Will opera get its slice of in-demand Stephen Daldry? What makes a great pianist - a Martha Argerich or a Krystian Zimerman? Gold-standard technique, of course; monastic intensity of dedication, one might add, and the gift of musicality as well as the X factor of individuality. But there are some brass-tacks involved too, and in terms of making a career, what is also necessary is capturing the right people's attention. The time-honoured way of doing this is through winning a prize at one of the major competitions - the Chopin, for instance (in which both Argerich and Zimerman triumphed), the Tchaikovsky in Moscow, or our very own Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, which will reach its climax in the city's splendid Town Hall on September 16 after more than two weeks of gruelling heats. Yet the Leeds has a problem. Held triennially since 1963 and still presided over by its co-founder, the indomitable nonagenarian Dame Fanny Waterman, it is venerable, well-run and considered free from corruption and parti pris. But the truth is that none of the competition's winners for the past 20 years or more has set Carnegie Hall or the record companies on fire, and its claim to be a game-changing king or queen-maker rests on its early years, when it crowned the likes of Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Dimitri Alexeev, Mitsuko Uchida and Andras Schiff. Will it be any different this time? There are 63 competitors, mostly Asians (doubtless with Tiger Moms standing over them), Russians with thunderous romanticism in their blood, or students of the elite Juilliard School and Curtis Institute. The gender balance has changed over the years - there are many more women than there were 50 years ago. Western Europe makes a poor showing numerically, and only two Brits are listed, both of them currently studying in the US. Our own conservatoires don't seem to be producing anyone top class: what is going wrong? What we can't complain about for once is the BBC's attitude: as part of its autumn piano season, it is doing the competition proud by broadcasting the semi-finals and final live on BBC Radio 3, followed by a six-part BBC Four series on the Leeds, broadcast on Friday nights from September 21. Each episode will include a concerto performed complete by one of the finalists, I was told by the series" editor Paul Bullock, so there won't be an excess of that irritatingly chummy and banal chat which has become the hallmark of so much classical music coverage today. Perhaps the best news is that the sensational Chinese pianist Lang Lang has agreed to act as the festival's international ambassador, and will be appearing in the programmes. This is jolly nice of him, as he was never a competitor here, let alone a winner - more's the pity.