Russia is going ahead with 2023 Tchaikovsky Competition

Russia is going ahead with 2023 Tchaikovsky Competition

News

norman lebrecht

February 08, 2023

It was announced tonight that the 17th International Tchaikovsky Competition will be held from June 19 to July 1 in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

It is assumed the the head of the organising committee is Valery Gergiev.

The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation has posted details on its website.

However, Russia was expelled in April 2022 from the World Federation of International Music Competitions and the likelihood of attracting independent contestants and judges from abroad is very small indeed.

President Putin takes a personal interest in the outcome.

Comments

  • I beg your pardon says:

    Bravo! Music should, and always will triumph over politics!

    Doesn’t matter if it’s been kicked out of WFIMC. It still remains a member of the equally (or more) respectable Alink Argerich Foundation, whose morals about keeping politics and music separate are of paramount integrity and importance in today’s day and age.

    A competition going since 1958 without fail, despite Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan in the 80s.

    Pretty sure many good musicians, who love Russian music and hate Putin, will still participate from all over the world.

    Look forward to watching the live-stream from London.

    • andrey says:

      It seems like you should indeed ‘beg your pardon’ as your world view is child-like to say the least.

    • Robert Hairgrove says:

      What non-Russian musician will want to have on their résumé that they won the Tchaikovsky competition in 2023, though?

      Something to think about…

      • I beg your pardon says:

        Thought about it…and the answer is: any great young musician who cares about music and is intelligent enough to disassociate war with the language of music.

    • Petros Linardos says:

      Your analogy with the 1980s is hard to question. And yet I cannot imagine how we could see a new Van Cliburn, John Ogdon, Peter Donohoe or Daniil Trifonov emerge from 2023 Tchaikovsky competition.

      • I beg your pardon says:

        Well, maybe wait and find out. Things are more optimistic when you judge them purely on musical merit, as you should, rather than for other reasons.

    • Robert Holmén says:

      Contrary to the above claim, the Tchaikovsky Competition has been interrupted.

      The expected 2006 edition had to be scrapped, due to the general inability of the relevant authorities to look ahead on a calendar, and rescheduled for 2007.

  • Will Wilkin says:

    Everything Russian makes me sick. I don’t like Tchaikovsky anymore.

    • K. Jones says:

      The Russian leadership makes me sick. Putin’s beepshow has nothing to do with the Russian people or Maestro Tchaikovsky who is long dead. Evil leaders come and go. The music of geniuses is peerless and timeless. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s decision is audacious and the height of pique and arrogance, but he, his life and times are finite. That fact gives me great comfort.

      • Tom Phillips says:

        Most Russian people think like he does and are in solid support of him.

      • Brettermeier says:

        “Putin’s beepshow has nothing to do with the Russian people”

        Erm. Do you have ANY idea what’s going on in fascist ruzzia?

        It’s not Putin’s shitshow, it’s ruzzia’s shitshow.

        Get your facts straight or TFO.

        • I beg your pardon says:

          No it’s not, it’s just Putin’s. The Russian people are fed controlled state television. If they knew what’s really going on they’d revolt.

          Get your own facts straight.

    • George says:

      How about your government? Are you OK with all of them? How about yourself? Looked at the mirror lately?

  • Dr Tara Wilson says:

    The issue of the jury will be an interesting one…

  • MacroV says:

    It is a fair point that perhaps people shouldn’t have gone to the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition, with the Afghanistan invasion still fairly recent and at its peak. But I suppose Russia disrupting the global order in a European country is just somehow worse. Nonetheless, I can’t see how any aspiring performer is going to see it as reputation-building to contest the event this year.

    • I beg your pardon says:

      Right. So the winner of Tchaikovsky 1982 was Peter Donohoe. Should we cancel him too?

      And since Britain invaded Iraq and Syria should we cancel the Leeds competition too?

      And are you insinuating that Ukraine is a more important country than Afghanistan, and thus the people in Ukraine matter more than Afghans?

      You see, your points can be debunked quite easily. Sorry.

    • Cheerio says:

      “Is just somehow bit worse” – is because it’s white people unlike Afghans, so that “somehow” is called racism. In the meantime enjoy the Fourth Reich coming your way, or as Klaus Schwab prefers to call it the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

  • Margaret Koscielny says:

    Pianists competed during other brutal regimes. What short historical memories we have, remember the invasion of Afghanistan?
    And all the repression of the Soviet years before the fall of the Soviet Union??????
    Let the pianists compete. Music trumps despots. Music is more powerful than politics.

  • Nathaniel Rosen says:

    I am eager to read what Norman has to say about the jury members, whose names have been published and are available online.

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