The world of musical competitions is in turmoil after those of Dublin in Ireland and Honens in Calgary announced the exclusion of Russian candidates next May.
“We went back decades! There has never been such a brutal effect as what we are experiencing today,” exclaims Michel Stockhem, director of the École supérieure des arts in Mons, Belgium, and living memory of the Queen International Music Competition. Elisabeth of Belgium. “At the latest since the fall of the Wall, the question of national representation has been removed from the competitions. And there, it exists again, through the game of arms. »
Faced with the outcry, it only took a few days for the officials of the Honens Competition to reconsider their decision.
two fronts
Hostilities began on March 3, when the Dublin International Piano Competition, conducted by pianist John O’Connor, emailed Russian applicants: “The competition is unable to include competitors from Russia in the 2022 edition. […] We hope that shared cultural values will help us bring the world together peacefully in the future. We will refund your registration fees,” said the email, citing “unity with our arts colleagues around the world in troubled times.”
With regard to “unity”, the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFCIM) immediately issued a statement condemning “in the strongest terms the horrible war that is causing the Ukrainian people pain and suffering unimaginable”, but asserting that “no participant can be automatically declared representative of an ideology simply because of his nationality”.
That same March 3, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Texas took the opposite view from Dublin: “Pianists of Russian origin […] are not public servants of their government and their participation in the Cliburn contest is not sponsored by the state. Therefore, in line with Van Cliburn’s vision […] and our mandate to support young artists […], pianists of Russian origin will be allowed to audition for the Cliburn competition. The story of Van Cliburn and his Cold War victory at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow has inspired the world as a testament to the transcendence of art, even in the most tense moments between two superpowers. »
Surprisingly, Dublin’s decision caught on in Calgary, where the board of directors of the Honens Competition, also scheduled for May 2022, issued a statement on March 9 announcing the exclusion of young Russian pianists, considering it “necessary for Honens to make a strong statement in response to this catastrophic and unacceptable humanitarian crisis”. “Honens recognizes that there is no perfect outcome in this case and regrets that it is the six young pianists who bear the brunt of a decision based on the brutal actions of the Russian government. »
At the start of the week, the Competition Honens denied any request clarification from the Homework. But, Thursday evening, we learned of the sudden about-face of the direction of the Competition. “As a board of directors, we actively participated in difficult conversations and individual reflections that caused us to reconsider our decision. In the end, we decided to reinstate the competitors with Russian nationality,” writes Neil Edwards in a press release. According to the information obtained by The dutythe threat of defection of candidates and members of the jury got the better of the initial stubbornness of those in charge.
The organizers were indeed intractable with everyone, including with the candidates who were moved by the exclusion of their six colleagues. According to information from Homework, at least 14 of the 50 candidates had written to the Managing Director, Neil Edwards. Response sent by e-mail: “The decision of the Board of Directors of Honens is final. “They don’t even have not accepted the idea of a concert of solidarity for Ukraine “, told us this week the Canadian candidate Élisabeth Pion.
Three Canadian candidates, Rachel Breen, Ádám Balogh and Élisabeth Pion, had already made it known officially and on social media that, in solidarity, they were withdrawing from the race. There remained the jury: who would want to judge a puppet competition? We find in the jury of the final of the pianists renowned such as Michel Béroff, Stewart Goodyear and Orli Shaham. Michel Béroff told us having contacted the Competition after taking this position and said that he would reserve his answer as to what would happen next.
Ins and outs
To exclude young Russians from international competitions is to consider them not as individuals, but as flag bearers of a nation. This is what, as Michel Stockhem notes, was completely over.
“There is a parallel with sports, the Belgian professor tells us. The stables were national before the Second World War (one thinks of the Tour de France cyclist). In some sports, it remained a little after the war, with red cars for Italy, blue for France or green for England. Today, in Formula 1, no one represents a nation. In the sectors where the representation is national, Russia is evacuated (for example in soccer), sometimes because of doping, but in music, this question no longer arises. »
The French pianist Philippe Cassard adds: “There are pianists who had their first years of high-level learning in Moscow or Saint Petersburg, but then went abroad. In fact, “Dublin was blocking the way for Russian candidates who were in the United States: it’s doubly absurd”, notes Michel Stockhem.
Former winner of the Dublin competition, who, since the decision, has fallen out with John O’Connor, “a 30-year-old friend”, Philippe Cassard adds: “Among the candidates for the Dublin competition, three were not even born when Putin took power 22 years ago. Again, how do you punish people for something they are not responsible for? “Philippe Cassard underlines that” when one is in a jury, one listens to a musician “.
Jacques Marquis, general and artistic director of the Van Cliburn Competition, goes in the same direction: “The flags are there to show the international influence of a competition, but, when they win, the winners are spokespersons for music at worldwide. Jacques Marquis says he received dozens of emails congratulating him on his decision. “We must protect musicians and not be instrumentalized for political decisions. Honens made a political decision,” he says. This is no doubt why in Montreal, Christiane LeBlanc, general manager of the Concours musical international, who admittedly had no Russians in her preselection for the Voice 2022 category, says she is “rather on the side of the Federation, and not on the side of Honens”.
Cascading problems
For Michel Stockhem, it is in the long term all the representativeness of the competitions which is in the hot seat. “Juries that are doing their first round on video right now could very well accept Russian candidates and end up with candidates who cannot come. The number of Russian candidates will be reduced in the next months or years by the fact that Russians abroad will not have access to their bank account and that Russians in Russia will no longer have contacts. »
Conversely, the FMCIM will have to rule on the thorny case of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. “It’s a state-backed competition, Putin’s promotional tool that until earlier this week was on the homepage of his website. It is organized by Valery Gergiev and Denis Matsuev”, notes Jacques Marquis, treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of the Federation.
“Exclusion from a FMCIM competition can only be decided by an absolute majority vote of all members. Such an exclusion is not an easy decision to make and requires both time and careful consideration of all the arguments,” writes Florian Riem, Secretary General of the Federation.
Similarly, Mr. Riem tells the Homework that as a “democratic organization which has to live with differences of opinion”, the Federation does not envisage any measure against competitions which would exclude Russian candidates, even if he thinks that this posture only “gives new arguments to the Russian President”.
The organization, whose priority is not “material aid” and which will therefore not be able to facilitate the presence of Russians in competitions in the future, plays the appeasement: “It will take a long time before we find relatively normal relationships. It is therefore all the more important to maintain relations with the other side of the border. In what field other than that of culture can we find so many common values? […] We trust our colleagues “on the other side”, and they trust us. We need them, and they need us. This is why the goal of the FMCIM is to maintain a dialogue and not to condemn everything and everyone. »