Top Piano Competitions

[dbrainiak914]

The World Piano Competition's going on right now here in Cincinnati... I'm hoping to go hear the semifinals today!   

Just curious, what are some of the top, oh, 20 piano competitions in the world?  Stuff like Van Cliburn, Leeds, Chopin.

[BoliverAllmon]

Chopin
Beethoven
Tchaik
Van Cliburn
Leeds
Liszt

that is what I can think of.

is there a major Bach Competition? maybe a website for it?

boliver

[alessandro]

Dear,

The Queen Elisabeth Contest, Belgium (Concours Reine Elisabeth) is a very 'loved' contest.  As a competitor you need to take say 5 weeks off.  There's a pre-selection with about 120 candidates from which I think 24 are kept apart for a semi-finale.  Semi-final you can play let's say like half an hour of which one piece must be a Bach one.  From those semi-final 12 candidates will compete in a final.  During the whole competition people, in general an upper-class family with a nice house and a good piano will take care of you in order that you can totally concentrate and practice.  After the half-final there's the final with 12 competitors.  Between the semi-final and the final the competitors are 'quarantained' in the Royal Musical Chapel where you get one week to study ; 1° an imposed and totally new piece, a 'world premiere', same for every candidate and 2° a concerto that you can choose.
After the last contester's performance there's the proclamation.  First Price to Sixth Price and the six remaining are not classified.  If you win this contest you get very nice price money, a record contract, lots of concerts in Belgium, some in Europe and the rest of the world, you can have a very busy life for let's say two years.  There are I think ten or twelve jury-members, mostly famous and respected.  Some names of finalists I can remember are Severin Von Eckardstein, Pierre-Alain Volondat, El Bacha and lots of other  more famous ones.  The semi-final is broadcast every day on national radio with a resumé on national television, and the final is every evening during the whole week on television.  It's a wonderful event.

Interested ?

Kindly 

[BoliverAllmon]

you have a week to learn a concerto?

[alessandro]

Dear BoliverAllmon...

I'm sorry, my choice of words wasn't maybe the best one.
1°  On the one hand you have to play, if you reach the final a totally new work. It's a work for piano and orchestra, where the piano plays the main role.  Since it's a contemporary piece, maybe ground-breaking, hopefully full of originality (often criticised cause often misunderstood in all its modernity), it's difficult to categorise it.  But say it's between 10 and 20 minutes long, again depending on the speed of the interpretation of each contestant. The piece is already written and chosen, again in a contest for composers.  Things that are taken into consideration for the selection of this new work are the main role of the piano and its originality.   Nobody has seen the score at this time except the people that have selected the piece. It's a very nice thing to watch and in my eyes the reason for putting this world-premiere into the competition is that you can see what kind of musician the competitor is.  Of course you have to be a good score reader, I think, to read and study this type of thing in a week (one rehearsal with orchestra is programmed for every contestant) but what's really fascinating is the amount of interpretation you can put into a 'dead' score.  You can hear musicality for the one contestor, originality in the other, or prudence, flamboyance etcetera...

2° And on the other hand you have, again if you reach the final, to play a concerto.  Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Chopin... Whatever you like.  I cite the most popular ones, the ones that are regularly chosen for their virtuosity or their beauty.  So it's not excluded that the audience will hear three times a Rachmaninoffconcerto and two times a Prokofiev... during the final.  But again, that's not necessarily boring cause it gives maybe a chance to hear different types of interpretation, musicality etc..;
Kindly

[tompilk]

wow is leeds really that big? I only live 30mins away... should i be buying tikets to all the rounds???
Tom

[rapmasterb]

Yes Leeds is MASSIVE. It really is up there. I would recommed going to as many rounds as you can I'd say you'd enjoy it, Tom.

Also another  big competition is the AXA Dublin Internation.

[mikey6]

What about Gina Bachauer? Doesn't that pay 30 G's and a Carnegie recital and recording contract (something like that)

[burstroman]

The Levintritt (sp?) used to be quite important.