One gets the impression that in the past competitions counted for more, and perhaps were not undertaken so lightly. These days there are hundreds of them! And there are people who make careers out of playing competitions, winning first prizes or even less, winning big ones and then still playing smaller ones, winning big ones and playing bigger ones, always competitions.
Why? The problem I think is that they are ultimately dead ends. A big competition (such as the Van Cliburn, Cleveland etc) is going to offer one, maybe two CDs, some years (usually 2) of management, and cash prize. But after that, the CD recording contract and management contract is going to the next winner. That is it, unless along the way you happened to make a great impression some other agency or label. But nowadays with everyone as a competition winner, there are so many that practically everybody can win at least one, who cares? No offense to those that did it and got a prize. That's great for them, but for the rest of the world it has become less of a mark.
The people that make copmetition careers are getting a lot of limited exposure, but oftentimes it is only as being associated with that particular competition, and soon will come to an end.
The results can be surprising of course. I heard A. Kobrin, who apaprently has won or won among the top prizes in some of the world's biggest, Van Cliburn, Hammamatsu, Busoni? I think, and others. Perhaps there is still time for this talent to develop. But I heard a Beethoven op.110 that seemed to lack all depth whatsoever, treating the piece like something extra-subtle of Ravel, with zero crescendos, a constantly identical beat, and always a "pretty" sound ("Ah, I, too, could have had velvet paws!"). So one wonders, on what merits are these prizes awarded? And how is the process done? wasn't Claudio Frank on the Van Cliburn jury? Surely he would never have passed this.
It seems to me on the other hand, that those who do not necessarily have success in competitions can still have success on the concert stage. The stage and the competition are frankly two different worlds. On the stage, it is possible in a concert to have mistakes, or memory slips, and still have a successful outcome. I do not believe it is possible in a competition. On the stage, if one messes up, one has the time to make people listen again; at a competition, if one messes up, the listening is over. It's quite a cruel and unmusical process, and actually in these ways, totally unrelated to the "real world," if the stage can be called a real world and not vice versa.
I have seen many famous pianists, not even necessarily "great" ones, who concertize for a living, make absurd mistakes. Clifford Curzon once forgot to play the development of Schubert D960 1st mvmt, and ended up in the recapitulation, and I am not joking. Jerome Rose seems to have memory slips in every concert. I heard a concert of Robert Taub, who seems to have a big career, and he had slips in every piece except the modern ones, when he used the score. And yet there they are, (or were), giving concert after concert. So to those who fail in competitions: cheer up! You might still play better than somebody who actually gets stage time.
Walter Ramsey
Walter Ramsey