The date of the competition was August 30 - September 12, 1980. Bassoon was one of four disciplines tested this summer: Piano, Violin, Bassoon, Vocal Quartet
The bassoon winners were:
The jury was made up of the following bassoonists:
The jury also included two others from Geneva:
What an eventful week of competition it was! This bassoonist was very well impressed by the excellent organization of the Concours, by the absolute fairness of the jury and with the generally very high standard of performance of many of the young bassoon candidates. The eventual 3 winners, Audin, Loubry and Wilkie were extremely well-prepared and performed beautifully in all three levels of the testing.
There were 32 bassoonists in all participating in the competition.
The first round was held at the offices of Radio Geneva in a large recording studio. The candidates were known to the jury only by number, and a screen was placed between the performers and the jury for absolute anonymity at this stage. The acoustic properties of this room were pretty dead, but all the candidates could be clearly heard by the jury. The pitch of the piano (and later the orchestra) was A - 442, and as this was not announced in the pre-concours information bulletin there were quite a few players who needed to work hard to keep up to this pitch standard. (The jury recommended at the close of the competition that the privacy screen should be maintained for future contests to help maintain complete fairness; it was also strongly suggested that the pitch standard (A - 442) be announced in printed form to all future candidates).
During a two-day period all 32 candidates were heard in the first examination. It consisted of every performer playing Carl Maria von Weber's Andante and Hungarian Rondo (with a cut imposed about half-way through the Rondo section) and one other work, described as "the piece which they deem most favorable for their success."The second work varied greatly because it could not only be chosen from sections B. C or D from the large list of selected bassoon works but it could also be (in list B) "any bassoon solo by a composer of the 20th century" or (in the C list)"another Telemann Sonata of the candidate's choice." The complete list included the following fine works:
At the completion of the first examination the jury's votes were tabulated and nine bassoonists gained permission to perform the second round, a public recital including a 30 minute programme for each player and a performance of the set competition piece by Robert Suter.
(An interesting note should be made here about the comparative importance of these European solo competitions to the teachers at music schools in the various countries represented: One West German candidate who did not get to play in the recital round said to me that he thought the jury must have been biased in favor of the French players because all fourcandidates from France and the one Belgian player (all five playing French system bassoons) were selected to play the recital examination. Was this complaint justified? Absolutely not. The French players were superlatively prepared long in advance for this Concours. It is possible that a major part of their study for the past few years has been concentrated on preparing for this major competition. Maurice Allard mentioned at the close of this summer's competition that he will begin preparing his current class for the next Geneva competition this winter term; the next Geneva Concours will be held six years (possibly seven!) from 1980!!!
A very nice feature of the competition was a provision made for the day after the first examination. Each candidate who did not make the second round had a private interview with several of the judges. Maurice Allard, Mr. Jean Meylan, Kazimierz Piwkowski, Roger Birnstingl and I discussed each player's performance and gave suggestions for improvement ranging from interpretation, tuning, reed "health," breath support, articulation,. etc. to morale and overcoming nervousness. It was fortunate that the jury had an international flavor, because the various candidates spoke Italian, French, English, German, Polish and Japanese (fortunately also German).
![[drawing of Geneva Cons. of Music]](p6.jpg)
The recitals were performed in the concert hall of the Geneva Conservatory of Music. (see drawing) The building itself is of great architectural beauty, and the recital hall's acoustics are lovely. Five candidates performed in the afternoon and the remaining four played in the evening of September 3rd. Soon after the recitals were completed and the jury held a brief meeting to tabulate votes, the results of the recital examination were posted on the front door of the Conservatory. Anyone in Geneva could then dial a particular telephone number and be given the results of the recital competition! The same phone number of course indicated the final prize winners at the close of the competition. How civilized!
The set piece for all recital candidates, DE L'UN A L'AUTRE by Robert Suter, is a very good piece. I can recommend it to any bassoonist looking for a new recital work. The piece is showy but of continuing interest, has an identifiable form and thematic scheme and contains some new technical sounds. The piece was designed for players of the German bassoon, with fingerings for multiphonics given as per Bartolozzi's book. For players of the French bassoon, and optional for any player, there are cadenza ossias provided. These actually sounded a bit nicer to my ears than the particular multiphonics asked for. Another piece which was performed by at least two of the recital candidates and which is a real beauty, is Conversation avec Bach by Swiss Composer Roger Vuataz. The music was in manuscript only. I hope it will be published soon because it is such a fine work. It is five minutes in duration and is for bassoon alone.
The six candidates who failed to make the final examination with orchestra all performed brilliantly nevertheless. It was difficult for every member of the jury to pick out the top three performers from such a fine group. Of these six, three received a Bronze Medal and the other three received a Certificate of Participation in the prestigious Recital examination of the Concours.
It should be remembered that in prior competitions, players who did not make the final examination often did go on in their careers to become leading principal players in their countries' best orchestras.
On the evening of September 6th the Final Examination for the disciplines of Vocal Quartet and Bassoon, was held in Geneva's beautiful Victoria Concert Hall. The two vocal quartets performed first on the program; there was a group from Rumania and another from New York, The New York Vocal Arts Ensemble. Each quartet sang one a capella piece of its choice and an imposed piece for vocal quartet and orchestra, Francois Delor'sMusique Nocturne 1980. The imposed piece was very modern and sung only to vowel sounds. To my ears it was pretty disappointing musically and not a good test piece for fine vocal art. Why didn't they use the quartet from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or something similar??
There was no fault in the selection of the imposed piece for bassoon, however. It was Mozart's Concerto in B-flat KV191. The excellent orchestra for this concert was the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Jost Meier. I would like to pay particular tribute to the fine hornists, Gregory Cass and Jacques Robellaz, who performed the first movement high passages for horn perfectly (three times in succession) . . . Bravo!
As had been the case in the two preceding examinations, the artistry, skill and panache of Gilbert Audin clearly stood above all other candidates. It was not difficult for the jury to award him a well-deserved first prize with unanimity. All three bassoonists performing the Mozart Concerto, though, displayed gifted interpretations and beautiful musical expression. It was a much harder choice to decide how second prize, a silver medal and/or some other combination of awards should be given Luc Loubry and Matthew Wilkie. The jury finally decided to ask the President of the Executive Committee of the Concours, Mr. Claude Viala, if an exceptional decision on our part could be accepted; we wished to grant two second prizes of equal amounts to the two named bassoonists. After some discussion, the jury's request was granted, and we were pleased to announce the awards listed at the beginning of this article.
Just as Sol Schoenbach reported to The Double Reed when he served on the jury for the Munich bassoon competition, I too can cite particularly impressive highlights of this Concours in Geneva. There were a few negative points to mention as well, but the positive impressions are by far in the majority, I loved the enthusiasm of all the young players, their dedication and joy in making music, even when the spirit of competition could intrude on the usual thoughts of re-creating art for an audience which is not passing judgment of any particular kind. I was touched by the dedication displayed by Zbigniew Pluzek who performed his entire recital program from memory. All of the recital performers showed real professionalism in maintaining interest and variety in their interpretation of works by composers of widely divergent periods and styles. The Otmar Nussio Variations on a Theme by Pergolesi proved to be a stunning and delightful piece, especially in the hands of Gilbert Audin who was nominated for a special Swiss Prize for the exceptional manner in which he played the work. That Baroque ornamentation is neglected in many national schools was evident in several rather plain performances of Telemann's beautifulSonata in F minor (the International Edition of this work is out of style except for the continuo realization by Edith Weissman. The solo part is indicated for"Bassoon, or Trombone or Baritone" -Telemann only suggested Bassoon and Recorder. Perhaps the new, cleaner edition by Musica Rara could be used in future competitions). I think that some ideas for bassoonists wishing to do well in future competition of this type should include the following: (IDRS is holding its first solo competition in the summer of 1981 at Lubbock, Texas.)
1. Practice all the music months in advance; really digest everything.
2. Make sure to play each piece in the right style. We heard many gross phrasing errors in as familiar a piece as the Weber Andante and Hungarian Rondo. Performing at home for a carefully selected audience of teachers and friends could point out stylistic errors before the competition.
3. Know how to raise the pitch of your bassoon to 442 (or 447 for Germany), when necessary. Don't wait until arrival at the competition city to discover that reed dimensions and scrapes need changing or perhaps a shorter bocal will be necessary.
4. Make your selection of the optional works carefully. I was a little surprised to hear many players of the German bassoon play the Saint-Saëns Sonata at an event where several French players would be likely to play the work. It goes without saying that the e'' at the end of the Scherzo movement loves to jump out of a Buffet bassoon, but is quite a challenge to any player of the German bassoon.
5. Practice playing into a privacy screen at home to have the experience before running into it at solo competitions and orchestra auditions. It can be somewhat off-putting, but with a little practice it need not become a hindrance at all.
6. Bring your own accompanist if you possibly can! The one provided by the Concours is excellent, but oh so busy. And only one hour of rehearsal time is guaranteed each candidate with the official accompanist. One hour would never be sufficient for me.
7. Play in tune! Each type of bassoon had its own problems: German bassoons were way too sharp on every low C and every low D. (not all of them, but most of them). French bassoons were often overall high to the piano, that is, higher than A - 442. This is an easier problem to solve than the sharp low notes on the German bassoon. Just use a slightly longer bocal/reed combination. Players of German bassoon so often let middle d' and e' flat stay flat and out of focus. French players often sound flat on middle d' also and on the second e-flat (forked fingering). These tuning discrepancies take on importance in any performance; in a competition they can make the difference between success and failure.
8. Some candidates used double tonguing on the rapid triplet passage in the coda of Weber's Hungarian Rondo. This has the effect of sounding like a machine-gun and in no way musical. An extreme tempo is not necessary for a great performance of this work anyway, so I recommend a right tempo and the use of some slurs to rest the tongue and to give emphasis to important parts of the line.
In summation, I enjoyed the opportunity to hear so many gifted young players. I believe that competitions of this type have validity, and if juries are fair-minded there is every chance that these competitions will stimulate ever higher standards of artistic performance.