize of the Moscow Music Critics' Association has continued to be awarded in subsequent editions. The events surrounding Lubyantsev received attention in the national and international press, where he was referred to as “one of the audience’s favorites” and “the cause of the most controversy.” One journalist drew a parallel with Ivo Pogorelich’s famed appearance in the 1980 Chopin Competition.

According to Zimyanina, “no one had really heard of him before” and “he had no partisans on the jury.” Likewise, she had "the impression that he didn’t care much about the outcome.” Nonetheless, “the hall immediately fell in love with this delicate, young man, who lacked the affectations of a hardened performer, calling him an ‘angel.’... [He] was one of the most unusual pianists of the competition, and he became its revelation and discovery.”

Chronicles of the public's behavior towards jury members appeared in the British newspapers The Guardian and The Times: After the announcement of the five pianists to play in the final round, “the jury were booed inside and outside the hall.” As jury member and Tchaikovsky competition laureate Peter Donohoe left the building following the decision, the awaiting public shouted at him “Shame! It’s the wrong decision!” Jury member Barry Douglas, who was the competition winner in 1986, tweeted “One audience member bounded over to me as I left the building saying 'shame on you' and 'do you think that Lubyantsev is not a good pianist?'.” “I was walking to a restaurant with Michel Béroff [another juror],” said Douglas, “A woman followed us, chanting ‘Lubyantsev, Lubyantsev’. I found that creepy. And after we announced the finalists there were cries of ‘Shame on you’.”

The Times reported that Valery Gergiev, the chairman of the organizing committee, was “forced” to call a press conference “to answer the press outcry about the piano jury’s decisions.” The Guardian stated: “Lubyantsev’s departure caused the most controversy,” and reported Gergiev's comment: “We cannot ignore the audience’s reaction.” The day after Lubyantsev's “defeat” he received an invitation from Gergiev to appear in the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theater.

The Russian critics present initiated a “Critics’ Prize.” Although unsuccessful in their bid to have the prize officially sanctioned by the organizing committee, the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation for Cultural Initiatives sponsored the award. The award was in recognition of “clear artistic individuality and a fresh approach to the art of performing” and limited only to the piano competition. Twenty-four professional music critics voted and Lubyantsev won with 58.33% of the votes.

Within several days of the Tchaikovsky Competition's end, he debuted with the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater in a concert conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, and shortly after performed Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no. 3 with the National Philharmonic of Russia under the baton of Vladimir Spivakov in the festival Vladimir Spivakov Invites. He toured Japan with the National Symphony Orchestra of Belarus, playing Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1 and Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no. 3. He has continued to appear in the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theater and in the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Hall. In this hall he substituted for pianist Boris Berezovsky on two hours’ notice in July 2015. His U.S. debut in 2014 with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra received highly positive reviews. In 2019 he performed at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany.

One can hear that he is unusual; yet, he is not extravagant. He doesn’t buy off the audience with affectations or mannerisms, or with some kind of special intellectualism. His unique and particular approach to music is completely honest and in some senses naïve and simple; however, intellect is quite present in his playing. He hasn’t grown out of a rejection of the tradition; rather, one finds him in a very deep and heated dialogue with it, and one can hear this. He possesses an extraordinary gift to take the audience along as his accomplice, not bribing them, not conquering them, but rather leading them until suddenly the whole hall has become his accomplice in a tale of his rapport with Chopin, or with Scriabin.

The hall immediately fell in love with this delicate, young man, who lacked the affectations of a hardened performer, calling him an ‘an angel.’… Lubyantsev was one of the most unusual pianists of the competition, and he became its revelation and discovery…Lubyantsev is principally a re-transmitter of feelings about which we, in our cruel age, have even forgotten to think[…]

In 2011 he returned to compete in the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition. Evidently remembering him from the previous edition, the audience greeted him with a standing ovation upon his first entrance on stage, and after his first-round performance called him back for three bows. Russian daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta commented that from the beginning “the crowd effectively greeted him as the victor.” Asked about the enthusiasm the public showed him at the outset, Lubyantsev answered: “It was very pleasing and very unexpected for me, and so it was surprisingly easy to play freely, despite the fact that I had gotten sick several days before.”

Regarding his decision to compete in the 2011 competition and its outcome, Lubyantsev commented in an interview: “Before the competition I thought a lot about whether it makes sense to go or not. The last time I got a prize, and it would be horrible to throw it all away. And, in the end, that’s what happened: I lost. But, on the other hand, the number of invitations I’ve received now are three-hundred times greater than after the previous [Tchaikovsky] competition.” In another interview he stated: “Everything that happened at this contest became the culminating moment of my life. When I decided to participate in the eliminatory round, I didn’t know if it would have significance for me or not. It could have ended up having no significance, but it turned out to be the opposite.”

In 2007, he was awarded third prize at the XIII International Tchaikovsky Competition. No first prize was awarded. He was twenty years old at the time.

Despite his enthusiastic comment about Lubyantsev following the 2007 Tchaikovsky Competition, Dmitri Bashkirov, in a radio interview after the 2011 competition, was more cautious. Although he concurred that Lubyantsev is “incredibly talented” and “incredibly original,” he feared the limitations that may be caused by Lubyantsev's “stubbornness” as regards the “theatrical nature” of interpreting various roles in music. Nonetheless, he concluded: “[Lubyantsev] is an incredibly interesting personality and I understand the audience’s enthusiasm, but truth is worth more.”

At age 8 he first won a piano competition and over the next years he went on to win over twelve prizes. At age 17 he took fifth prize at the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition, where he also received two Special Prizes: one for the “Best Performance of a Study by Liszt” and one for the “Best Performance of a work by Liszt (excluding Studies).”

Alexander Mikhailovich Lubyantsev (Russian: Александр Михайлович Лубянцев, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lubiantsev, also transliterated Lubiantcev, born 27 December 1986) is a Russian pianist and composer. He is a laureate of the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition and the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Competition, at which he received the bronze medal, no gold awarded, and has also been a prizewinner in over ten other piano competitions. His performance at the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition and the ensuing events are also quite significant.

Alexander Lubyantsev was born 1986 in the village of Roschino (Leningrad Region), Russia, where his father was the director of a local music school. His mother and older siblings were pianists. After beginning to learn the piano from his mother at a very early age, he began to study in music schools in Saint Petersburg at age 5, and during childhood he began to perform in public.