Judge’s student wins Bartók Competition
mainCosima Soulez Lariviere, who holds French and Dutch nationality, won first prize in the Bartók violin competition last night, emerging from a semi-final round in which all the winners were connected to members of the jury.
Cosima Soulez Lariviere, who is 21 and lives in London, is a student of juror Krzysztof Wegrzyn.
She wins 22,000 Euros and a host of performances, including an appearance at the next Budapest Spring Festival.
==which all the winners were connected to members of the jury.
But if you have contestants and jurors all of very high quality, OF COURSE there are going to be connections, It’s a small world and there are always going to have been masterclasses and lessons given. I can’t see the issue.
There is a big difference between masterclasses and being a true student, with one on one lessons. If a competitor is being mentored by a jurist, that judge must recuse themselves from the final round.
At the just concluded competition in Besancon, two of the twenty contestants listed me as having attended a master class. I did not remember either of them.
And yes, there are competitions that are fair.
Is there still a competition which is “clean”?
I hardly read about a real talented winner… I hardly read words about the music! …always just connections with teachers or lobbies.
So many talented musicians who face all the time that the music is one of the less impprtant thing and those conducting competition (Solti in Budapest full of Eötvös’ masterclasses participants… Fitelberg Competition with Panula in the Jury… the one in Bucharest and in Matera connected to a mastercalss) which should put a light on the “maestros” of the next generation… are you kidding me??
What a happy coincidence.
+1
Did Bartok not say ‘Competitions are for horses’?
That was after he came second after Backhaus.
And second place was Takaki Ririko who is a full time student of juror Takashi Shimizu. Many better players were eliminated one by one until the Grand Finals which basically had two juror students going head to head, and a Hungarian player thrown in for good measure. Would have loved to see the final showdown between the two crooked jurors. Apparently, Krzysztof Wegrzyn came out on top.
Were they worthy of top prizes? Perhaps contestants should play behind a screen to avoid favoritism. Who knows what factors are at play in competitions and who knows what the future holds for top prize winners: oblivion in a few short years or well-deserved fame and recognition? Look what happened in Moscow with Lucas Debargue, who came in fourth but eclipsed all the others.