And two.
After “the song edition” last year, it is the turn of the “violin edition” of the French Long-Thibaud-Crespin competition to bear the brunt of the health crisis.
The most famous of our international classical music competitions announced on January 30 that it was giving up the holding of the events, although they are scheduled for November 2021!
A decision that may seem strange, as many hope for the resumption of musical life by this summer.
But is explained very simply by the cumbersome organization, and the many international trips that competitions of this type generate upstream.
This is the main argument put forward by the Long-Thibaud Foundation in its press release.
The latter affirms that she had no choice:
"As long as the health situation has not returned to normal, it will not be possible for us to resume the organization of the competitions, a complex task which involves in particular travel all over the world. “
, Justified its president Bernard Volker.
This 2021 edition was to be exclusively devoted to the violin, after the cancellation, in 2020, of the edition dedicated to lyrical singing (and chaired by the former boss of the Vienna Opera, now at La Scala Milan, Dominique Meyer) .
As in 2018, where the competition was already dedicated to the instrument dear to Jacques Thibaud, it is the famous French violinist Renaud Capuçon who should have chaired the jury.
We remember that that year, year of the relaunch of the competition after two years of interruption and questions about his future, Guillaume Sutre, member of the Wanderer trio, had spent nearly three months, in the spring, to go through the world to audition no less than 109 candidates from 26 countries, in ten capitals such as New York, Seoul and Berlin.
A preselection method obviously unthinkable for the moment, and certainly for several months to come.
By agreeing to take over the reins of the violin category of the prestigious springboard, Capuçon had indeed made a point of honor that
"the candidates can be heard live, and not on recordings or videos as is sometimes the case," because that does not necessarily do them justice. ”
Read also: The rebirth of Long-Thibaud-Crespin
Founded in 1943 by my pianist Marguerite Long and violinist Jacques Thibaud, the competition, which opened to singing in 2011 by supporting the name of its two founders that of the singer Régine Crespin, is part with the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, the Chopin competition in Warsaw or Queen Elisabeth in Brussels, the most popular international classical music competitions in the world.
He has distinguished in the past great names of the classical scene such as Samson François, Aldo Ciccolini, Ivry Gitlis, Christian Ferras ... Whether as first prize, or as winner of other prizes awarded during the competition.
The last violinist to win the competition, in 2018, is the young Ukrainian Diana Tishchenko.
To read also: Diana Tishchenko after Long-Thibaud
The Long-Thibaud Foundation has just announced, this Friday, to think about the holding of non-public concerts, broadcast on the internet and social networks, and bringing together former winners of the competition to compensate for the cancellation of the latter.