JURY SERVICE
What is it like to serve on the judging panel of a world-class music competition?
‘You’d open up a two-kilo can of worms every time you spoke’
Music competitions often fall into competition, one with another. Those mindful of their international status will seek to book a jury of outstanding performers and senior music industry figures, from managers and promoters to critics and record company executives. Compiling a top-flight judging panel is no easy task, however, given the weeks of commitment demanded by many competitions and the allure of lucrative summer festival dates. The World Federation of International Music Competitions’ database of past jurors reveals how wide its members cast their nets to catch the best jury candidates. Barry Douglas, winner of the 1986 International Tchaikovsky Competition, was invited back to Moscow to judge the Tchaikovsky’s quadrennial piano finals in 2011 and 2015. The event had been revamped, in part to replace the jury horse-trading of past decades with scrupulous fairness. Conversation between Moscow jurors, recalls Douglas, was discouraged on his first visit and accepted second time round. ‘You’d open up a two-kilo can of worms every time you spoke,’ he says. ‘But that debate was healthy.’ The Moscow judging process delivered two exceptional winners in Daniil Trifonov and Dmitry Masleev. It also attracted harsh words from partisan audience members, outraged when competitors were eliminated before the finals. ‘It was brilliant that they were so passionate about their favourites.’ What do impartial competition judges look for? ‘The first question is can they play the instrument,’ notes Douglas. ‘Once you’ve chosen a group of people who can play the piano in all its glory, then it becomes tough. It’s very subjective.’ Jury members, he continues, should remain aware of the communication between stage and audience. ‘Players have to be able to move people. Competition performances should feel like a concert, but an extra-special concert.’ Violinist and conductor Jaime Laredo underlines the importance of preparing students for competitions. ‘They must be well prepared in every way,’ he notes. ‘The important thing is that they should always be themselves. Don’t listen to the other competitors; play your hearts out, as if you’re giving a performance and not as if you’re trying to be better than someone else.’ Competition experience, notes Laredo, can deepen a young artist’s self-knowledge. He recalls the unforgettable month that led to his victory at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1959. It was a career-defining moment, one marked by the presence of a jury comprising five great violinists. The shorter concert season then, over by the end of May, allowed outstanding musicians to populate competition juries during summer months. Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Joseph Szigeti, Arthur Grumiaux and Zino Francescatti travelled to Brussels to judge Laredo and his fellow contestants. ‘Quite frankly, it was frightening! And it was extraordinary to play for these people, meet them and get to know them a bit. There were very few competitions then and winning one of the big ones virtually guaranteed you a career. That rarely happens today, when there are so many competitions and winners.’ Gábor Takács-nagy, in high demand as a competition judge, served as jury president at the Geneva String Quartet Competition last November. The violinist and conductor notes
that the job carries a heavy responsibility; it also highlights the subjective nature of judging performance. Playing music, he explains, owes a materialist side, which includes the physical business of turning written notes into sound. ‘But it is mainly a spiritual thing. It’s easy for a jury if there’s one outstanding performer or if somebody is not very good – there is no argument. When things are less than astonishingly brilliant or bad, then it’s hard to agree and everything becomes relative.’ Can a musician be objective about another’s performance? It’s difficult, says Takács-nagy. Certain musical gestures and expressions, he notes, will resonate or clash with a judge’s own taste. And then there is gut instinct. ‘I have heard string quartets in competition that were always beautiful and challenging spiritually but which from the material point of view [made mistakes], and others that were spiritually empty but technically very good.’ A wise judge, he suggests, will tolerate blemished performances but not beige ones. Charles Hamlen, artistic advisor to the Orchestra of St Luke’s, is steeped in jury experience. He was a member of the second jury for the 2015 Honens Piano Competition and the 2016 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. The co-founder and former chairman of IMG Artists stresses the value of competitions to those who fall short in the final furlong. ‘Of course, it’s great if you win. But if you don’t play well [on the day], you will still hold the jury’s attention. And we talk about people whose playing we’ve enjoyed.’ Hamlen recalls a conversation with the mother of a 10-year-old musician who was entranced by the performance of one finalist, who ‘really told a story’. ‘That was so perceptive. There’s no single way to reach an audience, but the process of communicating with the audience is so important.’