Day Two: Preliminaries Scharpach Competition Cat. 1
Last year I missed the preliminaries for the professionals and the conservatory students because of the scheduling of the master classes. This year, however, I had opportunity to attend!
I will give away one of my impressions in advance: I guess Bobby Rootveld’s Workshop Stage Presentation must be compulsory for the participants of Category 1, just like the master classes.
At least 16 out of 22 contestants just sat down and started playing without a word. It is surely true that the jury knows what will be played, but the unsuspecting audience had to play the Guess Who and What? game every time.
I am sorry that because of this I do not know the name of every piece which was played. In that case I’ll confine myself to a gamble or an impression.
So here a hint from a truly interested listener: please tell who you are and what you are going to play. This is not only profitable for my musical education, but I will also remember the name of a guitarist which has been playing well, specifically when going through CDs in a shop or browsing a concert programme.
Well, back to business. When I sat down in the Orgelzaal of the Artez Conservatory, I felt quite a lot of chilling air circulation, while it was not warm at all. Popularly said: it was quite draughty. I hope the guitarists were not affected.
Every candidate had a time slot of about eight minutes to show his or her skills on the guitar. The timekeeping was strict but fair (a stopwatch was used). Nobody exceeded the time limits.
The information package which I got via email included a candidate list, so in theory I am able to write an impression about every contestant I listened to. No, definitely no jury review, just some listener’s impressions.
;-) I do hope that I noted the candidates in the right order, because else I am the one who is out of synchronisation here. One of the problems I experienced during the preliminaries was the sudden change of the contestant order: In some cases I had to guess the candidate’s name by his or her looks, so if a made an error, I am truly sorry!
Catherine Struys opened the competition with the slow movement from the Sonata Meridional by Ponce. She played it with a beautiful and powerful tone and polished dynamics.
Irina Kulikova was second. I guessed her piece a composition by Mertz or Coste. A few days later it appeared to be Andante and Rondo by Aguado, so I was not far off! She played this virtuoso piece clearly, slightly modestly but very concentrated
After Kulikova, Endo Yosuke hit the stage. By the sound of it, he played a Fugue by Bach. He took off well and played the complicated dance of voices with a clear intent. Unfortunately fate stroke and Bach showed himself a killer for the memory, the player got his wires crossed completely. I could sympathize with him. ;-) My Love does so with me, so she would rather not be in the audience when I perform on some stage.
After some time he found back the thread, but later the game appeared to be over. Jorge Castaneda was the next player in the row. I recognized his first piece: Tarantella by Mertz. Wow, what a pace! It was a shame that the clarity of the piece suffered a bit from the high tempo. After Mertz he played some Renaissance music. Because a lot of Renaissance music is anonymous, I should hardly miss the announcement, isn’t it? He played this piece at a much more comfortable tempo, even though some of the runs showed restlessness.
Fabian Freesen performed with the Prelude in E by Bach. I had heard him practising in the canteen, at that occasion he played it even faster than Ana Vidovic! On stage he took things more easy and permitted the music to sing. I liked the performance. His second piece -something by Brouwer, I guess- was very virtuoso, good shot!
Anna Bragina played a contemporary piece with beautiful long harmonics. It sounded to me like a Japanese piece. She played best in the quiet passages, the loud sections -there was a very long crescendo in the piece- were far from transparent.
After the break we saw Jan Sanen, who played the same piece as Anna Bragina. Comparing the performances is obvious. He probably exactly followed the text and phrased far less. The challenge of the piece was to build up tension while maintaining its quiet pulse. Unfortunately this pulse disappeared in the crescendo. Still hats off having a shot at the prizes with such an awkward piece!
Lore Raus presented a Sonata by Scarlatti, which one of the 550, I don’t know. She played with a powerful touch, using effective two string trills to keep the clarity in the piece.
The next player was Daniel Schatz. He performed a Japanese piece, later I found out it was Equinox by Takemitsu. Indeed the quiet atmosphere of a clear summer night. He interpreted the fragile moods well.
When Bo Ye Hwang started to play her piece, I lost my way. It was contemporary music, but without background information it is hard to focus yourself. The composition was rather fragmented and chaotic. It looked like a multi-movement suite, but I did not hear any clear relationship between the sections but the chaos. Far too High Tech for me!
Magdalena Kaltcheva played a piece which sounded quite familiar to me, it had to be Albeniz! She played the piece with fervour, eying her guitar with the proud glance of a genuine Dona Espana. A pleasure to watch!
Stephane Dupont announced that he would play two movements from a Sonatina by Morel. The slow movement appeared to be a beautiful introvert piece which was spiced up with some virtuoso passages. He played it coherently. The fast movement, however, became a bit fuzzy. ;-) Or it was just too fast for my ears!
Klyushin Pavel started a piece which looked to me like Fandango from the Tres Piezas by Rodrigo (yes, I should keep my guitar literature better). He played it firmly and consistently in structure, which is music to my ears.
A second break provided for some recreation, because over twenty candidates is quite a run for the audience and certainly the jury.
After the break Guan Cang stepped up, playing a piece that had to be something by Bach. The many ornaments made recognition a bit hard. After the baroque piece he played something classical, but this remained a guess for me too. One way or the other this guessing diverts the attention from the music, which is annoying. It’s surprising how much direction the name of the composer and the piece provides you!
Jean Francois Macq announced that he would play Saudade Nr 3 by Roland Dyens. I was wondering if I would recognize the piece. After the intro it became clear, I had heard Robert playing the piece: nice and swinging with lots of virtuosity. I was so impressed! Everything seemed to proceed perfectly towards the end of the piece, but alas, then the player tempted fate, corrected his tuning while playing and dropped out of rhythm completely. Such a shame!
Jona Kesteleyn told that his piece would be the first movement from the Sonate by Antonio Jose. Thanks to Zoran Dukic I was acquainted with the piece. This music is of a different kind like we heard with the Suadade by Dyens, so you are not swinging along, but Kesteleyn nevertheless performed well.
Sabrina Vlaskelic entered - no that’s not the right word- in her stylish long dress she strode on stage, installed herself elegantly and started to play a serene piece. Doing so she showed a passionate expression both musically and physically, playing together with her guitar in arabesques as seen amongst lovers. Phrases and poses were in perfect harmony! After the slow passionate movement she started the virtuoso finale. After she finished it -I guess in her opinion it was far from perfect, even though I did not agree- she shot an angry glance at her poor friend guitar and strode off the stage in a bad temper. Well, this is passion! La Diva!
Floria Nica made a quite different appearance. Again in this case I noticed my lack of musical education, but I guess it is hardly possible to know all guitar repertoire at first hearing. She played two pieces, one which was interesting in dynamics and the other did not touch any string with me. That’s my problem with contemporary music: the frustration of hearing words but failing to understand the message.
Finally it was the turn of Carrero Suarez. In the canteen I had heard him practising real powerplay, even with a towel between the strings for damping, it sounded quite strong. He played a piece from the Latin idiom with firm but relaxed virtuosity.
Officially all candidates had hit the stage now, but after some discussion in the jury, two extra players appeared. Well I was quite lost here, so I have no impression of these guitarists. I feared that my candidate list would be out of step with reality, but there is little I can do about that!
Anyway, it was a rewarding experience to see the preliminaries. I have deep respect for the jury who had to choose the best from all these candidates, while quite a lot of them had little difference in quality.
Another thing I found a joy to watch was the way the guitarists were on stage and approached the music physically. Specifically the facial expressions told a personal story which not only enhanced (or sometimes weakened) the intention and atmosphere of the tones, but gave away something about the feelings with the piece as well. It’s a joy to watch how a player in deep concentration sometimes merges with what he or she is playing. That makes me curious about the story which is playing in their heads.
A cabaret performer once declaimed such a musician’s "story in the head" in a little corny-humorous way during his performance of the Mondscheinsonate on piano, in terms of "I’d rather like to hang out in front of the tele" or "oh dear, I think I have forgotten my packed lunch". Well, I guess the candidates were much more concentrated on their music!
I’ll take a little advance on the next story about the evening concert: the finalists appeared to be Magdalena Kaltcheva, Irina Kulikova, Sabrina Vlaskalic, Floria Nica and Daniel Schatz.
Last year we had four gentlemen and one lady in the finals, now it was the reverse. To my surprise Jean Francois Macq (playing the Dyens Saudade). Well, I am no member of the jury indeed! I was very curious how our finalists would do next sunday!