CLASSICAL MUSIC / KENNETH HERMAN : Winning Isn’t Anything to Him, but He Does It Anyway

Not long ago, pianist Gustavo Romero dismissed musical competitions as ridiculous and anti-musical. In spite of such convictions, he entered and took first prize ($7,500) this month in Switzerland’s biennial Clara Haskil Piano Competition.

“I continue to feel the same way about competitions,” Romero said in a phone interview from Montreux, Switzerland. “However, they do provide a tremendous amount of exposure for the immediate time if you win one. I approached this competition more as an opportunity to perform here.”

Romero, the 24-year-old virtuoso from Chula Vista, played three solo programs in the Haskil competition, held Sept. 2. In the final round, he performed the Mendelssohn D Minor Piano Concerto with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra under conductor Uriel Segal.

“It is difficult to break into the Swiss musical culture, although I did play in Geneva,” Romero said. “I am very attached to this area, which I have visited every year at this time. There is a very serious, well-informed public here.”

According to Romero, the competition received considerable publicity in Europe, with the finals broadcast on Swiss television. The most immediate result of his victory--in the Haskil competition there are no second- or third-place prizes awarded--is an invitation to play a solo recital in the Zurich Tonhalle on Oct. 10. He was equally pleased with preliminary arrangements for several French and Swiss performances over the next two years, including next year’s Montreux Festival.

“You have to get the stamp of approval here, and competitions are important in Europe. I had to do it their way.”

When asked to speculate how he won the judges’ approval, Romero said he played the best Chopin Barcarolle of his life in the semifinals. He also credited the unusual repertory choices he received as setting him apart from the other contestants.

“In the quarterfinals, I was given the C Major Mozart Sonata that every student learns. It was so blithe among sound and fury heard throughout the day, I was told that it caught the jury’s interest. That piece comes down to pure beauty of sound and sensitivity to subtlely--you have to do a lot with very little.”

Each of the six finalists (Romero and five women) played a different concerto with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and Romero drew the Mendelssohn D Minor.

“What was wonderful is that this concerto is not heard so much,” he said. “So, if you have a good idea of what you want to do with the concerto, it can have a certain freshness about it. Of course, you also have to have fingers for all the notes. Mendelssohn was quite a piano virtuoso.”

Tomorrow Romero leaves Switzerland for a 12-concert tour of Norway. Local Romero fans will have to wait until Nov. 17 to hear their favorite pianist, when he performs a pair of Mozart concertos with the International Orchestra of USIU at La Jolla’s Sherwood Auditorium.

“Mozart is my great passion. It is quite curious; Mozart is the only composer--except Bach--that I can practice endlessly and not tire of. He is the only one who cheers me up.”

Romero will solo in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat Major and will be joined at another piano by International Orchestra music director Zoltan Rozsnyai in Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat Major. On this program he will also make his American conducting debut, leading the International Orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 in A Major.

Looking to San Diego projects, Romero has his sights set on the Mozart bicentennial year.

“I’m dying to put on something in 1991, perhaps a festival of Mozart’s piano music,” he said.

Sponsors and underwriters, are you listening?

Not just 76 trombones. The first meeting of the La Mesa Concert Band Society, a new community concert band, will be held Sept. 28 in the Grossmont High School band room. San Diego State University music professor Charles Yates and Grossmont High band director Warren Torns will conduct the new organization, which welcomes woodwind, brass and percussion players to its ranks.

According to Yates, the community band will provide social, recreational and artistic benefits, as well as a form of respite from academic and work responsibilities. Band aficionados may call 444-4118 for more information.

Hot summer for Symphony. The San Diego Symphony’s recently completed 12-week season of SummerPops struck a favorable chord, according to orchestra officials. In both total attendance and ticket income, the 1989 summer season showed significant increases over last summer’s offerings. This summer, the Hospitality Point concerts attracted about 128,700 patrons, a respectable increase over last season’s 112,600. Total ticket income from the 1989 summer season--$1.41 million--set a local record, replacing the 1986 summer season high of $1,092,000.

This season’s summer programming increased the amount of actual orchestral repertory performed, and pops patrons voted with their feet and their credit cards. Although Dvorak and Ravel appeared more frequently on the summer programs than, say, Mozart and Mahler, playing actual orchestra music proved more rewarding to both audiences and the orchestra musicians. Perhaps it is wiser to leave the pop scene to those practitioners who can’t tell a viola from a contrabassoon anyway.