Nothing gets past Alink.
A propos of nothing – have you ever heard of Gustav Alink? I met him a few years ago, in The Hague (where he lives), when I was doing some research on music competitions for a magazine article.
Music competitions – specifically, piano competitions – are Alink’s passion. For years he has scrutinized competitors, tabulated results and analyzed trends. And some years ago, he talked Martha Argerich into lending her name to his “Argerich-Alink Foundation,” which provides information and advice to both competitors and competitions.
Music competitions – specifically, piano competitions – are Alink’s passion. For years he has scrutinized competitors, tabulated results and analyzed trends. And some years ago, he talked Martha Argerich into lending her name to his “Argerich-Alink Foundation,” which provides information and advice to both competitors and competitions.
Much like its founder, the AAF is very clever but a little eccentric. Its website (which looks like it was designed about 20 years ago) is a cornucopia of information – ranging from a useful calendar of application deadlines for competitions to obscure bits of industry news. Did you know that Tori Stodle, who runs a piano competition in Tromso, Norway, was recently made Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav? Now you do.
Perhaps the strangest thing to be found on the AAF website is a section devoted to “Misleading info on awards.” Here, Alink has assembled a rogue’s gallery of spurious claims about pianists and their prizes from around the world. Conspicuously, Alink casts no blame for these “errors” – he merely points them out.
For instance, the program book from a Deutsche Grammphon disc by Yundi Li states that the pianist took the first prize at the Liszt Competition in Utrecht in 1999. Not so. He won third prize. Ironically, Li was himself the victim of a similar misrepresentation. Alink found a website that credited Alexander Kobrin with the first prize at Warsaw’s Chopin Competition in 2000. It was Li who won first prize – and Kobrin placed third. (The offending website has since been corrected, you’ll be relieved to know.)
Have a look for yourself – if you can handle the truth! And beware, all pianists, publicists and managers who might be tempted to stray from the straight and narrow. Gustav Alink is watching.
© Colin Eatock 2011
Perhaps the strangest thing to be found on the AAF website is a section devoted to “Misleading info on awards.” Here, Alink has assembled a rogue’s gallery of spurious claims about pianists and their prizes from around the world. Conspicuously, Alink casts no blame for these “errors” – he merely points them out.
For instance, the program book from a Deutsche Grammphon disc by Yundi Li states that the pianist took the first prize at the Liszt Competition in Utrecht in 1999. Not so. He won third prize. Ironically, Li was himself the victim of a similar misrepresentation. Alink found a website that credited Alexander Kobrin with the first prize at Warsaw’s Chopin Competition in 2000. It was Li who won first prize – and Kobrin placed third. (The offending website has since been corrected, you’ll be relieved to know.)
Have a look for yourself – if you can handle the truth! And beware, all pianists, publicists and managers who might be tempted to stray from the straight and narrow. Gustav Alink is watching.
© Colin Eatock 2011
RSS Feed
