COMPETITION REPORT

WHENGÉRARDBECKERMAN founded theInternational Competition

for Outstanding Piano Amateurs 23 yeari ago, he decided to keep it simple: that's! to say, an 'amateur' is defined as someonei not earning their living from playing thei piano. Ali sorts of circumstances mayi merit some form of codicil - someone ailj but a concert pianist at a conservatoire

may have opted to work for a bank afl:eri ail, for instance- but such circumstances! are too numerous to be dealt with ini any exhaustive manner. 50 the rubric fori candidature at the competition remains! simple to this day.i Beckerrnan is a professor of economiesi who has played concertos by Gershwini and Shostakovich in public and is! learning the Bach cycle; he runs the1 show, with hi wife in the back room.i Despite the presence of competitive1 éliminatoires, finals and a prize, he is

determined that the real winner of whathe caIls an 'an ti-competition' should bethe piano, its literature and the passionit provoke .

The competition is held in two venues:this year, in the Mairie du 16ième, thesort of grand town hall you'd expect inParis, with the final at the Salle Gaveau,a charmingly cosy 1,000-seater built justover a hundred year ago. A local firm,Hanlet, provided Steinways, while B PParibas provided cash. The first prize is€J,OOO and the winner is asked to play aconcerto in the autumn.

A few years ago 1heard every noteplayed at this event - from the 100candidates in the rwo days of prelims10 an hour) to the emi-finalists

(10playing for 15 minutes) and thefinalises (five for 30 minutes). This year,rwo-thirds of participants came fromrnarhernatical or scienrific disciplines,yielding for the final a fivesome devoid

70 1 Internarional Piano May/June 2012

of the humanities. Regrettably, as amember of the press jury, 1would havebeen refused entry before the finalhad Beckerman not kindly made anexception for me. Still, my recollection ofthe prelims is vivid. Before the slaughter,many entrants know they will notsurvive but have used the competitionas a benchmark of purpose in their lives.Here, teachers, policemen and lawyersare mown down along with accountantsand the rest, in what seems for man)' - ormost - the harrowing highlight of theiryear: a short stint before a rnainly e!derlyjury equipped with jotters, bordes ofwater, noisy biscuits - and a little bell tohait play.

True, J have heard somedisgruntlement about players rumouredto travel the world from one amateurcompetition to the next, which is hardlycricket, and sometirnes mildly miffedastonishment at the unexpected level

lN NUMBERS23 NUMBER OF YEARSthe competition has beenrunnlng

3,000 NUMBER OFEUROS Dominic Piers Smithscooped ln prize money,sponsored by Flora Stafford

2 NUMBER OF VENUESwhere the competitiontakes place: the Mairie du161ème and the Salle Gaveau

5 HUMBER OF FINAUSTS...............................................................3NUMBER OFAPPEARANCES that thewlnner has so far beenasked to makej Smith willperform at the FlâneriesMusicales de Reims on 6July and Pontlevoy Festivalon 3 August this year. He15also scheduled to playRavel's Concerto ln G wlththe Orchestre Symphoniquede la Garde Républicaine

of the best player . But on the whole,mu ical spirit win through. Beckermani also proud of the fan thar quite afew enter the ompetition more thanonce, as if to catch the rnood of ir, beforethey eventually progre s to a final oreven ro win.

At the top of the ranks, the techniquesdisplayed can be quite extraordinary:you'lI find you know professionalpiani ts with scarcely superiortechnique, who probably practise leThi year's suave winner, EnglishmanDominic Piers mith, seems to haveinterrupted hi vocation as a trainedconcert pianist for the day job, whichhappen to be head of design for aworld champion's racing car. He playeda well-calibrated, Aowing programmeof Prokofiev, Liszt and Granados; helooked the part, sounded the part,and rook ail the prizes: jury, pressjury and public. And deservedly so:for my money, he wa the only finalistwho eerned to want to uuly sharethe music.

That, of course, is where a'professional has learnt a trick or twothat your ordinary amateur may nothave thought of: presentation andstage presence. The Russian EugèneLitvinenko, a shy student of statisticsFrom Moscow, played with no lesstechnique and a shade more heart andcharm. However, he could not face hisaudience and adju ted his hands andhanky endlessly before launchinginto the music. 1did 0 feel for himas he made sense of sorne bitry Scriabinand of sorne evocative, occasionallymoody Milhaud.

Although it is most likely now acliché to expect heartless bravura Fromthe Orient, the specifies here did liveup to the generalisation. A swash-buckling account of Ravel's La Valseby Canadian-Chinese Ricker Choifrom Hong Kong, full of nipping andrucking dynamics and mi chievouspauses, was played with such relentlesspanache that in his final Aourish henearly Aung himselffrom the stageinto the fauteuils. till, whatever wasmissing was noted and he came third,which l'm sure he did not expect.Perhap he was a shade smug, but if

my rime wa spent a a financialrisk analyst and 1could rartle off theRavel riskle sly in the evening, l'd besmug too.

TTHEOTHER END OF thescale was Amber Glynn, onceemployed by a London football

club but now at the Sydney StockExchange. Depending on your take,she displayed either dysfunctionalstage presence or what Beethovenwould have terrned 'Innigkeit - apt,ince she chose lare Beethoven onatas

a her big pieceHere, tO me, was the finest display of

the true meaning of that crucial word'amateur' (for the French, the sense of'love of is far stronger than rhe Englishtendency tOsuggest a sharnbles). Sheplayed two carlatti sonatas and - havingoffered Op 110 in the semis - Op 109.

The French despite - or because of?- the precedent of the like of MarcelleMeyer (who gave the first ail-Debussyrecital here in the aile Gaveau), didnot go for this old-fashioned Scarlatti,which was exquisitely graded in pace andphrasing and varied in colour. Yes,Glynnused the pedal - but she did so deA.ly.lnher Beethoven, despite making a discreersign of the cross before beginning, shehad to survive three memory lapse ,but did 0 deA::lyenough. It made methink thar amateurs should have noqualms about having the music onthe stand (as viatoslav Richter did onoccasion, for instance) since the knack ofmemori ing may be more of a disuacrionin your srudying than sheet music is inperformance.

More to the point, Glynn offeredan entropie interpretation of the firstmovement thar created a thoughtfulmirror-image of the ever busier finalvariations. Here was omeone who lovethis mu ic - and it's real music, a summitin the range of ail music, never mind atricky enough passage in the Aashypianorepertoire - and whose vital, personalrelationship with it was manifest beforeus. Surprisingly, she came la t.•Applications are nota open for the 24t"lntemational Competition for OutstandingPiano Amateurs, to be held in Paris ÙI

March 2013 / u/uno.pianoamateurs.com

iv'a\ l.r (0 2e L International Piano 7: