All-Asian final at Bonn’s Beethoven contest
mainThe International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn has selected three pianists for the final.
They are Cunmo Yin (China), Shihyin Lee (South Korea, pictured) and Yuto Takezawa (Japan).
The jury is chaired by Pavel Gililov, who has form.
None of the finalists appears yet, however, to be his pupil.
Good! The lesson of Paderewski competition works.
Let them play behind a curtain, Mr. Lebrecht. At least in your headlines.
Let‘s be consistent.
So, for once, this was achieved by pure meritocracy, with: 1) no racial/gender affirmative action, 2) no coach/insider favoritism, and 3) no sleeping their way to the top?
I take it as the sincerest form of flattery that vast millions in the Asian subcontinent – and its European-bound diaspora – want to adopt our western classical tradition. This fact speaks volumes about the quality of that magnificent legacy!!
It’s as if you wrote all the music yourself!
Worth pointing out that the vast majority of the composers and the music which is now held up by Europeans to represent their culture were/was derided and hated by their audiences at the time. And indeed those composers were often extremely individual and their values and artistic leanings stood against the cultural, social and political backdrop of their age – and certainly against the cultural, social and political backdrop of our own age.
But Ok boomer.
Can I get a “politics should be left out of music”, Sue?
I think most of what you wrote is simply wrong.
You’re probably right… Bach was universally accepted in his time… and Beethoven… and Mahler… and Stravinsky… and Bartok etc etc etc… none of these folks were ever criticised or wrote music that went directly against the grain…
Gordon writes: “the vast majority of the composers and the music which is now held up by Europeans to represent their culture were/was derided and hated by their audiences at the time”
This is nonsense.