Agence France Presse
June 30, 2011 Thursday 7:56 PM GMT
Tchaikovsky competition ends in Cold War era scandal
MOSCOW, June 30 2011
The classic music competition bearing the name of Tchaikovsky and made
famous by the young Van Cliburn ended in scandal Thursday befitting
its storied Cold War era past.
The prestigious piano prize at the quadrennial event went to Russia’s
Daniil Trifonov, while the violin award was kept by the judges after
both the local entry and an Israeli candidate were deemed to be only
worthy of joint second.
“We can all call the 14th International Tchaikovsky Competition a
success,” Russia Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev told the award
ceremony.
“This was a grand celebration for all music lovers.”
The Moscow Conservatory grounds have been home to intrigue since the
inaugural grand prize went to the young US pianist Van Cliburn in 1958
— a decision so stunning it had to be approved by Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev.
Soviet legend says that the imposing figure asked the quivering head
of the Tchaikovsky jury if Cliburn was really the best man. A nod in
the affirmative drew the gruff Khrushchev response: “Then give him the
prize.”
The Soviet Union’s perception of its cultural supremacy was restored
at subsequent competitions and most of the prizes have since gone to
local stars.
Trifonov was born in the central Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod in
1991 and studied at the renowned Moscow Gnessin Special Music School.
His personal biography say he also composes piano and orchestra music.
The cello award went to Armenia’s Narek Hakhnazaryan while voice was
won by two South Koreans — Sun Young Seo for women and Jong Min Park
for the men.
But the awards ceremony was preceded by two weeks of competition
during which some of the biggest names got axed by a jury that faced
criticism not only from music critics but even the government’s main
newspaper.
“In almost every category, all the bright personalities were
eliminated by the third round,” the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily said.
“By tradition, the judges’ decisions were the most widely-debated part
of the whole competition.”
Organisers have dismissed all criticism and boasted that the event was
only gaining in significance because its performances could now be
watched online for the first time.
The final ceremony was expected to watched by up to a million people online.
Some critics however think the grand event may hold more sentimental
value for the nation than it does relevance for the international
music community as a whole.
“The Tchaikovsky competition is our everything. More than simply a
contest between musicians, more than just one of the main brands of
Soviet culture,” Kommersant daily music critic Dmitry Renansky wrote
on the Openspace.ru website.
“In the Soviet Union, the Tchaikovsky competition was an oasis of
liberalism and free thinking, even if it was controlled. Where else
could people openly say that foreigners were better than Soviet
citizens?”
But he lamented that today’s Tchaikovsky judges still clung to
romantic traditions favoured in bygone eras while refusing to accept
the more contemporary interpretations sparking interest in the West.
“At the Tchaikovsky competition, what was always valued the most was
the grand concert style — pompous, large-scale and solid as
reinforced concrete.
“At the start of the 21st century, completely different aesthetics are
running the show.”
From: Baghdasarian