Nahoko Gotoh: As a competition prizewinner yourself (Third prize at Leeds International Piano Competition, 1987), how has the prize helped and shaped your career? Did it worry you at the time that you didn’t win first prize?
For the last decade or so, you have been on the jury of many competitions including the BBC Young Musician and Honens. When you are judging, do you look for the finished article or a talent in the making, or does that depend on the competition?
It is not always easy for me to say whether a pianist is ready to go out there at the first listening. It is a fact that competitions are getting tougher every day and as a result, we tend to go for the ‘finished product’ rather than a ‘big talent but work in progress’.
There are more than 600 piano competitions these days, so one has to find suitable competitions. With specialized competitions like the Chopin and Tchaikovsky, you need to be sure about the required repertoire. On the other hand, there are others with more freedom where you can paint your own pictures. It is not difficult to choose when you know what you would like to ‘say’ in your music making.
You have commissioned new works from many Japanese composers. Has this been an important part of your identity as a Japanese pianist on the world stage?
https://bachtrack.com/files/68796-Julia Fischer c Felix Broede.jpg
Especially for the juniors, the key objective of the competition is to give the young musicians international concert experience. “There's no substitute for actually getting out there on stage, but it's dangerous to push somebody too much too soon. Ray Chen won third prize in London 2004 in the juniors. He came back in 2008 and won first prize and now, he has a major international career. We try to nurture the talent, we try to help them, advise them, mentor them, but in a gentle way, it's not all about the first prize.”
One senses that if there was a way of bringing these kids together without that tedious business of running a competition, Back would have seized on it. “Menuhin was a child prodigy who had a difficult upbringing, so this competition was something he was passionate about, he cared about, he loved connecting with the kids. Actually, he wanted to always give a prize to everyone. In the early days in Folkestone, he would sit around, a bit like the pied piper, with twenty of the kids around him, talking about the Bach Chaconne or something: he was amazing as a human being and he was far more than just a violinist. I've tried to keep his initial philosophies from the early days going through the competition, but you have to reinvent it in some ways. We came up with this idea of making it a different event, with more of a festival atmosphere, where all the jury perform. It's an inspiration for the competitors and the jury also gets scared, because you're talking about the best 44 children in the world, so they actually practise and take their concerts quite seriously.”
founded Bachtrack with the aim of bringing more people into the concert hall to experience the wonders of live classical music, opera and dance. This remains our goal and we will continue to innovate and to use the technology available to us in every way we can to keep Bachtrack a site of major interest to lovers of the arts across the world.
has a strong background in computing, from his early days in the semiconductor industry to being CTO of accounting software company Sage UK, via the creation of the Sinclair QL running professional audio companies for Harman International. He has loved opera since the age of five; when not reviewing it around the world, he can often be found listening to Italian opera in the kitchen as he cooks. He loves skiing, plays a mean game of tennis and many guitars.
worked in the City as a fund manager, then left to have children, juggling looking after a young family and trading derivatives in the attic. As the children grew older she decided the time had come for a radical change of career and started Bachtrack with David. A serial “crafter”, Alison has always loved the arts and music and is most happy taking on a big project while listening to music from Bach to Mahler. When not working, she plays tennis and cooks (although not simultaneously).
https://bachtrack.com/files/218-1097_4423_markpullinger.jpg
is one of Bachtrack’s editors and Chair of the Music Section of The Critics' Circle. An experienced opera critic, with a passion for Verdi, he can often be found propping up a standing place at the ROH. He also reviews concerts and dance, with a particular love for Russian and French repertoire. Mark contributes to Gramophone and Opera magazines.
https://bachtrack.com/files/53832-alexandra.jpg
is Bachtrack's Dance Editor. She studied ballet in Paris and completed her professional dance training at The Rambert School in London. She has performed for various ballet, opera, and commercial productions, as well as galas, fashion events and film. Alexandra has a BA(hons) degree in Art History and Literature, started writing reviews through English National Ballet's Dance is the Word blog, writes reviews for Bachtrack both from London and Paris, and previously worked Bachtrack's press coordinator.
is Bachtrack's French language editor and sales executive. Outside the office, Nicolas carries on his musicology research on the evolution of the musical practices within the Catholic liturgy in the 20th century.
https://bachtrack.com/imagecache/scaled/65194-150-elisabeth-schwarz.jpg
is currently Bachtrack’s German Editor. Before moving to London she could most likely be found in the last row of the Musikverein or the Stehplatz at the Staatsoper Wien. She equally loves Bruckner, Brahms and pastries.
https://bachtrack.com/files/26086-katia.jpg
is Bachtrack’s Spanish editor. She studied Music Teaching and Musicology at Complutense University in Madrid while studying piano. She worked at Royal Palace Library, at Madrid Historic Council Library and at National Library of Spain cataloguing manuscript music. She also worked for EMI Classics and collaborated as a proofreader for Audioclásica and Teatro Real. She moved to London in the summer of 2013 and joined Bachtrack in January 2015. Her passion for music goes from Victoria to Daft Punk and she also loves walking and running.
