Phase One is drawing to a conclusion: members of the Jury will make their decision at 9.30pm on Thursday, October 7. Who will go through to the second stage of the Competition?

We’ll know soon enough. Talking of judges, my colleague Aleksander Laskowski, editor- in-chief of the Chopin Express, managed to catch a very distinguished member of the jury today for an interview – none other than the elusive Martha Argerich. Among other things, she talked to him about playing an original Erard in public for the first time in Warsaw. The full interview comes out in Saturday’s edition of the Chopin Express.

There were some notable performances on Wednesday. I attended only the afternoon sessions but was most impressed with the playing of Korean Sung-Jae Kim, American Eric Zuber and Russian Vladimir Matusevich. However, I did get the impression that some competitors were playing it safe with repertoire. There are fairly rigid rules concerning choices of works for the first stage – two études from a selection to be played one after the other, and two works from a selection of Ballades, Nocturnes and Scherzos. There’s still quite a lot of choice here, but it sometimes seems that the Etudes Op 10 No 1 and Op 25 No 11, the Nocturne in D flat and Ballade in G minor just keep coming round again and again.

I’ve heard a rumour that there might some secret scouts from agents and record companies hidden in the audience – even at this early stage in the competition. No pressure then! However everyone is in agreement that the standard is particularly high this year. It’s starting to get really exciting…