The competition that collapsed in indecision

The ARD competition, Germany’s most-watched and prestigious music contest, fell to pieces last night.

In four categories – piano, violin, guitar and oboe – only one first prize was awarded.

In the other three categories, distinguished juries decided that no-one was a winner. In the oboe event, hopeful rumours of a first prize emerged from the jury room, only to be dashed by the wettest of washouts – the award of three second prizes, one for each finalist. A reminder of the old musical mnemonic, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.

This is a massive, collective failure of a competition. Judges who cannot reach a decision should not sit in judgement. Candidates who are not worthy of winning should not be passed into the finals. Competitions that yield no result should be scrapped.

The ARD competition, founded in 1952, has something of a reputation for withholding top honours, but this year’s results are a travesty. ARD boasted a record intake this year of 640 applications from 53 countries. Surely among the 640 there must have been more than one possible winner? Dozens of young musicians leave Munich, their dreams dashed, their morale crushed.

Here are the final results:

Violin:
1st Prize: not awarded
2nd: Sarah Christian (27), Germany
= 2nd: Andrea Obiso (23), Italy
3rd: Kristine Balanas (27), Latvia

Piano:
1st Prize: JeungBeum Son (26), South Korea

2nd: Fabian Müller (26), Germany
3rd: Wataru Hisasue (23), Japan

Guitar:
1st Prize: (not awarded)
2nd: Junhong Kuang (17), China
= 2nd: Davide Giovanni Tomasi (25), Italy
3rd: Andrey Lebedev (26), Australia

Oboe:
1st Prize: (not awarded)
2nd: Juliana Koch (29), Germany
= 2nd: Thomas Hutchinson (24), New Zealand
= 2nd: Kyeong Ham (24), South Korea