FRANZ SCHUBERT
Franz Schubert was born on January 31, 1797 in the Vienna suburb of Lichtenthalu and died in Vienna on November 19, 1828.
Schubert is one of the chief figures of musical romanticism and his songs are merited as one of the purest expressions of German romanticism. Part of his musical legacy are over six-hundred songs, including eighty of Goethe's poems set to music. He wrote eight symphonies (7 in H minor, and 8 in C major), and significant amount of chamber music: string quartest A minor and D minor;string quintets C major; piano quintet A major and others. A large portion of his works is delicated to Four-handede piano compositions, for example Fantasy in F minor stands as one of the finest works he created. The founding of the international Competition for Piano Duets which carries Schubert's name was inspired by his musical legacy and the fact his family originates from Moravia and Silesia: his mother Elizabeth Vietz was from the town of Zuckmantel (now called Zlaté Hory) and his father Theodore Florian Schubert was from the village of Neu Dorf (now called Vysoké). The competition has been in existence for seventeen successful years, the first competition taking place in 1978.
The Schubert Competition
Schubert Competition for Piano duets was founded in 1978 by pianist, composer and teacher Dr. Vlastimil Lejsek, his wife, teacher and pianist Vera Lejsková and former director of the Folk School of Art in Jesenik, music scholar Alois Složil. Enthusiastic founder and the reasons which led to the establishment of competition best expressed by Dr. Vaclav Holzknecht words: "I welcome the competition from two reasons: firstly, multiply unnecessarily in our current contest for another type, similar to those that are still here, does not impose new work by heart threatened again long study, a considerable loss of time and potentially drill, but not expected from a game, a convincing musicality of performance under which the candidate can be assessed. And second: with this contest returns to practice the quantity of valuable works that have been forgotten over time and yet are often in the front rank of compositional values. If young candidates for the competition will be forced to recognize a truly make music while beautiful music, it meets its specific competition and a new task. For our artistic education for adolescents to meet this urgent need to act now."
Competition was announced from the outset for two competition categories, with the 3rd Round of II. category will be the participation of the orchestra. The competition was repeated after two years and in 1980 was opened for foreign participants. Only Few of them came from countries of the socialist sector, remoteness from Bulgaria. From the very beginning has been established good cooperation with the firm Petrof Hradec Kralove, which has been responsible and still provide the competition pianos, import and service. As part of the competition was held a special seminar for piano teachers who have had unprecedented participation - 76 candidates. For participants and seminars were organized excursions to the birth places of parents of Franz Schubert, the father - to the Vysoká (next to Hanušovice), mother - in Zlaté Hory (Golden mountains), as they were training excursions to Javornik and Bílá Voda(White Water) in the footsteps of famous composers from Charles Dittersdorf Ditters and Antonin Brosmann. Over time, interest waned seminars, replacing the "contestants sitting with the jury“, which takes place at the end of competition on Saturday afternoon, where there is open discussion. 1994 was a year of breakthrough. To The competition came Greek artists from the Royal Academy of Music in London, very strong personality and excellent pianists Christos Papageorgiou and George Petra. Christos was approached by a jury to participate sitting in the next competition edition of what has evolved traditions that winners were invited to participate in the jury. Participants began to emerge from prestigious schools, active professionals and II. category was open to the duets, whose combined age does not exceed 70 years and become a "flagship" of Schubert competition which is attractive for the public. There were also artists from distant and exotic countries, such as: Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Malta and Canada. Cooperation was established with the organizers of International Music Festival Janacek May Ostrava and organizers in Brno, which allowed the winners more gigs in the Czech Republic. The competitions were organized accompanying events, in January to mark the anniversary of Schubert concerts and exhibitions of artists whose work touched a musical theme. They were: Květa Fulierová, Maria Luisa Hlobilova, Borek Bayer and Roman Boreček local artist whose bronze bust of Fr. Schubert adorns the entire competition and its scale castings are transferred to the price of Alois Složil, the city Jeseník announced a and has included in the program after the death of A. Složil. Competitors in II. category, accompanied by chamber orchestras from Ostrava, Brno and Olomouc. As the participants in Category I began to wane ( maybe too much study at conservatories and art schools, or for lack of money) the organizing committee decided to open the category for many young artists and simplified rules of competition so that I. category was rank only one round. Participants will have to spend many days in the competition, their time was used more effectively, without affecting the quality of performance.
Interesting facts from the Competition:
The youngest participant were 10 years old girls Mariana Kinder - Madina Nabiullina (Russia - Tatarstan), the youngest winners of category I were 14 years old Bulgarians Atanas Slavčev and Georgi Čolakov, the outermost duo was Philip Moore _ Simon Crawford-Phillips (United Kingdom - New Zealand). In 1989, the cash prizes haven´t been granded, ground vases made in Železný Brod were granded.Many times competition was held after 3 years 1986, 1989 and 1992, once after one year in 1994 and 1995. In 2007, Vlastimil Lejsek announced a special prize for the best performance of his composition (occasion of his 80th birthday). The final concert is recorded by Czech Radio, several times was shoted and came to Czech Television. Competition is visitited by Mr. Ing. Jan Petrof and in 2009 was first performed Concert for Two Pianos and Percussion by Béla Bartók.
Personalities that met over the years in the jury of the contest:
Vlastimil Lejsek, Věra Lejsková, Václav Holzknecht, Pavel Štěpán, Rudolf Macudzinski, Silvia Macudzinská, Marie Halámková, Ilja Hurník, Atanas Slavčev, Božena Kalábová, Eva Fischerová, Pavel Novotný, Miloš Konvalinka, Anton Kallay, Radomil Melmuka, Věroslav Němec, Dagmar Baloghová, René Adámek, František Maxián, Jindřich Duras, Darina Švárna, Petr Hanousek, Celina Hellerowa, Vít Gregor, Branko Czuberka, Christos Papageorgiou, Jennifer Micallef, Věra Čanová, Joanna Domanska, Teemu Holma, Mikuláš Škuta, László Baranyay, Rudolf Bernatík, Marián Lapšanský, Eriko Takezawa, Elser Konrad, Sándor Falvai, Eugen Jakab, Pavel Kowalski, Zuzana Paulechová-Štiastna, Martin Hršel, Peter Pažický, Maxim Puryzhinskiy, Katarzyna Ewa Sokolowska a Christoph Sischka.