Forum LEVEL

This recording presents the creative side of Andrés Segovia, the most important guitarist of the 20th century.
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his work as a composer has been largely ignored. Segovia wrote almost 50 individual works, most of them intimate miniatures, many of which are masterpieces just waiting to be discovered and enter the guitar repertoire. He was self-taught as both a guitarist and a composer. His study and transcriptions of music from Purcell to Granados evidently left their mark.

The musick is moste delightfulle and bringeth joye to mine eares

You practice your ass off (5+ hours a day generally until ~month before performance where you start focusing on coherence of performance and ability to play through errors; everything is memorized well before this point) with rep that you’ve been polishing for years (edit: i dont mean that its necessarily something you've continuously practiced for years but these are pieces that you probably are revisiting and are comfortable with already) seeing your coach frequently.

You have about 3 sets of 30 minutes worth of rep ready to go (if it’s a big competition you will also have prepared 1-2 concerti and at least one of these will be a major romantic warhorse) and you usually already had to send in a pre screening dvd to even be given the right to compete. Your repertoire is going to be well balanced across the common practice cannon and is usually required to feature a complete classical sonata as well as one or several etudes.

For each piece there is also a tacit understanding of the interpretive canon for that one work that you are going to contribute to. Here’s there’s the pianists struggle of wanting to have individuality and a unique voice but potentially wanting a conservative enough interpretation to not offend taste (a problem in modern competitions). You are aware of what aspects of your ability are “featured” in your pieces and you strategically pick them to highlight your own ability.

As the competition comes close your chest gets tighter and tighter and more of your energy is spent on not thinking about the competition. You become careful about what you eat and how it makes you feel, protecting your own sleep schedule (though I find it hard to sleep before a competition). The pressure continually builds until it hits the breaking point when you walk on stage. You actually feel like you’re about to die (and I have heard anecdotes from famed professionals who say this is how they feel each time before they play). Then you start and somehow the music is so powerful you can use it to prevent your brain from dwelling on your fear. Throughout the performance the stress threatens to rise and all you can do is observe it and let it pass naturally. Changing even something as subtle as what you are thinking about can cause error in high pressure situations. Every on stage mistake I’ve made happened because moments before I doubt my own confidence. And you will make a mistake. On stage. Part of the competition is seeing how you deal with it. If the judges notice, you’re eliminated (especially in earlier stages).

Then there’s the politics (especially at the most elite level): who is a juror for the competition. Do they know who you studied with? Have you taken a masterclass with them? Do you know their students and/or judging preferences. Etc etc. if we’re talking about the level of Van cliburn, Chopin or Tchaikovsky then many people will be returning to the competition and there’s going to be pianists recognizing each other since many of the finalists are going to already have budding concert careers. At levels lower than that where you’re likely to find conservatory students, you will have more unknown people but frankly the level is not that much lower (the quality will seem nearly identical to someone not well versed in classical piano lit)