Who watched the Tchaikovsky Competition?

Who watched the Tchaikovsky Competition?

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norman lebrecht

July 06, 2015

We have the official statistics. More than 9 million people watched the Medici broadcasts worldwide.

Here’s the breakdown:

1. Russia: 29%

2. China & Taiwan: 14%

3. USA: 13%

4. Germany: 5%

5. France: 4%

6. Ukraine: 3%

7. Japan: 3%

8. South Korea: 3%

9. Canada: 3%

10. Spain: 2%

Rest of the world: 21%

putin tchaikovsky competition2

Comments

  • Jeffrey Levenson says:

    Medici does a great job — high production values – beautiful video and audio. Nice close ups of fingerboards, keyboards, bridges etc. What a pleasure to watch.

  • geoff.radnor@bell.net says:

    I am not sure just how many Canadians were entered but having 3% of viewers compared to those countries with multiple contestants, shows that we are interested in artists and musicians from wherever. Maybe they will emigrate here and we will be better off. Most top class Canadians go someplace else to earn a living, Philadelphia and London are prime examples. So we would welcome new young artists.

    • Peter Donohoe says:

      Dear Mr. Radnor, considering the comparitively small size of the Canadian population – particularly compared with USA – 3% is indeed a remarkable percentage, and one of which Canada should be proud.

      I speak here of the piano section of the competition, but I wish the above could have been reflected by a Canadian presence amongst the candidates. I may well be very wrong here, but I cannot think of a Canadian prize-winner since the wonderful André LaPlante won the Silver Medal in 1978.

      The British have not fared much better since Barry Douglas won the Gold Medal in 1986; this time round there was one Brit in the first round, and in 2011 none. I note with dismay that the interest shown by the UK in the Medici TV streaming lies buried in the 21% representing ‘the rest of the world’. What an indictment, given the excellence of British conservatories of music – inevitably catering to foreign students, given the much-needed income that may be generated by them (4X the amount generated by British ones).

      Similar numbers represented the USA, which, given the huge numbers of piano students in that country is inexplicable, although this time Mr. Reed Tetzlaff did make it to the semi-finals.

      This year Germany was represented by two pianists, one of whom was from a Chinese family, and the other from a Russian one.

      In the meantime, Russia, South Korea and China were massively represented in both competitions.

      These figures bother me, as they quite obviously reflect the cultural content of the respective countries’ education policies. Something needs to be done.

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