Arthur Rubinstein Competition – worth the wait
When Ariel Cohen slipped into his new job last June he had no idea how the posting would pan out. OK, you could say that about most untried ventures but, in Cohen’s case, there were some challenging, even existential, conundrums which no one could, at the time, unravel.
Still, things have worked out for the best, as the forthcoming delayed edition of the triennial Arthur Rubinstein Competition finally comes to visual and aural fruition. That, like so many exploits in these pandemic times, is very much the result of technological advances. This will be the first time the famed classical piano contest has run on web-based and live corporeal lines.
“That’s why I call it a hybrid edition,” explains Cohen, who took over as artistic director of the competition nine months ago, not knowing when, or even if, the event would take place and, indeed, what format it would be based on.
As things stand, the judges get to assess the skills of 32 young ivory ticklers from across the globe, including from Russia, Italy, Israel, Venezuela, the UK, Hong Kong, the United States, China, Spain and Taiwan. The performances have already been recorded, at five prestigious and acoustically advanced auditoria around the world – in Potsdam near Berlin, Beijing, New York, London and Tel Aviv. They will be broadcast via the competition’s web site, at live.arims.org.il, between April 1-10, before the members of the international panel of judges announce their decisions regarding the individual levels of delivery. The adjudicators will witness the performances along with the paying public, with the voting processes taking place via Zoom.
Half of the original 32 entrants will make it through to the next stages which, as things currently stand, will be held in Tel Aviv before live audiences, between April 29 – May 3, with the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, a string quartet, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra supporting the finalists’ efforts.
“When we planned that we weren’t 100 percent certain that would happen,” Cohen notes. “Now we are 90 percent sure it will take place, that is, if the [coronavirus] situation does not deteriorate. But I am fairly confident things will continue to improve, and everything should be fine for the final.”
In fact, Cohen’s kickoff as artistic director should have taken place a month after the current edition
of the contest was due to be done and dusted. “I was scheduled to take over after Idith [Zvi, who oversaw 4 slots over a 17 year tenure] had finished with the 2020 competition,” he says. “The idea was for me to come in, with plenty of time to look forward and plan the next time.”
Although Cohen’s entry to the job was anything but smooth, he says the challenges thrown up by the pandemic have spawned some exciting and rewarding results, which may very well inform the venture in years to come. It was, he says, a matter of all hands to the pump. “I was very much involved in the competition, for quite a few years, on the board and as chairman, so from that standpoint it was an easy beginning to the job. But, with the special [pandemic] circumstances there were all sorts of question marks which arose en route, and we had to be inventive. We had to come up with a new format, a new way of running and presenting the competition. We had no choice.”
As technology began to dot the “i”s and cross the
“t”s of the event logistics, Cohen and his cohorts started to reap the benefits, first and foremost, in terms of making the normally Tel Aviv-based program a truly global occasion. “The situation begat a new creation, and I hope it is successful and popular,” he observes. “You have to make lemonade from lemons,” he laughs, paraphrasing the timeworn adage. “You have to make the best of the situation you are given.”
State-of-the-art video and sound equipment and software came to the rescue and, says, Cohen, will provide viewers with some quality added value. “You know, you can witness a concert and come away feeling, say, it was wonderful or, maybe, terrible, and you don’t really know why.” Next week’s program will strive to answer some of those questions as experts in the field proffer their thoughts and responses to the contestants’ renditions. “We have some additional elements which you can’t do with the regular format,” Cohen explains. “There will be a series of five [English language] lectures, called Interpretation Analysis, given by five speakers, including [renowned pianists-educators] Orit Wolfe, Astrith Baltsan and Gil Shohat. Each of them will analyze the performance of one of the pianists who played that day. That will include comparisons of readings of the works by other pianists. None of that would happen in normal times, but we could get the recordings of the performances ahead of time. I think that should enrich the audience’s experience.”
There’s more in the way of computer-facilitated audience participation this time. “There will be Zoom sessions with judges whereby viewers will be able to submit questions to them,” Cohen adds. “Of course not everybody will be able to get their questions in, but I think that should be fascinating, and should complement the whole experience of the competition.”
THE EVENT also traditionally serves to further the case of home-grown creativity, with contestants required to choose from a handful of works written by Israeli composers, from the younger crowd and more senior writers. These include scores by 47-year-old longtime New York-resident composer Alon Nehushtan, also known for his endeavor in the jazz arena, and 54-yearold Yoram Meyouhas. The second stage recitals will also take in a work by preeminent Romanian-born Israeli composer Sergiu Natra, who died last month at the age of 96. The relatively brief Three Street Cortèges for concert piano has three movements and feeds off a score Natra originally wrote in 1945.
Cohen was as keen as his predecessors to keep the local creativity ball rolling. “That is our lifeblood,” he states, adding that the category also helps to disseminate the word of good things happening in this part of the world. “The contestants learn these new Israeli works, and then later play them in different places abroad.”
And, with the health guideline-prompted changes to the competition format, now audiences across the globe will be able to view the recitals, and avail themselves of the various advantages of Internet-based offerings. “People can tune in from wherever they want,” Cohen notes. “And if, for some reason, you get to your computer late, you can enjoy the recorded performances at a later stage.”
As far as the Arthur Rubinstein Competition is concerned, the pandemic cloud has provided Cohen, tough challenges notwithstanding, with some substantial silver linings. “We have learned how to market the event internationally,” he laughs. “It will be interesting to see how all this develops.”
For now, we can all sit back on our sofas, or settle into our armchairs, and enjoy the sterling efforts of some of the world’s most talented young pianists, with the chance of catching the more successful contestants do their thing right there, before our eyes, in the auditorium.
The 16th edition of the prestigious piano may have taken a while to materialize, but it should be worth the wait.
For tickets and more information: 9066 and (03) 511-1777, https://www.eventim.co.il/arthur and https://arims.org.il/