Ivo Pogorelich Piano Competition Gets Under Way : Music: Belgium’s Johan Schmidt is the first of 40 pianists on Ambassador Auditorium’s stage.

Garbed in clothes ranging from beach-casual to elegant formal wear, the 40 pianists in the preliminary round of the Ivo Pogorelich Solo Piano Competition drew numbers for their playing order at Pasadena’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel Wednesday night. In two weeks, one of the 40 will be awarded a gold sculpture and $100,000 in cash.

At a reception at the hotel, the 12 previously unannounced jurors of the competition--pianists, critics, a musical author, one impresario and two broadcasters--were introduced for the first time. Their identities had been a secret until Wednesday.

David Hulme, director of Ambassador Performing Arts, sponsor of the competition, named the jury. Then pianist Ivo Pogorelich, founder of the ostensibly triennial competition that bears his name, assisted in the drawing of numbers for the contestants’ order of playing.

Thursday morning, in Ambassador Auditorium, the competitors and the judges went to work.

Promptly at 9:06, the first contestant, 29-year-old Johan Schmidt of Belgium, entered the stage to play Bach’s C-minor Partita, followed by four etudes by Rachmaninoff, Chopin and Liszt.

Choosing from among four Hamburg Steinway or Yamaha grand pianos, the competitors--including a dozen from the United States, eight from Russia and five from Italy--will play Bach and more etudes through Monday night, when the first round ends.

In Stage 2, Thursday and next Friday, 12 semi-finalists will play short recitals, 60 to 70 minutes in length. The finals, Stage 3, will showcase the six survivors of the semi-finals in full recitals, two per evening, on the Ambassador Auditorium stage, Dec. 13-15.

As announced Wednesday, the 13-member panel of judges--headed by Pogorelich’s wife, mentor and teacher, Alice Kezeradze from the Republic of Georgia--comprises pianists Gyorgy Sandor, Nodar Gabunia, August Faulend-Heferer, Pierre Jasmin and Irina Zaritskaya; critics Klaus Bennert, Sachio Moroishi and Gennady Tsipin, author Bryce Morrison, impresario Marco Riaskoff and musical broadcasters Robert Sherman and Jim Svejda.