Thursday, August 24, 2017
The Gijón International Piano Festival takes over the entire coastal city of Gijón, with concerts in spectacular venues. The Smackdown was hosted in the Teatro de Laboral, a fascinating Mid-century palatial campus that also hosts the teaching and practicing during the festival. An enthusiastic audience greeted this very first Smackdown in Spain, and many of the results were very much in line with what one would expect - youth going for Prokofiev, women going for Debussy, etc. Very interestingly, the youngest listener (age 6) and the oldest listener (age 95) agreed - Debussy for all 4 rounds!
