X International Chopin Piano Competition

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The Tenth International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition
National Philharmonic, Warsaw
Hosted by	Fryderyk Chopin Society [pl]
Winner	Đặng Thái Sơn
← 9th · Chopin Competition · 11th →

The X International Chopin Piano Competition (Polish: X Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fryderyka Chopina) was held from 1 to 20 October 1980 in Warsaw. Đặng Thái Sơn, who in the final played with an orchestra for the first time in his life, won first prize, becoming the first pianist from Asia to do so. The elimination of Ivo Pogorelić after the third stage was a great source of controversy.

Awards

The competition consisted of three elimination stages and a final with seven pianists.

The following prizes were awarded:^[1]

Prize	Winner
	Đặng Thái Sơn	Vietnam
	Tatiana Shebanova	Soviet Union
	Arutyun Papazyan	Soviet Union
4th	not awarded
5th	Akiko Ebi	Japan
	Ewa Pobłocka [pl]	Poland
6th	Erik Berchot	France
	Irina Pietrova [ru]	Soviet Union
HM	Dan Atanasiu	Romania
	Bernard d'Ascoli	France
	Angela Hewitt	Canada
	Hung-Kuan Chen [zh]	Taiwan
	Kevin Kenner	United States
	Alexander Lonquich	West Germany
	Ivo Pogorelić	Yugoslavia
	William Wolfram [ru]	United States

Three special prizes were awarded:

Special prize	Winner
Best Performance of a Concerto	Đặng Thái Sơn	Vietnam
	Tatiana Shebanova	Soviet Union
Best Performance of Mazurkas	Đặng Thái Sơn	Vietnam
	Ewa Pobłocka [pl]	Poland
Best Performance of a Polonaise	Đặng Thái Sơn	Vietnam
	Tatiana Shebanova	Soviet Union

Jury

The jury consisted of:^[1]

Pogorelić Scandal

There was a sensation at the 1980 Chopin Competition in Warsaw when, in a decision going against audience opinion, Ivo Pogorelić was not admitted to the final round because of his unconventional interpretations. This came about because of a wide discrepancy in the jury’s marking; half the panel of judges gave him the highest number of points and half the lowest. He was awarded only a special prize for his “exceptionally original pianistic talent”. Others were less fond of his less traditional style of play.

Jury member Eugene List explained: "I'm the first to say that the boy is very talented [...] but I voted very low for him. This is a special kind of competition. It's only Chopin. He doesn't respect the music. He uses extremes to the point of distortion. And he puts on too much of an act." Louis Kentner resigned after the first stage after all of his students had been eliminated from the competition,^[1] saying that "if people like Pogorelić make it to the second stage, I cannot participate in the work of the jury. We have different aesthetic criteria."^[2]

In the third stage, Pogorelić once again caused controversy, performing his program in the wrong order, leaving the stage part way through, and wearing an extravagant concert attire that made him look like "a prince dropped in the middle of the desert". In the end, Pogorelić was not admitted into the final. Martha Argerich resigned in protest, proclaiming him a "genius" who "her colleagues could not appreciate because of an entrenched conservatism", which is "why she was ashamed to be associated with them". Nikita Magaloff and Paul Badura-Skoda announced their solidarity with Argerich, though coming short of resigning themselves, declaring that it was "unthinkable that such an artist should not make it to the finals".^[2] According to Đặng Thái Sơn, the eventual winner, Argerich still sent a public telegram to Warsaw to congratulate him, after learning the final results.^[3]

Pogorelić later accused in a one-sided interview in 1993, claiming that "The Soviet Bloc authorities had decided months before the competition that it was politically necessary to have a North Vietnamese winner. My decision to participate was not at all welcome. I was told I should wait a year, for the Tchaikovsky competition, when I would have the first prize guaranteed."^[4] In 2008, he demanded an official inquiry into the jury decisions of the 1980 competition, however, the Chopin Institute refused to reopen the case.^[2]

References

Further reading

• Ekiert, Janusz (2010). The Endless Search for Chopin: The History of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1st ed.). Warsaw: Muza.
  ISBN 978-83-7495-812-7
  .
• Arendt, Ada; Bogucki, Marcin; Majewski, Paweł; Sobczak, Kornelia (2020). Chopinowskie igrzysko. Historia Międzynarodowego Konkursu Pianistycznego im. Fryderyka Chopina 1927–2015 [The Chopin Games. The History of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition 1927–2015] (in Polish) (1st ed.). Warsaw: Wydawnictwa
  ISBN 978-83-235-4127-1
  .
• Ossowski, Jerzy; Brodska, Halina (2010). The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in photographs. Warsaw:
  ISBN 978-83-61142-36-2
  .

• Chopin Institute's channel on
  YouTube