한국국제교류재단

The world’s leading classical music competitions include the International Chopin Piano Competition, the International Tchaikovsky Competition, and the Queen Elisabeth Competition. These events are all dedicated solely, or mainly, to the piano, which testifies to the importance of pianists in the classical music world. Moreover, the Chopin Piano Competition is devoted entirely to the works of a single composer. Under the spotlight’s glare, it has produced the most international stars and, ironically, the most controversies as well.

The Chopin Competition dates back 89 years. Warsaw, Poland was tragically devastated by World War I, and the Polish took to sports rather than music to overcome their physical and emotional wounds. Jerzy Zurawlew, a professor at the Warsaw Conservatory and a Chopin specialist, was deeply concerned that Poland would end up losing its fame as a cultural powerhouse. After much thought, he came up with a solution — to stage a “musical Olympiad,” an excellent competition to draw the Polish people back to the concert halls.

The first Chopin Competition was held on January 23, 1927 at the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall. The contestants were allowed to play only Chopin’s works, a requirement that has been maintained to the present day. The inaugural winner was Lev Oborin of Russia. The second and third competitions were held in 1932 and 1937, respectively, but amidst the turmoil of World War II, the competition was suspended temporarily. In 1949, after the war, the competition was resumed to mark the 100th anniversary of Chopin’s death. The fourth edition of the event produced the first Polish winner, Halina Czerny-Stefanska, who shared the honors with Bella Davidovich, a Soviet-born American pianist.

Pianist Cho Seong-jin, front row center, poses with competition officials and other winners at the awards ceremony for the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, held on October 21, 2015, at the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall in Poland. To his left is second prize winner Charles Richard-Hamelin from Canada and to his right third prize winner Kate Liu from the United States.

Held every five years since 1955, the Chopin Competition’s first“big star” emerged in 1960, who was none other than Maurizio Pollini.In 1965, the honors went to Martha Argerich. She was followedin 1970 by Garrick Ohlsson, the first American to win first prize,then in 1975 by the Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman. In 1980, Argerichturned Warsaw upside down once more at the 10th ChopinCompetition. When Ivo Pogorelich failed to reach the finals, despitehis “genius” performance, she resigned from the jury in protest. Inany case, the eventual winner of the 1980 competition, Dang ThaiSon, went on to become a Chopin specialist of global acclaim. After Stanislav Bunin won the 1985 competition, however, the first prizewas not awarded again until 2000.

In the 21st century, a new genius was born. China’s Li Yundirose to stardom in 2000 as the first person to be awarded the firstprize in 15 years as well as the youngest such winner to date. The15th competition, in 2005, is memorable as well. Thirty years afterZimerman’s win in 1975, another Polish pianist captured the firstprize.

That alone made news all over Poland. In addition, the competitionproduced no second prize or fifth prize winners. Four Asianpianists shared the third and fourth prizes: Korea’s Lim Dong-minand his brother Lim Dong-hyek tied for third place, and Japan’sShohei Sekimoto and Takashi Yamamoto came in fourth place.

Cho Seong-jin acknowledges the audience after his performance at the laureate concert of the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition.

We now return to Cho Seong-jin, the winner of the 2015 competition. Born in 1994, Cho graduated from Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School, which both specialize in the education of young artists. Thereafter, he has been a student of Michel Beroff at the Paris Conservatoire since 2012. He arrived on the international scene in 2008 when he won first prize at the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, and again in 2009 he became the youngest person to win the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan. He continued to excel, winning third prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia in 2011, and also at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv in 2014.

It was in December 2008 that I met Cho for the first time. He had returned to Korea after winning the Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in Moscow. The young boy in his school uniform entered the studio rather awkwardly for a photo shoot. His face was round and plump, but I remember that his eyes were bright and brimming with curiosity, so much so that they looked ice cold. He told me a story about the first competition he had entered in Korea, when he was in the second grade. Watching the other contestants play, he was surprised and thought, “Wow, everyone plays like that. I thought only real pianists played like that.” As for winning the Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, he commented, “The contestants I met in Russia were very confident and at home with their music. Compared to them, I felt small. I’m sure I’ll come across a lot more barriers and limitations studying Western music. I’ll have to work harder and be more prepared.”

In January 2009, Cho played Liszt’s “Dante Sonata” at the New Year’s Concert held at Kumho Art Hall. Could a mere boy his age express Liszt’s love, and Dante’s heaven and hell, just by following the notes and symbols on the music score? Cho’s performance put my worries to rest. If a young boy were to come and tell me the story of Liszt and Dante in words, would I be just as moved? Impossible! Only music has that kind of power. Through his music, the young boy delivered the message that music is great and playing music is a great thing.

I met Cho again in the winter of 2011 at Kumho Art Hall. This time he was scheduled to perform a duet with pianist Son Yeoleum, a close friend who was like a sister to him. During a lengthy conversation, Cho abruptly brought up an episode about Okinawa: “I was recently on tour in Okinawa, and I had taken the day off, the first time I had ever done that after an overseas performance. As I looked around, I noticed that people were really happy with little things. That’s when I began to think about what happiness is.” Why was the 17-year-old pianist talking about happiness on a warm southern island?

Another two years passed, and I met Cho again in 2013. While studying in Paris, he returned to Korea a month before a concert here with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under Lorin Maazel. “I’m happy with my life in Paris, except the city is expensive and the language difficult,” he said. “Everything is new and exciting. I think my personality has changed. I’m less afraid now. I used to be shy, but I think it’s the other way around now. I feel more at ease, whereas the other person feels a bit uncomfortable.” The boy had grown into a man, and yet he still had the same cold sparkle in his eyes. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to humor me or provoke me, but I detected traces of both in his conversation. In his heart he seemed to have a little furnace burning an enigmatic mixture of passion and nonchalance.

My last question to him was, “Do you even want to be successful, after all?” He replied, “Some say I am a young philosopher. I do have ambitions, of course, but let me say it depends on what you call ambition.” He went on, “Is a musician successful if he makes a lot of money, or if he moves people with his brilliant music? A musician may feel that music is for himself only and keep to his room, playing for his own pleasure. Such a musician could also be called successful. Success cannot be easily defined. I have a really big dream. I want to play precious music. It’s not like, okay Cho Seongjin is playing now. I want to perform like Radu Lupu, Grigory Sokolov, or Murray Perahia. Their music is sacred. Some people may not call that success. But for me, it’s a huge dream, much bigger than winning a competition.”

What meaning do young musicians get out of a competition? Pianist Son Yeol-eum, who had come in second place at the 2011International Tchaikovsky Competition where Cho placed third, said: “I went through a lot in previous competitions, and I became disillusioned. I remember what my teacher, Kim Dae-jin, said at the time. He told me I may think the competition is nonsense — and there may be some truth in that — but you will see there is nothing as fair as a competition once you’re out in the big wide world. I think he was right.” For young people the world over seeking to become professional musicians, a competition is the cruelest but the surest gateway to success. And yet, winning does little more than open doors.

Cho recently signed with Solea Management, a Paris-based music management company, which announced the news on its website on January 5. The company, which was founded by Romain Blondel in 2005, manages about 20 musicians, including pianist Menahem Pressler, violinist Daniel Hope, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, and flutist Emmanuel Pahud.

There are various views about how Cho’s accolades at the Chopin Competition will influence Korea’s classical music market. Around the time his live competition recording came out, new albums were also released by popular young Korean pianists Lim Dong-hyek and Kim Sun-wook. The three albums are all selling well, enjoying a positive synergy. But it remains to be seen how long and how far the Cho Seong-jin effect can continue. Fundamentally, the Korean classical music industry is quite small. There are no clear statistics on revenues by category or analyses of concert audience demographics. Without proper data, it is difficult to deviserealistic measures to energize the market. In the words of one young musician, “What frustrates me is that, in Korea, there are only musicians. Nothing else. There is virtually no market, no media that deals with music properly, no consumers, and no providers.”

Upon the release of the live recording of Cho Seong-jin’s performance in the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, presented by Deutsche Grammophon, the album went to the top of the classical album charts in Korea.