Renato Vinicius <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I recently heard about stories involving Ivo Pogorelich and some
>competitions in which he had failed and about a controverse in one of them
>with Martha Argerich.  Could somebody tell me these stories or say if they
>are true or not?

As far as I know, Martha Argerich was a jury member at the Chopin
International Competition 1980.  When she saw that the Croat was not going
to win the First Prize, she reportedly expressed her anger and left.  The
1st prize went to Dang Thai Son from Vietnam.  Many thought at the time
that he had been awarded the prize because he had studied in Moscow and had
been sent to the Soviet Union by an orthodox communist government, while
Pogorelich was from Yugoslavia, and moreover from one of the more Western
parts of the country.  Anyway things are sometimes more complicated than
they appear.  (Dang Thai Son now lives in Canada (I think).  Although he is
vastly different from Pogorelich, he is still well worth hearing, notably
in many Chopin pieces.  His pianism is quite special, and may or may not be
appreciated -- apparently he has quite a few Japanese fans, which is by no
means obvious for an Asian performer, especially if he is not Japanese.)

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le
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