Monday 17 September 2012

Leeds Piano Competition 2012: A lack of exposure

The Leeds Piano Competition finals were on Sunday, but in my opinion, compared to previous years, it has gone by very quietly indeed. No BBC live broadcast on TV (only BBC Radio 3), or any media hype about the finalists before/after the finals. I remember there used to be a lot of anticipation before the finals, but this year, there definitely was no such feeling. 

I feel there has almost been a slight shift in attitude towards piano competitions these days, or any competitions in fact. Sure, Leeds, along with Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Van Cliburn (and many others) are still the 'the big ones', but now, winning a competition is not a ticket to guaranteed success as it seemed to be a decade ago. You could win a competition, and chances are, audiences will easily forget about you after a couple of years... so I'm starting to ask the question: 

Are there still any genuinely good reasons to compete? 

There's first of all the prize money. This year's Leeds Winner, Federico Colli, from Italy would have been £18,000 richer over night, but after preparing for, I'm guessing, 2 or 3 years for a competition as big as this, is it worth it? Just having a normal teaching job could earn more in one year. (Music may feed the heart, but let's be practical here, we still have to earn a living).

A lot of pianists would agree, as do I, that we compete for the sake of getting exposure, although this year, the Leeds Piano Competition seems to have been a bit of a let down in that area. Radio is not really the exposure you are looking for in this day and age, and the internet has hardly exploded with Leeds Competition news. The Guardian wrote a measly 3 paragraph review on the finals, The Telegraph has nothing. Who should we be blaming for the lack of exposure? The Competition itself? Or the music critics? Alas, perhaps at the end of the day, everything is to do with funding, and Leeds just did not pay the BBC enough to get live coverage.



[If you missed the Leeds Competition on BBC Radio 3, you can catch up by listening to it on the BBC Radio 3 website. From 21/9/12, Dame Fanny Waterman and Lang Lang will feature in a six-part BBC 4 documentary about the Leeds Competition, aired on consecutive Friday evenings 7:30-8:30pm.]





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