The Endellion Quartet was the second prize-winner in 1979, the Vanbrugh Quartet won in 1988, the Vellingers in 1994 and the Belcea Quartet took third prize in 1997. Some of these London competitors cited several previous competition triumphs, and one wondered why they felt the need to go on collecting trophies. Competitions are an integral part of contemporary musical life, offering challenging experience to younger musicians and steady employment as peripatetic judges for those of their seniors who can afford the time. The same controversies about their value, inevitability and demerits rage every time. A cause for regret in the London arrangements was that free lodging and meals for competitors from abroad remained available for only one night after elimination.
Many quartets are likely to be far from well off and no doubt departed forthwith the next day.
The London competition is a six-day marathon, its final afternoon coinciding this year with the London Marathon, its competitors simultaneously running through the City of London close by Goldsmiths' Hall. This musical marathon was likewise exhausting for participants, listeners and, no doubt, for the judges who hear everything. Each quartet had to study a new quartet, specially commissioned from Anthony Powers , even if they were eliminated before their time to play it. There was a range of 19 th C. romantic and 20 th C options, but most of the competitors avoided the more radical choices. Several came to grief in standard works by Brahms and Ravel and, in the finals, Beethoven.