Pianists: Dark Victor

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The seventh International Chopin Piano Competition began with a cloud of controversy and ended with a puff of perfume. As the field of 83 contestants was whittled down, one U.S. entrant who was eliminated lodged a sourgrapes complaint that the judges (14 from Communist nations, seven from Western countries) were "unfair" in advancing all twelve Russian and Polish performers. Yet when the final round opened last week, for the first time in the 38-year history of the competition (held every five years, except for an interruption during the war) there was not a single Russian in contention. If anything, the results could only be construed as unfair to the unfair sex: four of the six finalists were women.

Fleet & Fiery. Top prize of 40,000 zlotys ($1,667) went to Argentina's Martha Argerich, who won by an eyelash over Brazil's Arturo Moreira-Lima. The Polish audiences, who packed Warsaw's splendorous Philharmonic Hall for each session of the grueling three-week contest, took issue with the judges, awarded their longest, loudest ovations to 24-year-old Edward Auer (fifth) from Los Angeles, the first American ever to gain the finals in the prestigious competition for young pianists (age limit: 30). Auer captured the audience's fancy with his bashful manner and the flashy brilliance of his playing.

For Winner Argerich the ordeal was withering. Midway in a concert last week, a doctor was summoned backstage for Argerich, who was suffering from insomnia and near exhaustion. Nevertheless, she came onstage and swept through Chopin's Scherzo in C-Sharp Minor with a fleet and fiery abandon that left the audience gasping. Though a slight, delicate girl, she played with an almost masculine power and assertiveness. For more introspective passages, she tempered her mercurial attack with a limpid, poetic tone and subtlety of phrasing that won her the added honor as best interpreter of Chopin's mazurkas.

Peripatetic Life. The somber, tense, darkly attractive Argentine seems especially attuned to the melancholy moods of Chopin. Throughout most of the contest and even on the day of her triumph, she wore only black. Both her parents are officers in the Argentine diplomatic corps, and their peripatetic existence during her early years afforded her the opportunity of studying with a variety of noted teachers. After winning two international competitions, making a highly successful tour of Europe and an excellent first recording, she curiously retired from playing in public and all but gave up practicing. She resumed her career just six months ago after a brief, unhappy marriage.

Now 23, she is reticent about her personal life, presently lives in Brussels but claims no permanent address. In the wake of her victory, she has been deluged with offers to play in Communist countries but so far has refused to make any commitments. Her own appraisal of her winning performances: "Horrible. I don't think it went especially well. 1 could have done it better."