The 26 musicians who made it through the first round of the 13th Dublin International Piano Competition are about to compete in the quarter-finals. By next week just three will remain, to contest the final at the National Concert Hall on Friday, May 16th. They’ll be judged by a seven-strong jury chaired by the Irish pianist Finghin Collins. Four of the judges talk about their roles.
Anne-Marie McDermott
Winner, Young Concert Artists auditions, New York; artistic director/curator of festivals in Colorado, Florida, Oklahoma and San Diego
Who was the first competition winner to make an impression on you?
Ivo Pogorelich was quite striking to me at the time. It was a long time ago, at the Chopin Competition where Martha Argerich walked off the jury when Pogorelich was eliminated. It was a very dramatic story at the time. But maybe even before that Van Cliburn at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
What was your first full encounter with a piano competition?
When I was on the jury of the Cliburn competition in 2017. I had judged some smaller competitions but nothing of that magnitude. And then I was fortunate enough to be on the jury of the Dublin competition in 2022.
What are piano competitions for?
Whether you win or not, it’s a great way for people to become aware of you. I think it’s a great motivator to really push yourself as a young player to get a lot of repertoire to the highest level. Every jury is different. Music is subjective, and there’s never any guarantee.
Do juries get it right?
It really is all dependent on the jury that is put together – who the people are, and what aesthetic those jury members have. That’s critical.
Do the audiences always get it right?
I feel in general that audiences can recognise great over good.
What makes a great winner?
To me, what makes a great winner is a great musician where their whole focus is about being a great musician, not having a great career. To do that you need to, foremost, have such a passion and a dedication to the art form.
Noriko Ogawa
Third prize, Leeds International Piano Competition 1987; professor of piano at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London
Who was the first competition winner to make an impression on you?
Probably Maurizio Pollini, though at first I didn’t know him as a winner. I only knew him as a pianist, with this kind of immaculate technical ability and precision in performances which were also full of insight.
What was your first full encounter with a piano competition?
I entered the Japanese national student competition’s primary-school edition, and I won the first prize. I was pretty lighthearted about it. My teacher had very casually said, ‘Why don’t you enter it?’ and I said yeah. But when the preparation started my teacher became such hard work. So although I won the first prize, the memory became really quite negative.
What are piano competitions for?
Piano competitions are for pianists who don’t have useful connections yet. There are some fortunate people, like the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who are recognised early by very big names, and then their career is pushed forward. Most of us don’t have those connections, and competitions are very useful for reaching the public and all kinds of people in the music business.
Do juries get it right?
The pianists are young, and there are many years after the competition is over. They might survive for 40 years or not, but we can only adjudicate on what they show us. Some winners survive for a very, very long time. Sometimes lower-ranking pianists do better in the real world.
Do the audiences always get it right?
I cannot use the word “always”. But at the end of the day we have to choose a pianist that you would pay to hear again. So an audience prize does say a lot, I think.
What makes a great winner?
Most of them are perfect technically. Nowadays the kind of ability Pollini had has become almost normal. But on the other hand there are some pianists who sound a bit digital to me; the dynamic range is a bit narrower; and although the musical expression seems correct, it doesn’t sound like it’s coming from the heart.
If you could change one thing about piano competitions, what would it be?
Maybe even more freedom for repertoire, that kind of thing.
Michel Béroff
Winner, Olivier Messiaen Piano Competition; professor emeritus at Paris Conservatory; also active as a conductor
Who was the first competition winner to make an impression on you?
When I was really young, Jean-Bernard Pommier, who was a student of my teacher Pierre Sancan, went to Moscow, to the Tchaikovsky competition. He didn’t get the first prize, but Khrushchev liked very much his Mozart and Shchedrin and gave him a kiss. He was as famous as if he won the competition.
What was your first full encounter with a piano competition?
I wasn’t much involved in competitions. I just did one, which I won, the Olivier Messiaen competition for contemporary music. I met Olivier in 1961, when I was 11, and played some of his music for him. In the competition I played a lot of Messiaen, Boulez, Stockhausen, Berio, plus some Bartók. I was 17 at that time. It was really nothing special. I was just playing some repertoire, and going to a competition didn’t mean so much. I don’t think I became more nervous playing for the jury. Now, as a jury member, I feel terrible for those poor kids who are playing in front of a jury.
What are piano competitions for?
It is a way of getting some attention. Maybe 20, 40, 50 years ago it was something which was quite big. Today there are so many competitions, it’s like a sports thing – which has nothing to do with music, because music has nothing to do with competition.
Do juries get it right?
Since nothing is right, nothing is wrong. Everything is subjective. I remember once I was with Robert Levin on a jury. And after the result of the first stage, there is always a jury member who says, “Oh, I have all the names, I have all the names.” So he said, “If you have all the names we don’t need you, because we want people with different opinions.”
Do the audiences always get it right?
In the short term audiences are wrong, but in the long term they’re always right.
What makes a great winner?
A winner is just a great musician, making music not for his ego but just to be humble and to know he is playing the pieces of some geniuses. That’s the responsibility. Even if everything is subjective, you have to have to try to transmit as much as you can while being transparent.
If you could change one thing about piano competitions, what would it be?
That’s a really, really difficult question. Because you do have to have a winner.
Katie McGuinness
Chief artistic officer, Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Who was the first competition winner to make an impression on you?
The pianist who stands out is Daniil Trifonov. I saw him with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where I was working at the time. I have no doubt that he is the greatest living pianist. I think he is today’s Richter, Van Cliburn or Glenn Gould, without doubt. For me that was the moment where I was, like, ‘Okay, competitions actually can find outstanding, exceptional artists.’
What was your first full encounter with a piano competition?
The Dublin competition. I was born in 1983. The competition started in 1988. My mother took me to concerts at the National Concert Hall all through my childhood. When I was 12 I became a student of John O’Conor‘s. I feel like every time there’s been the Dublin International Piano Competition it’s had some part in my life. I’ve had friends who’ve competed in it. There are the people that open up their homes, their pianos, to competitors. They’re their family. They feed them. They make sure they’re sleeping. They give them a shoulder to cry on if they don’t get through. It was a life lesson for me, honestly, because now I see it in what I do today.
What are piano competitions for?
I have to steal a phrase from my teacher Emil Naumov. I’m paraphrasing. He said winning a competition can make you, show you off as a good pianist, but preparing for a competition is what makes you a great pianist. Competitions are for preparing works to as close to perfect as you can. It’s the preparation that makes the great pianist.
Do juries get it right?
I would say no if it weren’t for Daniil Trifonov. But maybe if he hadn’t won that competition [the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011], would we know who he is today?
Do the audiences get it right?
The audience will pick somebody that they love, and you can tell by their reaction. But there’s a caveat. They may not realise that they’re influenced by the concerto they’re hearing. And also they haven’t heard the playing at every round.
If you could change one thing about piano competitions, what would it be?
I would love there to be a round where we actually get to meet them as a person, because that’s so much part of the career as well.
The semi-finals of Dublin International Piano Competition are at the Royal Irish Academy of Music from Friday, May 9th, to Wednesday, May 14th; the final is at the National Concert Hall on Friday, May 16th. Since this article was written, Hugh Tinney has replaced Anne-Marie McDermott on the jury; the full panel also includes Piers Lane and Dénes Várjon
