The 25th International Chopin Piano Competition in ASIA
Feedback from the Jury
Final Round of Elementary School Grade 3&4●Jury A
Overall, many of the performances were great listening to. I would like to mention thatwhile the performances were very rich in shading, it was worrying that some of themwere also little too artificially created at time.
●Jury BI thought everyone practiced with a good understanding of the music, which is difficultfor 3rd and 4th year students.
Most of the pieces were dances, such as waltzes, mazurkas, and polonaises, but I feltthat it seems difficult for some participants to sing the melody along with the rhythm ofeach piece. Sometimes when one tried to sing a melody beautifully, the rhythm did notseem to be in place, or it did not seem to connect well with the bridge figures orpassages.
Try to think carefully about the relationships before and after the change of figure,change of tonality, and other changes.
●Jury CI was impressed by how well everyone studied.
The performance is very touching with good sense of agogic with steady technique.
●Jury DIn further work, I suggest to focus on the following elements:
1. Pedalization - it was very often overused and not very precise, resulting in a lack of
selectivity and articulatory clarity.
2. Correct reading of the score - accents, dots, or even dynamic markings - the way they
are performed always depends on the context . For example-we will perform an accentdifferently in forte dynamics and differently in piano dynamics. Individual articulation
marks can have very different meanings.
3. Expressive, suggestive and natural phrasing.
●Jury E
Congratulations on making it to the Final Round. I think everyone prepared very well toget this far and it was very high level competition.
And many of you played with some room to spare and you all listened carefully to thesound of the hall. On the other hand, it seemed that each phrase sometimes becamesluggish. It would be good if the phrase could be put together more naturally in larger
phrase. Look forward to seeing even more growth in the future!
●Jury FAs for my comments and suggestions to the young pianists - those I had the opportunity
to listen to during this year's Competition, I must admit that they do not differ from thecomments I made earlier, in the previous many years of my contact with theCompetition.
The pianist, or rather I prefer to say - a real artist, does not play the piano, but tells hisstory not with his fingers, but with his artistic imagination. Single notes are words, aphrase is a sentence, a piece is a whole story. Only with this understanding andtransmission of music can we reach the soul of the listener and convey all the emotions
and expressions of music.
Of course, I could write - as I have done many times before, about the importance of
Chopin's "legato cantabile" - legato done with the fingers and not with the pedal, about
the sense of harmonic structure, about articulation, precise pedalisation, about
naturalness of playing which Chopin paid so much attention to, about playing without
any artificial "gadgets" often only aiming at arousing the applause of the audience, about
a sense of time in the music and flexible narration not subjected to excessive pressureof the metronome, which often disturbs the artistic imagination in favour of correct butmechanical playing.
All these comments - as I understand it, in this very moment are not directed to theyoungest children playing piano. I'd like to transmit it, first of all - to teachers and afterthat to young pianists.I think so, because I am fully aware that as a juror of a competition
judging young and youngest pianists, I am judging to a large extent not only the playing
child, but also, and perhaps above all, the teacher of this young pianist, who, at only a
few years old or a couple of ten years old, is only trying to politely follow therecommendations of his teacher. Yes, without doubts - the profession of a pianist ormusician is not an easy one!

Unfortunately, very frequently especially, we can see artificial theatrical gestures, which- perhaps according to the teachers - because certainly not the playing children!
Presumably these gestures are meant to prove that we are listening to a very talented
student. In my opinion - the true talent will defend itself without these sometimes
ridiculous and not very artistic gestures! This remark is directed at teachers - I do so,
because this 'pedagogical phenomenon' has been observed in Japan for many years.
Unfortunately it is the twisting of a young performer's personality - and very bad way forthe development of young pianists personality.
And a few words directed to young pianists - please remember, the important purpose ofparticipation in competitions are not the awards! Competitions help us to consciously
increase our repertoire, they give us specific and deadline tasks, they have a positive
influence on our ambition and concentration at work. Competitions are the importantand positive element in the development of every young musician.
To conclude my perhaps a bit overlong comments, let me convey from the bottom of myheart, my best wishes to all participants of the Competition, also to their teachers andparents. I wish you all much of joy from the artistic achievements of their children andstudents, and satisfaction in the peaceful observation of the natural development of thetalent of our piano youth.