I’m a competition virgin: sure, I’ve watched large swathes of Cardiff and Leeds down the years but I’ve never actually attended a major competition, let alone watched one from the inside. So now’s my chance. I’m in St Petersburg for the next week-and-a-half fronting the coverage for medici.tv of the vocal rounds of the Tchaikovsky Competition.

The Tchaikovsky Competition was started in 1958 and, in the midst of the Cold War, sent a powerful message around the world that music could be a potent force for peace when Van Cliburn took home the piano prize. Apparently the judges were so concerned as they entered their final deliberations that they contacted General Secretary Kruschev to ask what to do. ‘Is he the best?’ he’s supposed to have asked. ‘Yes!’ ‘Well, give him the prize!’ And still the name Van Cliburn (which the Russians pronounce Vancleeburn) has echoes even today. My co-host, Alexander Malich (who’s just 32) remembers a large white LP box-set occupying pride of place at his parents’ house. (When Van Cliburn got back to the States, and after a ticker-tape parade, he recorded Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto for RCA and it became the first classical album to go platinum – one million copies – and before long had sold three times that number.)

The Tchaikovsky Competition has for the past two editions – like the Olympics, it’s held every four years – been re-energised by that musical powerhouse, Valery Gergiev. The cello and vocal rounds take place at the Mariinsky Theatre, his fiefdom in St Petersburg, and following the awards ceremony and gala in Moscow on July 1 and 2, the competition closes with a second gala back in St Petersburg with President Putin in attendance. Without wishing to engage with any political dimension here, it does say a lot for the status that classical music holds here, particularly in this city where you can encounter a statue to a great composer with remarkable regularity. The Conservatoire on whose roof Shostakovich did his fire warden duties stands just next to the original Mariinsky Theatre.

We’re housed in Mariinsky 2 (there’s even a Mariinsky 3), a state-of-the-art opera-house-cum-concert-hall-cum-recital-hall complex that has been the subject of some controversy because it makes a fairly radical departure from St Petersburg’s very traditional, and very beautiful, historic architecture. Coming from London I’m fairly used to such juxtapositions, and I rather like its radical relationship with its very staid and grand neighbour, the old theatre.

Some 40 singers appear in Round 1, and this year there’s a rather glaring lack of musicians from Western Europe or the US – the majority come from Russia, the former USSR, South Korea and China (the other categories seem to have a better national spread, which counts against the conspiracy theorists). Round 1, over three days, reduces that 40 to 20, which in turn comes down to eight and finally, one male singer and one female emerge as the winners.

After Day 1, which included three 'Songs to the Moon' from Rusalka, it’s difficult to make any predictions, but with each candidate having to offer a Baroque/Classical opera or oratorio aria, a Romantic opera aria and Tchaikovsky song we’re certainly getting – in just 20 minutes each – a 3D view of what they’re capable of. My guess is that things will get much more interesting in the Second Round! 

The four categories (piano, violin, cello and voice) of the Tchaikovsky Competition are broadcast live over the internet on Medici.TV and then are available in its archive. And if you’re a competition addict, do join in on social media using #TCH15