Franz Schubert
was born on 31th of January 1797 in the former Viennese suburb Lichtenthal, died in Vienna on the 19th of November 1828.
F. Schubert is one of the top personalities of Romantic music and his contribution to the song has become one of the purest expression deutsch romanticism. Part of his creative legacy is over 600 songs, 80 of the Goethe poem. He wrote eight symphonies - the highlight of his symphonic works are the 7th Symphony in B minor and 8 Symphony in C major, great importance is his chamber music - String Quartet in A minor and D minor, String Quintet in C major, Piano Quintet in A major, and more. A large part of hir works for four hands piano playing and some of the compositions such as Fantasie in F minor is one of the best works that he created. This fact and the fact that his parents came from Moravia and Silesia (mother Elisabeth Vietz of Zuckmantel - now Zlaté Hory, the father Theodor Florian Schubert from Neu Dorf - now Vysoká) gave rise to the establishment of an international competition for piano duos which takes the name Schubert. There have been eighteen levels, the first was in 1978.
About Schubert competition
Schubert Competition for Piano Duos was founded in 1978 by pianist, composer and pedagogue Doc. Vlastimil Lejsek his wife, teacher and pianist Věra Lejsková a former director of the Folk School of Art in Jeseníku, music researcher Alois Složil. The enthusiasm of the founding and the reasons that led to the founding of competition best expressed in the words of Dr. Vaclav Holzknecht : " I welcome this competition on two grounds : first multiply unnecessarily the current competition with us for another type , similar to those that are not here yet , imposes new work by heart , looming again long study, a considerable loss of time and potentially drill, but not expected from a game , a convincing musicality of performance, according to which candidate will be assessed. And second: with this contest returns to practice a number of valuable works that were eventually forgotten and sometimes still belongs in the front rank of compositional values. If young candidates in this competition will be forced to actually make music and to know the lovely music then meets specific competition and a new task. For the education of our young artistic generation was this act urgently needed."
The competition was announced from the outset for two competition categories with the third round II. category will be attended by the orchestra. Competition was repeated after two years and only in 1980 was open to foreign participants. At that time, foreign participants were not to much just arrived from the neighboring countries of the socialist sector furthest from Bulgaria. From the outset established good cooperation with Petrof Hradec Králové which provided and still provide for competition grand pianos import and service. As part of the competition was organized a special meeting for piano teachers who had an awesome turnout - 76 candidates. For participants and seminars were organized excursion to the birth places of the parents of Franz Schubert 's father Vysoká near Hanušovice, mother - in Zlaté Hory (25 km from Jeseník), as it were field trips to Javorník and Bílá Voda in the footsteps of famous composers Charles Ditterese of Dittersdorf and Anthony Brosmann. Over time interest in the workshops faded and replaced the " contestants sitting with a jury" that takes place at the end of the competition on Saturday afternoon where there is free open discussion. Year 1994 was a breakthrough. Competition arrived the Greek artists of the Royal Academy of Music in London very strong personalities and excellent pianists Christos Papageorgiou and George Petrou. Christos was approached by a meeting of the jury for the annual competition of what was to become a tradition and the winners were invited to participate in the jury. Started young participants from prestigious schools, active professionals and II. categories were opened for the duo whose combined age does not exceed 70 years became the " flagship" of Schubert competition and attract the public. They appeared with artists from long far away and exotic lands such as Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Malta and Canada. There was cooperation with the organizers in Ostrava Janáček's May and organizers in Brno , which allowed the winners next concerts in the Czech Republic. The contest was organized special events to mark the anniversary of the January Schubert concerts and exhibitions of artists whose works have touched a musical theme. They were: Květa Fulierová, Marie Luisa Hlobilová, Borek Bayer and local artist Roman Boreček, whose bronze bust of Fr. Schubert decorated with all the competition and its small busts are transmitted to the price of Alois Složil passed by the City of Jeseník announced and included in the program after the death of Alois Složil. Competitors in II. category accompanied by chamber orchestras from Ostrava, Brno and Olomouc. As the participants began to wane Category I perhaps for curriculum charged at conservatories and other art schools or for lack of funds by the youth the organizing committee decided to re-open this category as many young artists and simplified rules of the competition so that in XVII year was I. category only one round. Participants do not have to spend many days in the competition their time was used more efficiently without impacting the quality of presentation.
Attractions of the competititon
The youngest participant was 10 year girls competition Mariana Kinder - Madina Nabiullina (Russia - Tatarstan), the youngest winners of the first category were 14 years of age Bulgarians Atanas Slavčev and Georgi Čolakov, the farthest duo was Philip Moore and Simon Crawford-Phillips (United Kingdom - New Zealand). In 1989 the place cash prizes forwarded cut vases made to order in Železný Brod. Several competition was held for 3 years 1986, 1989 and 1992, once after one in 1994 and 1995. In 2007, Vlastimil Lejsek announced a special prize for the best performance of his compositions for his 80th birthday. The final concert is recorded by the Czech Radio and Czech TV arrived several times. Several times the final concert was attended by Mr. Ing. Jan Petrof. In 2009 and was first shown in II. category Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion by Béla Bartók.
Celebrities who taken part over the years in the jury
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, Christoph Sischka and René Adámek.
