[...]
Liszt's music, in fact, is not performer proof. It can bring out the worst in pianists. How to cope with its myriad technical challenges? At this level, everything should be easy - or it is impossible. What is required for Liszt is a player of transcendental ability (the term "transcendental" was Liszt's own), a pianist who can make the music sound easy, can place some distance between himself and the keyboard, and can play with aristocratic detachment - not unlike a general who controls the conflict miles from headquarters. Only when that happens does the piano disappear and music appear. Alas for Liszt, his music attracts pianists who are only just good enough to play it. They leave behind them a battlefield in which the piano and the pianist have exhausted themselves in combat. The sins of the player are visited on this composer in a specially cruel way.
It was when we reached the second stage of the competition that the level of piano playing reached international levels, and it became clear that the jury would award a first prize. The repertoire included some of Liszt's large-scale works, such as the "Dante" Sonata and the Fantasia and Fugue on the name "B.A.C.H.". Both pieces contain pitfalls for the unwary. The "Dante" Sonata, especially, is not easy to pull off, and the tremelandos in the final section depicting Paradise as glimpsed from afar, were sometimes "economical", to use Liszt's droll expression. Liszt liked his tremelandos to be as rapid as possible, played with the slightest trembling of the hand (as the name implies) and with the keys already halfway down. Too much movement would provoke him to say: "Do not make omelettes." More than one omelette had been made by the time the pianist stood up to take a bow. One of the more subtle points in the competition came when Nadejda Vlaeva of Bulgaria elected to begin her recital with the "Dante", immediately following a performance of that same work by Mirco Roverelli of Italy, who had elected to finish his with it - thus inviting an instant comparison. Again, Liszt's statue came to life, as if in sardonic amusement: "I too used to do that sort of thing when I was twenty-two, but the time soon came when it was no longer necessary - and so it will with you." As a matter of fact, it came within half-an-hour, when Vlaeva produced a rivetting account of the "Pesther Carneval" Rhapsody. If there are better performances than this one, I have never heard them. It was conceived in heaven. Vlaeva, too, went through to the finals and won third place.
Let me say a few words about Liszt's masterpiece, the Sonata in B minor. The Sonata, published in 1854, was born neglected and was performed only rarely in Liszt's lifetime. Today it is one of the most frequently played piano works in the repertory, and it has become the standard by which Liszt players are judged. That is why all finalists in the Liszt Competition have to play it. Alas, over the past twenty-five years there has emerged a "consensus" performance of the Sonata which you will find on every concert platform and on most records. It is correct, careful, and lasts about twenty-six minutes. And that is all that one can really say of it. So what are the criteria for a really great interpretation? First: the pianist must have an overview of the work, from beginning to end. He must never forget that it is possible to win battles but lose the war. Second: it is important to subjugate the many recitatives, roulades, and ornaments to the structure as a whole. Buildings collapse if they are asked to support too many extensions. Third: the Sonata should not be turned into a display of virtuosity. If you betray such a piece in this fashion it will betray you. Bearing these things in mind, the very best performances in my opinion were given by Bogányi and Vlaeva (both utterly different from one another), with a slight edge in favour of Vlaeva, if only because of the beauty of her tone.
Another mandatory work for the finalists was a choice of one of the two Liszt Concertos. A fundamental characteristic of these pieces is their many chamber-musical textures, in which the soloist merely accompanies the melodies played by solo violin, cello, and clarinet among other instruments. Not all the candidates understood this, and were judged accordingly.
All music competitions are trials of the jury as well as by the jury. The moment a verdict is rendered it speaks well or ill of those who gave it. It would be foolish to deny that constant exposure to the same few pieces across a period of eight or more days can blunt a jury's perceptions. Performances merge in the memory and tend to sound the same - a fact made all the more quixotic because some of them were the same! It has been well said that this is the Age of Anonymity.
The climax of the Competition was the gala concert, and the distribution of the prizes. The three top prize-winners were: Gergely Bogányi, Igor Kamenz, and Nadejda Vlaeva. Was justice done? Is justice ever done? To these questions there is no answer.
[...]