2011 At the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition, an uproar followed the second-round results of the piano competition.
The Guardian, concluding that the Tchaikovsky Competition audience is "one of the most interactive, involved and opinionated groups of music lovers anywhere," called Lubyantsev, who was a top prizewinner at the competition's previous edition, a "favorite of the fervent, Muscovite public" and described his being "mobbed like a pop star by groups of photographers, journalists and teenage girls" backstage after his last performance. According to the newspaper, it was his departure that "caused the most controversy." Remarkable accounts of the public's unequivocal behavior towards Lubyantsev and towards some jury members appeared in international and Russian newspapers.
The Times wrote that
Valery Gergiev, chairman of the organizing committee, was "forced" to call a press conference "to answer the press outcry about the piano jury's decisions." citing the presence of such prizes at other major competitions, including the
Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels. Speaking later in an interview on
Radio Svoboda, critic Yuliya Bederova noted that in his refusal Gergiev did not cite the competition's regulations, which forbade the introduction of new awards later than two months before the start, but rather based his refusal on the fear that "any other opinions, should they be different, would call the jury's position into question." She continued, "For her colleagues and her, additional viewpoints are an enrichment and not a refutation of the jury's opinion or its authoritativeness," and noted that at the time of the press conference it was unknown whether the results of critics' vote and the jury's vote would be different. Irina Prokhorova commented that the critics' feelings and actions were "civic consciousness in a genuine and not vulgar form." Following the voting of twenty-four professional music critics, The day after Lubyantsev's exit, Valery Gergiev invited him to perform at the
Mariinsky Theater. and with a very different background and training from typical competitors, became the "audience's favorite" In
The Huffington Post, critic Olivier Bellamy wrote, "There hasn't been a foreign pianist who has caused such a stir since
Glenn Gould's arrival in Moscow, or
Van Cliburn's victory at the Tchaikovsky Competition." Nonetheless, Debargue finished in fourth place. The Moscow Music Critics Association, however, awarded him their prize for "the pianist whose incredible gift, artistic vision and creative freedom have impressed the critics as well as the audience." Regarding the results of the competition, jury member
Boris Berezovsky said afterwards on Russian radio:''I'm not satisfied with the results of the competition. Our beloved Frenchman Lucas Debargue who deserved as a minimum a bronze, in my opinion even silver, was shifted to the fourth. Surprisingly, it was the decision of non-Russian jury members…
2019 At the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition, the Moscow Music Critics Association awarded its prize to Russian violinist
Aylen Pritchin, "for his artistic mastery and the beauty of his programs." == Winners ==