“Competitions are always very nerve-wracking for me,” Vitaly Starikov tells Apple Music Classical, “but being on stage always brings me joy—music is the best thing that helps me overcome all the competitive emotions.” Born into a musical Russian family, Starikov’s musical talent was recognized from an early age—aged three, he was enrolled at a singing school. He took up piano at the age of five and two years later became a pupil at the Ural Musical School for Gifted Children in his native Yekaterinburg. Yet, by his own admission, Starikov was something of a late developer: it was only at the age of 13 that he became so obsessed by music that he finally decided on a career as a performer. Starikov enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory, where he began his studies under Vera Gornostayeva—just as one of her pupils, Vadym Kholodenko, won the 2013 Van Cliburn Competition. This inspired Starikov with a dream that he, too, would at some point take part in that competition. Twelve years later, by now a student of Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music, Starikov reached the semifinals of the 2025 Van Cliburn competition. Having reached this stage of the competition, the pianist remains sanguine: “I always follow the rule: don’t expect much,” he says, “but prepare as if it’s the last performance of your life.” Starikov put a lot of thought into the program of his semifinal recital: “I decided to shape the programme as a full recital,” he explains, “with a kind of intermission between two large cycles. Initially, it was hard to find something that could serve as a suitable addition to Chopin’s Op. 25 Etudes because of the great complexity of the piece, but Prokofiev’s Seventh became a very good fit. This sonata also speaks about everything the Chopin cycle does, but in a different vocabulary.” Indeed, the Prokofiev provided a striking climax to Starikov’s program, the audience clearly stirred by his performance as it united musicality with precision even through the sonata’s ferocious demands. He also gave sparkle to Chopin’s brilliant Etudes, Op. 25. Between the two works, Starikov offered a highly apt choice of Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s soulful song “Du bist die Ruh,” which he describes as “a beautiful bridge between apocalyptic Chopin and inhuman Prokofiev. Like an exquisite flower between two abysses.”