Paul Lewis to chair Van Cliburn, Gabi Montero to set tough test
NewsThe Liverpool pianist Paul Lewis has been appointed chair of the jury of the 2025 Van Cliburn Competition. The complete panel reads:
Paul Lewis, jury chairman (Ireland/UK), Rico Gulda (Austria), Andreas Haefliger (Switzerland), Mari Kodama (Japan/US), Gabriela Montero (Venezuela/US), Jon Nakamatsu (US), Lise de la Salle (France), Yevgeny Sudbin (UK), and Wu Han (China Taiwan/US).
In addition to serving on the jury, Gabriela Montero has been commissioned to compose a new work for the 2025 Cliburn Competition, to be performed by all 30 competitors.
Good grief….another competition? Haven’t we just had one already?
Too many ‘amazing pianists’ being churned out by these events these days, like industrial soap. Except here there is room and no demand for them all.
How about a blanket ban on competitions for the next ten years. The market is far too saturated as it is.
Eh, audiences like them and they’re a chance for kids to play before the public and maybe win a little money. No one thinks they actually launch careers anymore. I’m not sure they ever should have done. I don’t see any reason to hate on them.
This one won’t happen until 2025. Great jury chair, fine jury.
i could’t agree more. it seems that the competitions do a lot more for the organisers than the hopefuls. i attend hundreds of concerts, and with 1 or 2 exceptions, cannot name one single winner of a major so called competition. ban for 10 years? how about a permanent ban? think of the golden age of musicians. not one entered or won anything, because there weren’t any. did toscanini enter? rachmaninoff? menuhin? heifetz? rubinstein? horowitz? caruso? pavarotti? it’s quite a huge list. worth thinking about. i’d vote for a permanent ban. would you? as bartok rightly said, competitions are for animals, not people.
Arthur Rubinstein entered the Anton Rubinstein competition in St. Petersburg in 1910, and he lost – to German pianist Alfred Hohen.
Don’t get your knickers in a twist. Too many amazing pianists? How many Yunchan Lim’s have you heard in the last 50 years??? Finally a competition has come up with a once-in-a-generation talent – of which there are only a few such in a century, so let’s be grateful.
How many? About 50. Hardly once in a generation. And for the record, Yunchan indeed has some rather nice qualities as a player, but needs to grow. A lot. He’s not really ready for the top tier concert platform.
His Rach 3 in Cliburn was far too fast, and rushed – a poor sense or artistic judgement. His Liszt Transcendental etudes, despite his lack of wrong notes, requires more moments of respite, space and introspection. It was all a tad technical for the sake of technical, and manufactured.
He has a long, long way to go. Therefore, we don’t need any more competitions churning out these so called geniuses.
So sorry to have to bring you down several notches, but you’ve taken your ability to evaluate talent far too seriously. You have NOT heard 50 young pianists on the level of Yunchan, because one would need to look back to Ashkenazy, Pollini, Argerich or Kissin to find pianists of comparable ability. And rest assured they also played everything too fast at 18 (in fact Martha still does). Nobody said Yunchan is a finished product – of course he needs to grow and we will all have the joy of witnessing his growth. But with your sourpuss outlook, no doubt the 18 year old Horowitz or Rubinstein would have disappointed you. You probably would have exited Horowitz’s Carnegie Hall debut in disgust because he finished the Tchaikovsky concerto before the orchestra did. So you found Yunchan’s Rach #3 too fast? Well, no s**t Sherlock! But those of us attuned to his phenomenal gift know that he’ll get his skill set under control in good time, and we’re set to enjoy the fruits of his labors. Too bad short-sighted snobs like you will miss out.
Nothing wrong with competitions (piano yes- conducting not so sure) per say. Its for the very reason you give ‘Observing’- the market is ‘saturated’ that talented young players- who’ve worked very hard on their instruments & achieved a certain mastery, can have a platform to play & be recognized which they otherwise might not have. On a different note- & the purpose of the post. Paul Lewis- a good & solid professional pianist- but hardly a world class dazzler. The Chairman of a competition as prestigious as the Cliburn- not so sure.
Given the way careers start and if they have sustaining longevity, there are specific thoughts I have for competitions and post competition design for the pianists – win or lose. Much of it has to do with repertoire for the competition. If called upon to serve on a competition jury or artistic advisory, happy to help create a new model. The old model might not sustain what the old goals strived for. Things don’t have to change, they need to evolve.
Wu Han (China Taiwan/US) Too much politics in this selection.
Kudos to Mr. Lewis and Ms. Montero. Two very fine pianists who do not get nearly enough media attention.
Montero is a skilled composer and improviser. I’m interested to see what she cooks up!