More shenanigans alleged at the Solti
mainOne of the competitors at the Georg Solti Conducting Competition has been in touch to suggest that the results were heavily pressured by a single jury member.
None of the top three finishers expected the Venezuelan José Luis Gomez Rios, 32, to win – and that includes Rios himself. He had booked a flight home after the second round, thinking he had done poorly. He is less experienced than Kevin Griffiths, 32, and Tito Munoz, 27.
Much of the discussion in the jury room centred on the illegitimate rule-bending that allowed Aziz Shokhakimov into the second round without having competed in the first. Other jurors included Sir Roger Norrington, the composer Matthias Pintscher and Lady Solti
No one is willing to point fingers, but there are serious questions to be answered and the man who needs to answer them is Karl Rarichs, the competition’s founder and director (below). Meantime, honest young conductors are flying home claiming they were robbed.
photo: Renate Feyerbacher/Frankfurt-Live
Lady Solti was not in attendance this year. She was ill and cancelled her appearance on doctor’s orders.
Dear Sir,
First of all, I would like to say, since I am being mentioned, specially about my “booked flight”, I ignore how gave this information but I´m so sorry to say that this famous ticket had been booked since one month before the competition, on September 10th to changing it back or forward if different things happens, because being in a competition means that you never know what it is going to happen. Actually I am very much satisfied on my first,second and third round! but this is my personal opinion. But hey, it´s a competition, I never expected anything, I do not expect anything, I just enjoy everything I do. This is the only truth. If you have anymore questions please contact me, I´m fine answering everything. But don’t make more unnecessary polemic.
NL replies:
Dear Jose Luis
Very nice to hear from you and congratulations on your victory. Do give us your opinion of the free pass candidate in the second round.
best wishes
NL