Rehearsal time is over. The world’s best and most ambitious young pianists have descended on Warsaw for the Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition — for some, a gateway to classical music glory.
Fans from around the globe snapped up tickets as much as a year ago. The lucky ones attended the opening night concert on Oct. 3 and will follow along as the contest builds to a thrilling climax on Oct. 20.
Winning the Chopin International — held every five years in the 19th-century composer’s homeland — can raise the curtain to playing at venues across the globe and signing contracts with the most renowned record labels.
Photo: Siemaszko Zbyszko /Wikimedia Commons 照片：Siemaszko Zbyszko /維基共享資源
Previous winners of the competition, which began in 1927, include some of the greatest names in classical music, including Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimerman.
American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who clinched the top prize in 1970, will chair the jury tasked with selecting this year’s winner from the 84 contestants.
WHO ARE PARTICIPATING?
Photo: EPA / 照片：歐新社
Young pianists aged from 16 to 30 are eligible to take part, and the Warsaw organizers received a record number of more than 600 applications for this year’s edition.
Only around a tenth of them made it through a complex and multi-stage qualification process that included playing in a preliminary round in Warsaw.
Together with laureates of other piano contests, who were granted direct access to the first round, a total of 84 pianists from 20 countries started to compete on Oct. 3.
Photo courtesy of Fryderyk Chopin Institute 照片：蕭邦學院提供
Chinese pianists will be the most numerous with 28 contestants, followed by Poland and Japan with 13 each.
ARE TICKETS AVAILABLE?
Tickets for the competition sold out within 30 minutes of their release online in October last year.
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
“The finals sold out in two minutes,” the Chopin Institute spokesman Aleksander Laskowski told AFP.
He added that classical music buffs queued for several hours for the batch of tickets only available at the box office.
For those desperate to get inside Warsaw’s National Philharmonic hall, where the competition is held, a handful of tickets could be available before every audition if ticket holders do not show up.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons 照片：維基共享資源
Every stage — including the finals held on October 18-20, after which the winner will be announced — will be livestreamed on the Chopin Institute’s social media channels.
RUSSIAN PIANISTS
This year’s edition is the first since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, and host Poland staunchly supports Kyiv in its efforts to fend off the invasion.
The organizers said last year that Russian pianists would only be admitted under a neutral flag, “just as athletes did at the Paris Olympics,” Laskowski told AFP.
They also had to sign a statement in which they categorically condemned the violation of international law.
Two Russian pianists playing under a neutral flag, Philipp Lynov and Andrey Zenin, are among the contestants.
WHAT IS THE PRIZE?
The winner will receive a prize of 60,000 euros (US$70,500).
But winning or even reaching the last stage of the competition is seen as a career jump-start for the young pianists.
“After the Chopin Competition concludes, a months-long concert tour will begin,” the organizers said on their Web site, adding the tour comprises “prestigious concert halls across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.”
The last event, held in 2021 after being deferred because of the COVID pandemic, ended with Canadian pianist Bruce Xiaoyu Liu scoring the highest accolade.
(AFP)
排練時間結束。全球最優秀、最雄心勃勃的青年鋼琴家齊聚波蘭華沙，參加蕭邦鋼琴大賽——許多人認為，這是通往古典音樂榮耀的大門。
門票早就在一年前被樂迷搶購一空。幸運兒得以在10月3日欣賞開幕音樂會，並在10月20日見證比賽激動人心的高潮。
波蘭是19世紀作曲家蕭邦的故鄉，每五年在波蘭舉辦一次的蕭邦鋼琴大賽，為優勝者開啟一扇大門，迎來在世界各地演奏的機會，以及與最知名唱片公司的合約。
蕭邦鋼琴大賽始於1927年，歷屆得獎者包括古典音樂界一些赫赫有名的巨匠，例如波里尼、阿格麗希、齊瑪曼。
評審團將從84名參賽者中選出今年的首獎得主，評審團主席由1970年獲首獎的美國鋼琴家加里克．歐爾頌擔任。
參賽者有哪些？
年齡在16歲至30歲之間的年輕鋼琴家均可報名參賽。華沙的比賽主辦單位今年收到了創紀錄的600多份申請。
只有大約十分之一的報名者通過多個階段且複雜的資格審查，包括在華沙舉行的預賽。
再加上其他鋼琴比賽的獲獎者（他們可以直接進入第一輪），共有來自20個國家的84位鋼琴家參加10月3日開始的比賽。
來自中國的參賽人數最多，有28人，其次是波蘭及日本，各有13人。
有票可買嗎？
比賽門票去年10月在網上開賣後，30分鐘內即告售罄。
蕭邦學院發言人亞歷山大．拉斯科夫斯基對法新社表示：「決賽門票兩分鐘內就賣光了」。
他補充說，古典樂迷排隊數小時，只為購買這批僅在售票處發售的門票。
若持票者未能到場，每場演奏前都可能剩下少量門票，讓給渴望進入比賽舉辦地華沙國家愛樂音樂廳的觀眾。
每一輪的比賽——包括10月18日至20日舉行的決賽（決賽結束後將宣布獲獎者）——都會在蕭邦學院的社群媒體頻道上直播。
俄羅斯參賽者
今年的比賽是俄羅斯對烏克蘭發動全面戰爭以來的首次比賽，東道主波蘭堅定支持基輔抵禦俄羅斯入侵。
主辦單位去年表示，俄羅斯鋼琴家只能在中立旗幟下參賽，「就像巴黎奧運的運動員一樣」，拉斯科夫斯基告訴法新社。
他們還必須簽署一份聲明，明確譴責違反國際法的行為。
有兩位俄羅斯鋼琴家以中立旗幟參賽：菲利普．林諾夫與安德烈．澤寧。
獎項為何？
首獎得主將獲得6萬歐元（7.05萬美元）的獎金。
但贏得比賽，甚至進入比賽的最後階段，都被視為年輕鋼琴家職業生涯的起點。
主辦單位官網載明：「蕭邦鋼琴大賽結束後，將展開為期數月的巡迴演出」，並補充說，此次巡演將「遍及歐洲、亞洲和美洲的著名音樂廳」。
上屆比賽因COVID疫情而延後，於2021年舉行，最後由加拿大鋼琴家劉曉宇獲得最高榮譽。
(台北時報林俐凱編譯)
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