More than a hundred performances will take place with open doors between March 10 and 21 at the Palau de la Música Catalana. Up to 300 scores will be played, ranging from baroque to new contemporary creation, including a piece composed for the occasion by Barcelona native Sira Hernández. These are the interventions of the 73 participants of the Maria Canals International Competition, who in this 69th edition – it would be the 70th if the coronavirus pandemic had not forced the cancellation of 2020 – have been chosen from among 173 candidates from 39 countries. But only three of them are Spanish, and none Catalan, which is nothing unusual, but it cannot be explained, given that it is a competition founded by the historic pianist for her city.
“I always encourage local people to participate, but they see it as something very difficult,” says Jordi Vivancos, director of the contest and former student of Maria Canals. “It is true that students from the most powerful schools attend, the Juilliard in New York, the Tchaikovsky in Moscow, Vienna, Shanghai… but here we have a fundamental structural problem: the level of our pianists would be for a debate in depth. It is a crucial and very frustrating issue, both for teachers and students, because there comes a point of perfectionism that they cannot carry out if they have to be doing the rest of the subjects.”
“This is an instrument that requires a lot of dedication at very early ages, from 11, 12, 13 years old,” adds composer and pianist Sira Hernández. “We have to look for formulas, because those are very important years, as is well taken into account when “It’s about sport. And unfortunately in our country the arts are considered an extracurricular subject. And no, you cannot take 5th grade piano by practicing one hour a day.”
Sonia Mulero, director of the Fundació Banc Sabadell, which together with the Fundació Occident, which gives the first prize valued at 25,000 euros, and the Fundació Carulla, which gives 10,000 euros for the second, lends its support to the great final test in the that three finalists perform with the Jove Orquestra Nacional de Catalunya, warns that this debate is urgent. “You have to ask yourself what is going wrong. What is happening with the talent here. What needs to change in the educational model. Because the arts cannot be an extracurricular subject. The artistic disciplines are more than a distraction and must be part of the imagination of a society,” says the board.
Thus, the contestants in this edition are between 18 and 29 years old, with the average being 24 years old. And there are many more men (56) than women (17). And by nationality, the arrivals from South Korea win, a dozen, followed by the 7 representatives from China and the other 7 from Russia. There are also 4 from Japan and 4 from the United States (the country where 12 of the contestants reside).
The Spanish contestants are Alexandre Lutz García (24), from Alicante, whose father is French; the Valencian Sergi Pacheco Portalés (27), and the Bilbao-born Adrián Hodor (27), of Spanish and Polish nationality. The jury is chaired by the Egarense composer Elisenda Fàbregas and is made up of four former winners of the award itself: the Latvian Vestard Shimkus, the Japanese Yukiko Akagi, the Ukrainian Inesa Synkevich and the French Marie Vermeulin.
Each applicant must prepare an average of eleven works, and they are required to have at least two of them from the Spanish repertoire (and of these, at least one from Catalan). There must also be a contemporary creation written from 1995 onwards. And at least one of the chosen works must be by a woman. “We are pioneers among the large international music competitions in introducing this premise,” says Vivancos. “Gender is an important issue and our contestants have been working in this direction for some time.”
The competition has commissioned Sira Hernández to create a work to make available to participants on an optional basis. But that Hymn with which the creator praises young pianists who are at that moment in their career when they have to overcome doubts and show the will to improve has been chosen by up to 22 of the candidates for the awards. “I have not even indicated the metronome with which this hymn to hope should be performed, since there they can also express their art as performers,” concludes the composer.
The Maria Canals awards the third prize with 6,000 euros, but the first prize winner is also offered a tour of four concerts with the symphony orchestras of Bilbao, Madrid, Seville and Tenerife, within the stable seasons. “It is our grain of sand to give visibility and projection to these young people,” says Ignacio Gallardo-Bravo, director of the Fundació Occident.
The Off, which is being held in parallel, has already begun to place grand pianos in public spaces in Barcelona and other cities that are available to passers-by. Last year there were 150. In Barcelona they will be seen at the Liceu, the Palau Robert, the Born Center Cultural, Illa Diagonal and the 7 Portes restaurant, among others, in addition to those located at the metro interchange Diagonal or in the Foyer of the Palau de la Música. And on March 8 there will be the traditional marathon in Plaza Reial, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., with performances by professionals, amateurs and students. And this year one will be taken to the Can Brians 2 prison. “It is no longer about taking one of the young contestants to play, but about inviting the inmates to play it.”
