Spanish practices: Cordoba posts dumb defence of bad Competition
mainThe lamentable state of the so-called international conductors competition in Cordoba, which we exposed yesterday, has been defended by the orchestra in a letter to local media.
Its argument, apparently compiled by lawyers, states that the orchestra was not obliged to present a full jury at the early rounds. All it needed was the principal conductor (Lorenzo Ramos) and a few principal players to decide whether a candidate was worth advancing or not. Full defence here (in Spanish).
They may be within their rights to state that, but this is not a serious competition of international standard. Our complainant is a viola player in a London orchestra. He knows how professional conductors and players are meant to behave. Readers are strongly advised to avoid the Cordoba contest.
Completely unfair. A music competition can only be fair if ALL the judges are present for ALL of the rounds. A competitor may be shaky in the early rounds and then steadily improve in later on, whereas another competitor may shine in earlier rounds and do poorly later on. So, unless you’ve been there from day one, you don’t have a handle on the complete picture.