SCHUMANN Allegro in b . RACHMANINOV Piano Sonato No. 1 . SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in a,  D 784 . CHOPIN Nocturne in c, op. 48/1 . Etude in b, op. 28 /10

...featuring the silver and bronze medal winners, Russian Yakov Kasman and Israeli Aviram Reichert, and you wonder what got into the Fort Worth water supply last spring.  While his liquid octaves and impassioned sweep in the Schumann solo movement are impressive, it is Yakov Kasman's jaw-dropping virtuosity, interpretive insight, and sheer stylistic panache in Rachmaninov's rarely heard Piano Sonata No. 1 that really grab the listener by the collar.  With such a searching, eloquent performance as this of an oddball work still widely regarded as a failure, it puts Rachmaninov's broadly conceived sonata, inspired by the Faust legend, into a whole new light.  With both outer movements running over 13 minutes and much thickly notated writing, this is hardly a  work that plays itself, but such is Kasman's performance that he has you convinced that the historically received critical raps are unfair.  Fully attuned to this moody, atmospheric music, the keen architectural sense, idiomatic flair, and bravura the Russian musician brings to this music  compel respect, and the multitude of notes at the first movements' climax is astonishing in its power and articulative clarity.  Yet Kasman is just as alive to the languid midnight mood of the central Lento -- Rachmaninov in one of his best lyrical inspirations -- and his wonderfully fluid and expressive playing is beyond reproach.  In the stormy concluding section, Kasman keeps a firm grasp on the sprawling structure, and, with a keen sense of forward-hurtling momentum, the coda is both eloquent and exhilarating.