+++
author = ["authors/jenna.md"]
date = "2016-09-20T09:33:00+01:00"
draft = true
lastmod = "2016-09-20T09:33:00+01:00"
slug = "competitions"
title = "Competitions"
+++

Pavel Kalesnikov, Russian pianist based in London

https://soundcoloursmell.wordpress.com/2016/09/18/worlds-worst-music-competition/

Mentions a bullshit, recycled jury feedback from Jerome Lowenthal, for a Beethoven Sonata Pavel apparently didn't play

"And if you want to know, it is a wonderful account – it says your playing was really special and the mummy voted for you. Or maybe – surprise! – he didn’t, because you wrongly played Études Symphoniques without the posthumous ones (or because you wrongly played it with the posthumous ones). And also – and this he doesn’t mention – he had to vote his own student in."

"There is no worst musician in the world, but there are many best ones. Paradoxically, there is no best music competition in the world, but there are many, many worst ones. A music competition cannot be fair by definition, because it is in conflict with the very nature of art. It still can do more good than harm by being respectful first of all."

"Why am I suddenly in the mood for this angry moaning? Because I, thankfully, well remember the times when I was playing in several competitions a year and didn’t dare to whisper a word (but very private ones) against one of the loathsome notable jury members. Neither did I realise the criminal stupidity of many competition organisers, and was letting myself being poisoned by the flood of waste regularly poured into my ears at one of those post-factum jury sessions."
