The BBC Music Magazine Interview
THE BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE INTERVIEW
Pianist Noriko Ogawa talks to James Naughtie about the world of competition juries and her Japanese heritage
The common complaint among musicians are that competitions have a tendency to limit a young artist’s range. So it’s cheering to talk to a pianist who enthuses about them without any hint of embarrassment.
Noriko Ogawa was a prizewinner at the 1987 Leeds International Competition. ‘I have never forgotten the amazing feeling in Leeds,’ she says of her time in the city that propelled her to an international career.
Since then her performances and recordings – especially the complete Debussy solo piano works for the BIS label – have proved the insight of those judges who heard her playing Prokofiev’s Third Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle. The experience clearly remains central to her artistic life. And today she comes across as much as an educator as a performer.
Ogawa’s passion for education, however, goes far beyond her position as a tutor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Two years ago, she was invited to chair the panel of judges at Japan’s premier competition, the Hamamatsu, named after the city where the first Yamaha piano was built. She speaks of ‘Mr Yamaha’ trudging up the T kaid Road all the way to Tokyo, learning about piano maintenance on his route through the mountains. Hamamatsu’s musical tradition is so strong that, in 1991, to mark the 80th anniversary of being a city, the competition was founded. Like Leeds, the Hamamatsu International Piano competition takes place on a three-year cycle and is now an established showcase for emerging talent. The last winner, in 2018, was the Turkish pianist Can C¸akmur whose career shows all signs of being impressive.
Ogawa takes the judging process as seriously, of course, as the contestants take their playing. ‘The competition should be run very well and no one, jury or players, should be overworked. There should be
sensible hours to listen to the playing – not too long – so that things are clear. When it comes to adjudication, we do not discuss our thoughts as we go along. We have three meals a day together and we listen side-byside for seven, eight hours a day. But we do not talk about the performances while the competition is going on.’
I express a little surprise.
‘Yes, that’s right. Because, you know, there are many ways to encourage a conversation to go in a certain kind of direction. But it is better to be completely away from it. I didn’t know this properly until I became a jury member. You realise every day how very vulnerable we all are inside, because it’s a very subjective matter. I think I know what kind of performance I like. We all do. But while we listen, these thoughts are ours.
‘The jury members have to be clearminded, fair and not be subjected to criss-crossing opinions, because that could really change one’s mind. It’s really amazing how one can just manipulate somebody’s mind.’
For Ogawa, the competitive world offers the chance to experience the full range of cultural approaches to playing, a subject which becomes a fascinating part of our conversation. Her excitement about the Hamamatsu and other competitions has much less to do with the ranking of talent than in the mingling of cultures that a high-quality international contest can produce. There are now about
800 competitions worldwide and no doubt there are some ropey ones among them, though the World Federation of International Music Competitions spends its time trying to ensure that, even in places where there may be obstacles in attracting the best talent, there’s a standard that can be guaranteed.
Ogawa is unapologetic about talking about organisation. The city’s civic authorities, and corporate philanthropy, mean that frankly – although she does not say this directly – money is not much of a problem. The competition is held in Hamamatsu’s Act City, a complex of concert and conference halls built in 1994, and there is what she calls ‘a huge staff’. How unlike the UK this all sounds. I begin to feel as if I’m in a jury room, too, waiting for the next talent to appear on the stage.