The Winners Return

In the first row of Severance Hall's dress circle last night, I asked the young women seated next to me, "Do you think she'll change her dress for the second half?"

Pianist Martina Filjak, the sultry Croatian beauty who won last year's Cleveland International Piano Competition, wore a sparkly, sculptural, strapless gown in the first half of last night's "Winners Return" concert. From our vantage point, it was difficult to tell whether the dress was beaded or whether the sparkle was embedded in the fabric. The color from that distance was debatable: Was it grey or silver?

But the clothes discussion was gravy. It's the music that galvanized everyone. Along with 2007 winner Alexander Ghindin, the two presented the kind of relaxed virtuoso performances that are riveting and fun.

Ghindin played Chopin's "Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise" along with Busoni's reworking of Liszt's "Fantasia on Two Themes from Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro.'" Filjak (pronounced FEEL-yak) performed Chopin's fourth ballade and Balakirev's "Islamey."

After intermission, Filjak changed gowns, and the performers together played selections from Rachmaninoff's first suite for two pianos, excerpts from William Bolcom's "Garden of Eden Ragtime Suite," and Gregory Stone's two-piano arrangement of Gershwin's "An American in Paris."

In contrast to Filjak's femme fatale, Ghindin (pronouned GEEN-deen), conceals a light sense of humor beneath his courtly, reserved manner. During a pause between movements, a cell phone went off, and after the second ring, Ghindin amusingly held his hand up to his ear, as if to signal that someone should get the phone. He also has a charmingly unassuming gait, as though he's a trench-coated detective in a Peter Sellers movie.

Filjak's second-half gown? A charmeuse v-neck sleveless number in a mysterious color: Navy? Eggplant? Smoke? We'll never know.