The third prize went to Ivan Basic, who offers a more unhurried concerto op. 54 by Schumann with more attention to expressiveness. [...] Basic cloaks the orchestra with intentional glances and dance-like movements in his playing. He provides the audience with well-phrased melodies full of emotion and colour, just as those meditative walks across the meadow reflect the idea of the Romantic stroller that was so present in the lives of Clara and Robert Schumann. Written in 1845, the concerto leaves the hands of the Hungarian-Serbian pianist with presence and inspiration, and one can tell that he enjoys his gift, the music. The audience's recognition with the audience prize, which is also very valuable, falls on him.*

Estrella García López Ritmo.es 26.04.2023 (retrieved 24.06.2023)

 

A very different impression was left by Ivan Bašić, born in 1996, who interpreted Beethoven's Concerto op. 37 with great personality. There was a truly remarkable deepening of the text, on behalf of an eloquence that bordered perfection in the second movement, in terms of choice of tempi, sonority and successful integration with the orchestra. But the first movement was also impressive for the tempi, which were not rushed, and which were amply compensated for by the clarity of articulation (starting with the initial scales) and by an extremely personal dynamic at certain points, which was not mindless and indeed always matched a very precise notion of phrasing. Chapeau, not least because one does not often hear such an outstanding personality at a piano competition. [...] In addition to second place, Ivan Bašić also won the Critics' Jury Prize, the Chopin Prize and the Student Jury Prize, all of which were justified by the distinctive originality of interpretation displayed in this last piece in particular. Considering the many special prizes, it is not difficult to believe that the young Serbian pianist could even have won the competition with better concentration in the last part of his performance.*

Lorenzo Cannistrà OperaClick 15.10.2022 (retrieved 24.06.2023)

 

The encounter with the soloist took place in [Beethoven's] Third Piano Concerto Opus 37 in C minor (Beethoven's favourite key), composed in 1800, and with the young pianist Ivan Bašić, who is still in the process of expanding his knowledge in Switzerland, although I think (when I heard him in his first decade of life), that he is one of those artists endowed by God with a gift that he "only" amplifies with patient and devoted work, enormous talent, perseverance and an awareness of feeling the musical work from within and conveying to the listener all the subtleties it contains in the best possible way. He also emphasises dramatic accents and wide lyrical oases of the composition - he was particularly impressive in listening to and communicating with the flute and bassoon in an atmosphere of calm serenity, but also in a lively dialogue with the orchestra in the brilliant coda.*

Gordana Krajačić Blic - Serbian Daily Newspaper 01.03.2022

*The reviews are translated into English.