RDS, NCH, Dublin Fri-May 15th. 01-2721523

It’s piano competition time again. The Axa Dublin International Piano Competition gets in train on Friday, with more than three dozen pianists contesting the first round at the RDS (Friday to Monday) and 20 surviving into the second round (on Wednesday and Thursday). The semi-finals (12 players) and finals (six) each take up two days at the National Concert Hall (May 9th, 10th, 14th and 15th).

This year’s opening field runs to just 40 players (in 1991 it went as high as 62), which should make life rather easier for the jury in the first round. The competitors are roughly equally spread between pianists from this side of the Atlantic and those from further afield.

The largest representations are from Korea, the US and Ireland, and there are none this year from Italy or Finland, where the 1994 and 2003 winners came from.

The new hopefuls will have the opportunity of hearing Romain Descharmes, the previous prizewinner, who will be in concert on Friday 8th playing Rachmaninov’s Second Concerto with the RTÉ NSO under Gerhard Markson.

Descharmes can also be heard in a pre-concert conversation with the 1991 first prizewinner, Pavel Nersessian.