ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Competing In Tchaikovsky Contest

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 11

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT Competing In Tchaikovsky Contest

/London Correspondent of '■The Press") William Langford, a 22-year-oM Christchurch

pianist studying at the Royal Academy of Mnsic, London, has been accepted as a competitor for the Third Internationa] Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow from June 10 to 29.

Confirmation of his selection by the organising committee means that there will be two young New Zealand musicians in this contest, which is of the highest musical status. The other entrant is Ross Pople, a 20-year-old Wanganui cellist. William Langford’s name is well-known to concert-goers m Auckland. Wellington and Christchurch'. He was born in Christchurch in October, 1943, and developed keyboard facility and improvisatory powers at an early age, beginning piano studies at the age of nine. At 12 he came under the guidance of Ernest Empson, and two years later performed the Beethoven Concerto No. 1 with an orchestra conducted by John Hopkins.

Initial public experience was gained in local competitions from about the age of 12, and later he performed regularly for various cultural organisations. When Bela Siki held a national master class in Wellington in 1962 William Langford was the voungest of five New Zealand pianists to participate. He first broadcast at the age of nine and contributed many programmes to the N.Z.B.C. until his departure from New Zealand in 1963 with an Associated Board Scholarship to London. His first full-scale public recital was held at the Civic Theatre, Christchurch, in November, 1962. This was also his farewell concert. ENDORSEMENT Mr Langford’s application to the Moscow Organising Committee of the competition had the enthusiastic endorsement of Sir Thomas Armstrong, principal of the Royal Academy. Sir Thomas Armstrong himself a member of the adjudicating panel at a previous competition, with years of experience of other international piano competitions, is averse to students entering until they are quite ready. The syllabus for the competition is split up into three demanding auditions. If successful at the first audition. William Langford will go forward to the second from which finalists are selected for the third auditions. In the first audition he will play a Prelude and Fugue from Bach’s "Well Tempered Clavier” volume 1; Haydn’s

Sonata in F Major: two studies by Chopin, one by Liszt and one by Rachmanj. now, and two of “The Seasons” by Tchaikovsky. In the second audition his works would be the Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in F Minor, Book 1; the Scriabin Sonata No. 5 and Schubert’s Sonata in A Major (posthumous); Tchaikovsky’s Variations in F Major, Opus 19“Poem” by Arno Babajanian’, a work by a Russian composer specially for the competition. The second audition also has to include a work by a contemporary composer, preferably of the country represented by the contestant. Unfortunately a time limit of 10 minutes precludes much of the best piano music written by New Zealand composers and Mr Langford has

Instead chosen to perform a Scherzo by his professor, Franz Reisenstein. The final audition works are Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, and the Tchaikovsky Concerto No.l. AT PRACTICE Langford says that some of the works had already been his repertoire for some time, and he has been practising hard for the competition for about a year now. Asked how he thought he might fare, the young musician said: “I always feel a little nervous before any concert that is coming up; I am nervous until I start playing.” The first Tchaikovsky piano competition was won by Van Cliburn. John Ogden of Britain, and Vladimir Ashkenazy of the U.S.S.R. were jointly

awarded first prize of the second competition. The young cellist, Ross Pople, who is also hard at work preparing for the Moscow contests, will give a solo recital at the Royal Academy this week. He will play the Locatelli Sonata in D Major, Beethoven’s Sonata in G Minor and Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, by Miaskovsky, a Russian composer who has never been played outside of Russia before. Mr Pople was the first cellist at the Royal Academy to win a recital medal in two years instead of the usual five years, and this month’s concert is his delayed “medal recital.” After the Moscow competition he is returning to New Zealand, with his young Australian singer wife.