Rowena Arrieta, the only Filipino Laureate of the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition made a successful comeback as soloist of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra last Friday, March 14, under the baton of Maestro Grzgorz Nowak at Samsung Theater in Circuit Makati.
The pianist interpreted Liszt’s Totentanz which is based on “Dies Irae (Day of Wrath)” from the Requiem Mass.
Also, a first prize winner of the Jose Iturbi International Piano Competition in Spain and the Frinna Auerbach Piano Competition in New York, Arrieta shared what she learned from joining three big competitions in Russia, Spain and New York.
Said Arrieta: “In any competition you find yourself, the biggest challenge is how to cope with pressure. I learned that the best way to deal with competitions is to be yourself. The best approach in handling the pressure is by not comparing oneself with the other competitors. If you work hard to polish your craft, you will emerge a better artist. Competition in music is not like competing in sports. There are better things you should know more than acquiring speed and precision.”
The 7th Tchaikovsky Competition started with elaborate ceremonies on the 10th of June 1982 with floral offerings at the statue of the Russian composer carrying the name of the competition.
The atmosphere evoked holiday excitement as music was as much a part of Russian life as its vodka. An American correspondent writing of the Russian way of life in his book, “The Russians,” had taken note of the emotional side of the typical Soviet profile:
“In its public face . . . sentimentalism shows itself in the Russian love of the lush melancholy Tchaikovsky and the fairy tale world of romantic ballets like Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. They fell in love with Van Cliburn as the handsome young American who played their Tchaikovsky with heart. When La Scala Opera and Chorus toured Moscow, the Russians were literally overcome by the power and emotion of their Verdi “Requiem” and showered the chorus with applause, bravos and flowers… The response to La Scala was no accident, for Russians are like Italians in their love for strong emotions and undiluted heroics.”
To Rowena Arrieta, the event was the culmination of a mere two-year preparation worked out secretly for her by her teacher, Prof. Yevgeny Malinin who, Winnie said, works very quietly. “I worked hard for the last two years but I didn’t know I would be ready for this competition. I only learned he was serious about entering me in the competition when I saw the application forms.”
But the month the competition was to open, Winnie as she is known to her friends was having a hard time with her hectic pace at the Conservatory. “Before the competition, I had to finish my exams and I hardly slept trying to cope with all the requirements. It’s not that easy to get excellent grades at the Conservatory. You really have to sweat it out.”
The competition for piano, violin, cello and solo singing drew some 346 contestants from 44 countries with 79 pianists vying in the piano category.
In the piano category alone, the Philippine contestant had to compete with 32 Americans, 14 Japanese, six Russians, two Austrians, seven Bulgarians, to name a few. The biggest discovery Rowena had to take in stride was that most of the contestants were already prize winners in other competitions like the Leeds Competition, the Chopin Competition, the Schumann Competition, the Liszt-Bartok, among others.
Russian pianist Kale Randalu who Mrs. Arambulo said, played the most exquisite Mozart she had ever heard in her whole life, was already one of the top three winners in the 1981 Schumann Competition. Asked by a music correspondent how long it took him to prepare for the Tchaikovsky Competition, Randalu replied “all of ten years.”
Comparing the two competitions, he said: “It was a great honor for me to win an award at the Schumann competition. But certainly, the two contests are quite different in scale, both in regard to the program and the requirements put on the performers. The Tchaikovsky competition is much more difficult.”
Another previous prize-winner is Russian pianist Vladimir Ovchikinov, 24, who had won second place in the 1980 International Piano Competition in Montreal and who would share second place at the end of the competition along with British pianist Peter Donahoe.
Out of the 120 applicants in the piano category, only 79 appeared. Recalled Mrs. Arambulo: “It was funny but Winnie got nervous in the drawing of lots than she ever was at performing. She got number 28. Seven pianists were heard every day and she played on the fourth day. No, she didn’t watch any of the contestants. She stayed at home and practised and practised. Meanwhile I was doing my own judging. Reaching home after watching the day’s entries, I was quite frank with Winnie as to which contestant I found good but at the same time I was very encouraging. It was easy to be discouraged in that competition. Looking at everybody’s biodata, you will find out most of the contestants are veterans in all the competitions imaginable.”
In the first round, the contestants were required to play prelude and fugue from Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier, one sonata of either Mozart or Beethoven, one Scriabin etude, one Chopin etude, one etude from Rachmaninoff’s Etude-Tableau, one Liszt-Paganini etude and one piece from Tchaikovsky’s The Season. Out of the 78 members of the board of judges, 23 are Russian and 55 from many countries also joining the competition. Presidents of the juries were well-known Soviet musicians Otar Taktakishvili (piano), Leonid Kogan (violin), Daniil Shafran (cello) and Irina Arkhipova (solo singing).
In the piano category, 18 judges heard the contestants from 9:30 in the morning to 12:30 in the afternoon and then from seven to 10:30 in the evening.
The purpose of the first round, as learned by Mrs. Arambulo from the judges and professors watching the competition, was to see how solid a technician a pianist was. “That accounted for the many etudes required in the first round. Many of them played the hardest Beethoven sonatas and I think only four or five played Mozart sonatas. I can imagine the hard task the judges had to go through. Imagine listening to some 79 pianists playing standard pieces for several days!”
A look at the competition diary showed a clear indication as to who would emerge winners even in the second round. In the first round, the judges observed:
“Peter Donahoe (Great Britain) is a pianist of the intellectual kind. Philosophic contemplation dominated his performance at the expense of spontaneity. In his original and convincing rendering of the Bach and Beethoven Sonata in A major as well as in his analytical treatment of piano textures in the Rachmaninoff and Scriabin etudes he displayed himself as an intelligent and in many ways accomplished pianist.”
Of the Philippine contestant, the competition diary noted: “Maria Rowena Arrieta is the first musician in the Philippines to play in the Moscow competition. The 19-year-old pianist showed solid technique, enthusiasm and a good sense of form. For a fragile small girl at the piano, the Paganini-Liszt Etude in A Minor sounded unexpectedly expansive and was a sample of full-scale virtuoso playing.’
In the violin category, Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova who would emerge first prize winner had the judges noting in the first round: “Viktoria Mullova (USSR) opened the audition on June 18. A violinist of a very high class, she amazed the public with her bewitchingly virtuoso skill in Paganini’s Fifth Capriccio. The super-fast tempo, however, marred the artistic impression of the middle part of the Seventeenth Capriccio and the Waltz-Scherzo. The Bach G Minor Adagio was noble and thoughtful. The first movement of Mozart’s No. 5 Concerto was played in the academic tradition in the best sense of the word, every detail was fine and well-polished.”
Of the 79 pianists in the first round, only 23 remained and the Philippine pianist was one of them. The losers were quickly given their plane tickets back home courtesy of the Soviet government. But the Japanese losers remained for they could well afford 35 rubles a day for board and lodging until the last day of the competition.
As it turned out, the first round of the competition was the event that introduced the Philippines’ Winnie Arrieta to a wide segment of Russian audiences. She was an instant star the very minute she played the last required piece.
Recalled Winnie: “I couldn’t believe that the media would shower me with attention after the first round. I was hounded by TV cameras, I had endless interviews, I was stopped in the streets and even aboard public vehicles for autographs. Even in the public rest rooms, old women who saw and heard me came to me to say that my playing touched them.”
The public adulation must have had a sobering effect on Arrieta who didn’t have a single international competition experience to her credit. Before she knew it, she was already the subject of a TV documentary even as the competition was still in progress. Apart from the regular TV coverage during competition proper, Winnie found herself trailed by TV cameras even when walking down Red Square or visiting Lenin’s tomb or just relaxing at home. Even the American Broadcasting Company had taken a fancy at her. In one of those endless TV appearances, she found herself delivering a lecture on Rachmaninoff for two hours — and in Russian yet.
“I was worried about all those media coverages. I told myself “what if I lose in the end?’ Or ‘what if I only end up with a Diploma, that is land, only in between 9th and 13th places? I was always assured by everybody I would land in the semi-finals but I refused to believe those assurances. I was so frantic I did nothing but practise and practise up to the very end.”
A profound observation by the Czech member of the piano jury, Frantisek Rauch, summed up the new breed of keyboard artists in the Moscow competition: “Today young performers seek truth and sincerity in music rather than pianistic effects. The programs of major competitions, like those in Brussels and in Moscow, include several etudes six at the former and four at the latter contest. Artists who are not perceptive enough aim exclusively at virtuoso technique which becomes for them an end in itself. At the Tchaikovsky competition, however, the pianist’s desire to perceive the essence of their music is becoming more and more evident. This can be seen best of all in the treatment of Tchaikovsky where even the slightest of self-admiration on the part of the musician may destroy the subtle lyricism of the composition.
After the tension of the first round with a very high mortality rate, the second round started with even more demanding requirements which included one sonata of either Prokofieff, or Shostakovich, two major works of great difficulty of which one is a West European composer (i.e. Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel and Franck), a work by Russian composers (i.e. Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Glazounov (one of the sonatas), Stravinsky, Kabalovsky, Khachaturian and three others, any of the works of Tchaikovsky (i.e. Sonata in G Major, first movement; Sonata in C Sharp Minor, Variations in F Major, Op. 19 and Sonata in F Minor) and then a compulsory piece by Soviet composer Otar Taktakishvili and then one piece of a composer of the 20th century represented by a performer.
“The thing with Rowena,” Mrs. Arambulo said, “was that she timed all the required pieces to exactly one hour and 15 minutes as required. Most of the contestants had to cut in the middle of the performance. I can credit Prof. Malinin for this. Also, Winnie’s Russian teacher recommended a very good programming. The purpose of the second round is to find out the over-all musicality of the contestant. Most of the contestants did choose a repertoire that would showcase their technique rather than musicality. As a result, they sounded very mechanical.”
Out of the 23 semi-finalists, only 13 qualified for the finals.
At this point in the competition, the Philippine First Lady, Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Marcos, arrived and so did the special guest of honor, conductor Redentor Romero. From the airport, Mrs. Marcos rushed to the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in time for the performance of the Philippine contestant. Winnie played Tchaikovsky’s No. 1 and Saint-Saen’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
Winnie recalled: “It was a very hectic day. The two concerti by every contestant was rehearsed on the very day they were all set to perform. I rehearsed at 8:00 in the morning and performed at four in the afternoon. It was a real marathon with no break between two concerti. After the first concerto, you are allowed a few minutes backstage and then you will be sent out on stage for the second concerto.”
As it unreeled, the judges had to listen to 13 (!) versions of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and 13 other concerti of the contestant’s choice.
This time, the purpose of the last round was to find out how good a pianist was in ensemble playing.
The competition ended on the third day after Winnie Arrieta performed and at about 11 p.m. The judges announced the results would be ready by 12:30 in the morning. But they weren’t. It was at this point that everybody became nervous as contestants, teachers and audiences waited outside the Moscow Conservatory for the results which were finally announced at about four in the morning.
First, they asked the contestants to go up.
Then the verdict: No first prize.
Second prize was shared by British pianist Peter Donahoe and Russian pianist Vladimir Ovchikinov.
Third prize went to Japanese pianist Michie Koyama.
Fourth place was shared by Soviet pianists Dmitry Gaiduk and Kale Randalu.
Winnie Arrieta placed fifth and became the first Filipino pianist to be named Laureate in the Tchaikovsky Competition.
Now a fulfilled mother, Arrieta said marriage and motherhood have changed her a lot. “Being a mother and wife hastened my maturity both as a person and as an artist. It also widened my perspective. With marriage and motherhood, my art and life gave way to a new me. When you are young and inexperienced, you tend to focus on personal ambition. Now I focus on people dearest to me and conscious that I need to give thanks to the Divine Providence for giving me a special gift in music.”
In 1982, Arrieta was hailed the “youngest and most promising of 82 contestants” in the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow.
One of the first graduates of the Philippines High School for the Arts (PHSA), Arrieta received her Master’s Degree from the Moscow State Conservatory. She later pursued Professional Studies at the Manhattan School of Music as a student of Dr. Solomon Mikowsky and as a recipient of the Elva Van Gelder Memorial Scholarship.
The March 14 PPO concert also featured violinist Diomedes Saraza, Jr. in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and concluded with Tschaikovsky’s Swan Lake Suite.