"Competitions weren’t for me” — Until they were: Paul Lewis at the Cliburn

Paul Lewis, the British pianist, chairs the jury at this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (which takes place in Fort Worth, Texas, and starts on May 21 – all individual performances can be viewed on cliburn.medici.tv). His relationship with piano competitions, though, goes back to his youth when he entered a few, and came second in the 1994 World Piano Competition. “My experience of competitions was probably like most people’s”, he tells me by Zoom shortly after arriving in Fort Worth.“I didn’t particularly enjoy it. I’m not such a competitive person myself, and I didn’t enjoy being in that competitive environment. So at 21, after that, I just thought, ‘Well, fine, I won’t do any more of these. And if I end up with a career, it’ll be by other routes, not the competition route’.”

“I wanted to turn the rather negative [competition] experience that I’d had into a positive one”

Those “other routes” clearly worked and Lewis occupies a place among today’s finest interpreters of the Austro-German repertoire. But ten years ago, he was approached to become co-director of the Leeds Piano Competition following the death of its legendary founder and guiding spirit, Fanny Waterman. His initial reaction was to decline, but then, on reflection, decided that if he could play a role in modernising the process, and creating something more rewarding for the participants, it might be worth it. So he accepted. “So often when it comes to competitions, it’s a case that the musicians work like hell preparing all the repertoire. They turn up and probably get kicked out after the first round – and go home. I wanted to broaden the scope of it really and introduce more elements, invite people to talks and so on. I asked Alfred Brendel [who had been a major influence on Lewis’s career]. Of course, Alfred had stopped playing in 2008 so most of these 20-something pianists had never heard him play live, but still I felt it a really important thing to do. So, I guess what I wanted to do was turn the rather negative experience that I’d had into a positive one.”

“They [the Cliburn] take so much care around the people that come here to participate”

So, when the Van Cliburn people got in touch, he didn’t have to think for long. “The thing that strikes me when you look down the list of winners is not just the gold medallists, but the finalists too – it’s a pretty impressive list of people who’ve made significant careers. After that, what really strikes me about this competition is that they take so much care around the people that come here to participate. And that’s just the most important thing. I get the feeling that there’s a real sense of community and care about what happens to people after the competition. And that, to me, is fundamentally important and what a competition is about.”

Every musical competition has its own style and process, and the Van Cliburn has two eye-catching challenges for the pianists. The first happens in Round 1 when the jury encounters all 29 competitors and hears them play for the first time. Each pianist has to play a work, about four to six minutes in length, written specifically for the competition by Gabriela Montero. “I just opened my jury folder this morning in the hotel, and there was the score,” Lewis reveals. “So I opened it for the first time, and it looks great. I’m going to thumb through it later. It looks like a really fun piece, so I’m looking forward to hearing that 29 times, I really am. Gabriela wrote a little foreword in the score explaining that she’s provided relatively few dynamic markings and performance indications. So that leaves a lot of scope for personality and individual interpretation to come through, and I think that will make it all the more interesting.”

The other interesting challenge is the performance of a Mozart piano concerto in the semi-final round (by which time the 29 pianists will have been reduced to 12). “In my opinion, a Mozart concerto is the most difficult thing of all to bring off. So for the semi-finalists who will each play one, that will reveal quite a lot because it’s such a specific discipline. You know, it’s chamber music and it’s not chamber music, and it’s all about colour and balance. It’s about allowing each note to have its full expression and its place. In a competition environment where the repertoire demands are, of course, quite significant, Mozart takes time. It needs time. I’m looking forward to that hugely, because, for me, it’s the most challenging and taxing thing of all to bring off.”

“There’s a real sense of community and support among these young pianists”

What struck me when I followed the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition’s pianists through the various rounds was the spirit of camaraderie that developed – and that’s not limited to that particular competition, I’m sure. “That’s the impression I get, too,” Lewis agrees, “There’s a real sense of community and sense of support amongst these young pianists. When I speak to players who do competitions, they do talk about that. And they refer to it as a community. During this year there’s a bit of a car crash of big piano competition, so many are happening within a relatively short space of time. And at least some of the pianists are going to encounter each other at various places around the world. And if that’s if one positive that can come out of it is that it does create this sense of community and support. Then I think it’s a wonderful thing. It’s another thing I don’t particularly remember from my own limited experience of competitions in the 90s, but it certainly seems to be more the case now. And that’s a huge positive.”

It’s unusual for a musician to spend so long in a city, far from home, and not have to play a note. Lewis is quick to acknowledge that. “I’ve come off a very busy time just now, so though this is hardly a holiday, it’s definitely a change to put a different head on, and where I don’t have to play, and I can just listen intensely for two-and-a-half weeks. So, yes, I’m looking forward to that!”