It's a week in which to think piano, and not just because the Axa Dublin International Piano Competition is underway. Vladimir Ashkenazy is at the NCH on Thursday, playing Schumann, Ravel and Rachmaninov. Max Levinson, winner of the last Dublin Piano Competition, makes his first concerto appearance with the NSO since his 1997 success when he plays Bartok's Second Concerto under Nicholas Cleobury on Friday at the NCH. And the Axa Competition itself is at the RDS almost daily - the playing began yesterday. It's one of the ironies of the competition world, that some of the best performances are given in the early rounds. The pressure that goes with the finals, combined with the competitors' relative inexperience in working with the orchestra, tends to make the most public round (the televised concerto finals) the least satisfactory, musically.
