Day Two: Preliminaries Scharpach Competition Cat. 3
Last year, the complete Category 3 competition (conservatory students and professionals) took place on the last day of the festival. It took quite some hours and caused some extension, because many candidates played more than the permitted duration of the programme. For that reason, this year the organisation had chosen a first round - finals system. Additionally the player would be disqualified if he or she played too long. The first round had a short programme (less than ten minutes), those who reached the finals would have to play 20 minutes.
To prevent that we would be flooded by an overdose of contemporary music like last year, the players had to play pieces from at least two style periods. I did fully agree with that decision!
The Orgelzaal of the Artez Conservatorium was the scene for the first round. I would have liked to be present, but alas: our schedule for the masterclasses prevented it. Fortunately I did not miss all guitarist from this competition, because five competitors passed the first rounds.