What's special about the Axa Dublin Piano Competition is the idealism behind it, writes Arminta Wallace
Maybe it's the drama of the instrument itself: the huge size, the towering lid, the almost orchestral variety of soundscapes. Maybe it's the endlessly surprising juxtapositions of percussive rhythm and gorgeous lyricism - or the apparently limitless repertoire. Whatever it is, the grand piano is an instrument like no other and the excitement generated by an international piano competition is, by the standards of musical contests, in a league of its own.
As 40 young pianists fly in from 18 countries this week, to join five Irish contenders for the Axa Dublin International Piano Competition 2006, anyone with an interest in matters pianistic is advised to get themselves to the RDS to sample some of the 40 hours of first-class solo piano-playing which will be on offer during the preliminary rounds and semi-finals.
This is the sixth such triennial competition since the event was founded, some 20 years ago, by the four indefatigable idealists who are still to be found at its organisational core: Ann Fuller, Laurie Cearr, Ida Delamer and John O'Conor. And though it has established itself as one of the major competitions on the international piano circuit, its mentors are adamant that it has an ethos quite unlike any other.
For one thing, it was decided at the outset that competitors would be hosted in private homes rather than being placed in a hostel or hotels. If the plate of freshly baked scones which Rathmines-based host Ursula Gormley proffers with a cheery "help yourself, they're there to be eaten" is anything to go by, for "hosting" read "being spoiled rotten". Gormley smiles ruefully.
"It's a huge thing for these young musicians," she says. "I mean, their life, their career, could be depending on the result of this competition, and they're coming to a strange country, a strange house. Some of them are so nervous that they want to go straight to their practice piano from the airport."
In 2003, Gormley hosted a Chinese-American girl and a South African girl who were, she recalls, a study in contrasts.
"One was totally ordered and organised and the other was in a world of her own," she says.
Another host, Sally O'Kelly, happened to have the runner-up, Lee Wang, stay with her last time around.
"He was so happy here that we've been asked to host another pupil from the same teacher this year," she says.
The O'Kellys have hosted two competitors during every competition since 1991.
"We've had a tremendously interesting group of people," O'Kelly says. "It's been amazing. Both my husband and myself have loved every aspect of it and every moment of it."
Except, perhaps, for the moment when competitors get eliminated. From 45 in the first round, the numbers have to be whittled to 20 for the semi-finals, then six for the final.
"My girls were eliminated after the first round," says O'Gorman. "It's an awful business, really. You're in this room in the RDS and the numbers are called of the people who are going through - and when they weren't called, their faces literally paled. They just looked totally vacant. I said: 'Right. Now we're going to go home and have a lovely dinner, and open a bottle of champagne - and then in the morning we're going into town for some retail therapy, and then we're going on the open-top bus all around Dublin. And there were no tears."
THIS KIND OF personal attention is, says Anna Fuller, what makes the Axa Dublin competition special, right across the board. It begins, she explains, with the small army of volunteers who provide ancillary services, everything from selling tickets through driving competitors to and from practice pianos to ensuring a constant supply of tea and sandwiches in the Friends Room at the RDS during the qualifying rounds. And it extends, she insists, to the competition's sponsors.
"We started off with GPA at a time when there was nothing like the sense of affluence in Ireland as there is today," she says. "And Axa is a sponsor made in heaven. It's a pleasure to work with people who never interfere, either artistically or any other way, and who always support the activities with enthusiasm, whether we're abroad or at home.
"This spirit of open-mindedness and generosity is very important to the competition. To try and hold on it isn't easy, because everything has changed so much in Ireland and everybody has become so busy - but at the moment it's alive and kicking. And I hope Ireland will remain like that, not just the competition."
A similar spirit applies to former winners, she adds. Nearly all have returned to Dublin to play concerti with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra over the past two years, including 2003 winner Antti Siirala, who will play Beethoven at the NCH later this month .
"I remember walking down the street in Washington DC with the first winner, Philippe Cassard, in 1990," Fuller says. "He was coming to the end of his term as winner and his English wasn't great then, and he said to me: 'You won't abandonate me, will you?' So I said: 'No, Philippe, I won't abandonate you.'
Well, none of them have been abandonated.
"I feel like the mother whose children won't get out of the house," Fuller adds. "They come back with their problems and their difficulties and they come for advice. And John O'Conor, of course, is extraordinary. Nobody really knows how much John does for them.He's always there for them. No matter what it is they want, he's always, always there . . . Now that makes us different to other competitions. He is one of the things that makes us really different."
WHAT IS RATHER more difficult to quantify is the competition's influence on Irish pianism.
"We're always accused of being of interest only to the very talented," says Fuller. "And of course things are still difficult at the grass roots, even though everyone is struggling very hard, the European Piano Teachers Association and the Department of Education (which has improved the syllabus in Ireland) and all the rest . I can't really talk about that, because it isn't my thing. But I have been on scholarship boards and interview panels all over the place, and I cannot tell you how many young Irish musicians are out there now, studying on scholarships. The Juilliard; the Paris conservatoire; the Royal Academy in London; the University of Bloomington in Indiana - you name it, they're out there and they're all getting performance degrees and doctorates.
"In the 1980s there were some very fine young pianists here who were winning the Feis year after year, but to a certain extent that was their limit. What we did was open a window for people. And most of those who want to go through will go through."
To get to the finals of this year's competition would obviously be a very good start. Spread over two nights at the National Concert Hall, these concerts will see a total of six young pianists perform a concerto each with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gerhard Markson. On those nights, the suspense will reach a climax - which is appropriate, says Fuller, because in a way, that's how it all began.
"When we four first sat down together to create this event, we were a motley group with a crazy idea," she says. "It was extraordinary that four such disparate people would have exactly the same vision - but we did. And none of the four of us saw the competition as anything but a huge success. From the very beginning each of us, in our different way, saw the final night of the competition. We knew we'd be there, on television, with the winners."
• The Axa Dublin International Piano Competition continues at the RDS until Thur. The finals are at the NCH on May 18 and 19. On Fri, at the NCH, the 2003 winner, Antti Siirala, will be soloist in Beethoven's piano concerto