Julian Lloyd Webber has earned himself a few headlines, declaring that ‘most’ music contests are corrupt.

He brings no new evidence, citing only the Tchaikovsky competition in the Soviet and post-Soviet years which was widely known to be fixed.

Slipped Disc has, from time to time, exposed corruption at competitions. We praised the last Tchaikovsky contest, as it happens, for its admirable transparency and for the calibre of its winners.

The troubling question is: why does anyone take competitions seriously? Most of these events are, as Julian says, rigged by teachers and other special-interest jury members. They are a breeding-ground for cynicism and bad ethics.

The reason die their persistence is, we think, quite simple. The whole world knows that the International Olympics Committee and Fifa are two of the most corrupt organisations on earth, a self-perpetuating pair of conspiracies of time-servers and bribe-takers. So why are they not abolished?

Because every four years they put on a brilliant show – the Olympics and the World Cup – a pair of shows the world and its media cannot do without. So we turn a blind eye to blue murder in the interest of passive pleasure.

That is not – quite obviously – the case with music competitions, which are often duller than betting on flies crawling up a window. But every now and then one of them produces a Trifonov or a Giltburg and the moral outrage is set aside.

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We wish Julian’s outcry would make a difference but, given the lack of concrete evidence and the general indifference, it won’t.

UPDATE: Here’s another reason why it won’t.

 

Dear Carlo thank you so much for your wonderful voice, talent and career !!! You have always inspired me and many other artists. as well as moved so many audiences. A great Verdian tenor. One of the best has left us but his legacy remains in innumerable recordings … Addio Carlo ! Placido.

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I met the great tenor once, by chance.

It was late in the year 2000, and I was doing a recce of Verdi’s hangouts in the Parma region, ahead of the centennial year of the composer’s death. Late in the day, we drove into Busseto, the little village where he was born.

Not much to see on a misty November afternoon and nowhere to hang out. The cafe was open and a small knot of seniors were clustered around a table. One of them waved an arm, calling us over. Where from? London. What doing? Verdi pilgrimage. Why? Newspaper article. Big, beaming smile.

‘I am Carlo Bergonzi,’ announced the legend, ordering coffees all round.

He could not stay more than a few minutes as there was a pupil waiting for a lesson, but in those few minutes he offered reminiscences, requested updates on the state of Covent Garden and volunteered a few pearls of vocal wisdom.

Priceless moments, unforgettable.

Carlo Bergonzi died on Friday night, aged 90. bergonzi2

The Metropolitan Opera has issued a 54-page rebuttal to the musician’s 84-page proposal for non-wage savings at the company.

Dumbly, it has issued its refutations interwoven into the original document, which is now 138 pages long – so long that no-one with a life will ever read it.

Click here to see the monstrosity produced by Met management.

This was of words is being won by whoever has first say, not last.

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