Arriving in beautiful Hong Kong, I had ‘great expectations’: the 1st International Piano Competition had put together a Jury impressive enough for rival organizers to ‘salivate’ at the sheer qualities of its members: solid musicianship, humility of character, intense commitment as performers, the mental strength needed by some to survive hard regimes, integrity as teachers at world-renowned institutions, intrinsic musical vision … and so on.

Guests at the fabulous Peninsula Hotel with excellence of service and great facilities, each of us was provided with a brand-new upright Yamaha piano in our rooms, with head-phones for total silence, if you can bear it… There was also a Music Room with two baby-grands, mainly for the use of Ashkenazy, the chairman. Any of us were welcome to rehearse, teach, or whatever, depending on Maestro’s timetable and busy he was too: my room being across the hall, I heard an awful lot of ‘Diabelli’ going on in his spare time!

Breakfast was a joy: start the day by having dim-sum? I couldn’t resist: so much so, that I put on 3 kilos, during my stay! But I knew that back in Europe, playing Brahms’ no 2, five times in 6 days, would take care of those! There was also a marvellous spa with sauna, Jacuzzi, massages, and a gorgeous pool in navy-and-gold mosaic, plus that stunning view over Hong Kong harbour! Great, when still sleepless, after having watched the US Open most of the night, and too early at 6 am to do any practising, I could have the place for myself! Utter luxury!

Now, to the Competition! Regardless of the calibre of the Jury, my fears were confirmed and believe it or not, there were no discussions: if random-members of the audience were to vote instead, results might be just as good … or fairer!! Neither was anyone required to explain the musical reason for any dodgy marks, there were plenty of them. In my view, the ridiculous voting system used here, was a major problem: once, instead of 12 all the way down to 1, one juror had absent-mindedly allocated two 8s and two 9s – Sudoku, that addicting Japanese numbers-puzzle comes to mind: when you think you’re about to solve it, you find a repeated digit in one of the last rows and have to start all over again! Same here; still worse: in the final voting 3s, 4s and what-not, were mistakenly allocated, inverted … And there when really it could have mattered, or did it? Oops! I give up!
As you imagine, being a Jury-member again is not high on my priority list - for a long while anyway!

At least, there was a lot of fun ‘hors-concours’, excuse the pun. I was taken for a ‘fann-tastic’ boat ride on South China Seas, thanks to dear Lydia; I ate plenty, had high tea and Champagne, thanks to Iren, Gigi and Lydia; once the competition was over, we and some contestants went for drinks and later on, dancing (hey, Domenico, Mei Yi, Andrey, Colleen, Wen-Yu, Sung-Hoon, Ilya, okay-okay?); I bought the right laptop, thanks to Margaret; and laughed a lot with Wing-Sie, Gigi, Margaret, Iren and … Lydia: how generous of you, ‘old girl’! Thanks.

Back in Europe, I resumed the lonely existence of a performer-on-tour but much happier to be the active musician once again and ‘doing the talking’!
I’ll tell one funny episode from my Brahms 2 ‘marathon’: the unpredictability of what the piano will be like in the next town, is always a total gamble. Now imagine this: one evening I arrived on stage to hear the technician dealing with a broken string with very little time to spare – a nasty job, stretching a string to keep it to pitch -- so I had to let the poor guy carry on, unable to try the instrument at all. Since it was the 4th of my five performances, I wasn’t too bothered... Result? Humph: at the start of the Concerto, as I ‘warmly’ weighed down that 1st bass B flat … he-l-lo! Where, how, what?! The note went ‘pptt’, and no sound was held whatsoever! I presume the movers hadn’t fixed the pedal properly and it only sort of worked when a lot of pressure was applied! Everyone knows how challenging this concerto is: I don’t think that the pianist should be required to wear an extra heavy shoe, as well! For the next couple of days, the whole of my right leg ached from the effort!
All the experience in the world and … I haven’t learned to go and check the pedal, honestly!

On the subject of pedals: have any of you, readers, heard of the Fazioli ‘308’? I never forget when I first used its ‘alternative’ 4 pedal-lyre: trying endless new effects provided me with sheer pleasure, a bit like ‘playing’ with the pedals of a Masserati, gorgeous!
It’s nice to dream, anyway!