Win the Chopin? Then spend the cash on a shrink
Daily Comfort ZoneI have just caught up with ‘Pianoforte’, Jakub Piatek’s brilliant documentary on the 2020 Chopin International Competition, held in Warsaw in 2021.
The 80-minute film keyholes contestants as they walk a tightrope between aspiration and insanity, some of them shadowed by their controlling teachers even as they sleep, or go to the bathroom.
One sensible Pole walked away from the second round. An articulate Italian dreamed of zombies. Another Italian, Leonora Armellini from Padua, advised anyone winning the competition to spend the 40,000 Euros prize money immediately on psycotherapy.
As Bartok said, competitions are for horses. Not for people.
Little did he know in this day and age, an era of violent wokism, people have the right to self-identify as a horse if they wish.
They can even pick a pronoun to suit.
So play (neigh) on…
What on earth are you babbling on about…is that the only thing you can think of these days? Stop and appreciate the beauty in the world. I suggest you step out of your house, away from your screen, and actually start interacting with people so that you don’t get engulfed in this fabricated political battle that only benefits those who wish to gain power.
Great idea David…until I leave the house and realise there are people out there like you.
What does it affect you what people want to call themselves anyway?
I’d blame the controlling teachers and parents. But, competitions can be fun actually
Wasn’t it Pogorelic who married his teacher immediately afterwards?
No, that was Macron.
There are also audience members who seek therapeutic help before, during and after the competition, because of the raised intensity of the music unfer the burden of so much neurosis.
For decades the same complaints about the competitions and still no other suggestions replacing the competitions with…what exactly? How will you give these many young and upcoming artists the same platform of visibility to give them a shot/a start for a career? If you cannot, then it is just baseless idealism, empty romanticism. You know what is the reality? The last Chopin competition’s winners gala was watched by around half million people in YouTube live and the whole competition around 5 million views or something. For me that means, not only winner or finalists but participants get a good visibility from online broadcast. It might not lead anywhere but at least they have a shot to present themselves. With this over saturated market, that means something at least. Because with online competition broadcasting, without winning, one can even have an opportunity to show themselves to an audience that doesn’t know them previously. Which other classical music events (not competition) gather these kind of audience? Will you give them the same exposure at another platform in a different structure? Great then, let’s see it!
From what I saw, some of the pressure from teachers was tantamount to child abuse, seeing as they’d taught these youngsters from an early age – the Russian girl in particular. Yes performers need exposure, and exposure to the pressures of professional performance, but there are surely better and more imaginative ways particularly in the modern world of online video. Not to mention that it’s invidious to decide between two or more performers who just have different styles.