Day Two: Preliminaries Scharpach Concours Cat. 1
Twenty candidates had subscribed this year to the Scharpach Concours for conservatory students and professionals. In the end 19 competitors entered the arena.
The extended jury (at least seven members if I counted correctly) was present in the hall quite early. When I checked the programme, I found out that even more people served the panel, but the team had a different line-up for the various categories.
The audience needed some more time to arrive, but one by one they came and the last one was in time. I could hear all kinds of nice switch-off melodies of the cell-phones. Apparently most of the audience knew the rules. Well, some did not, I guess they forgot in their enthusiasm.
As a consequence of an internal relocation in the Artez Conservatory (the good old Organ Hall was changed into a recording studio), the location of the competition was the Ballet Hall. At first sight it looked a nice spot.
Until you saw the mirrors on the wall. The mere reflections offered a quite different and sometimes funny view on the player, the members of the jury and the audience. It was nice to spot the jury members during their hard work. On the other hand I heard some remarks in the audience which indicated that many people felt themselves more or less observed by everyone.. Fortunately the reflections did not distract the candidates.
During this competition I had the perfect opportunity to take a look at the guitars of all candidates. Various instruments showed signs of intensive use, with an almost wrinkled top and quite some scratches on the spot where the right hand was busy. In this way every guitar has its own story and signs of life!
Erdogan Aktas Fatih had the honour to be the first. He started with something (not announced) Baroque-like (it resembled Bach) and ended with the Danza Caracteristica by Brouwer. Her performed the piece with a sharp contrast between the fast and slow movement.
Oman Kaminsky provided a good example with his announcement. Next he began the fight (judged by his facial expression) with Theme Varie et Finale by Manuel Ponce. He started with a nice warm sound a bit timidly, but he gained eloquence with a clear interpretation and a good finishing touch.
The Korean guitarist Bo-Ye Hwang played a classic, Variations sur Les Folies d' Espagne van Mauro Giuliani, a theme which was known in the Baroque era in many versions. The nice thing about a well performed theme with variations is the opportunity to give a good impression of your abilities with technique and musical ideas. Giuliani offered the opportunity for performance and lyricism, Bo-Ye Hwang took it skilfully.
Svanur Villbergson played a part of last year's Challenge Nr. One: a movement of the Sonata by Antonio Jose. The most tricky part of this piece is maintaining the musical flow over a prolonged time. It is a challenge to melt the seemingly separate parts of a movement together into a coherent whole. Villbergson had a beautiful performance in individual parts, but did not succeed to play the complete movement coherently.
Jona Kesteleyn, just like Bo-Ye Hwang one of last year's contestants, strove for the finals with Ritmata by Edino Krieger. A quite contemporary piece with again all opportunities to show musical and technical skills. He played virtuoso and was in control of the piece, which specifically showed from his accelerando and decellerando.
Michaela Kalter played the last piece before the break, the Sevilliana by Joaquin Turina. A well known piece with clear Spanish effects like the Rasgueados, she played with ease. It was a pity that she hurried a little in the already considerably fast runs.
After the break we were surprised by an old acquaintance of last year, still dressed in an outfit which required some gathering up before playing: Sabrina Vlascalic! Her programme consisted of two movements from the Sonata Giocosa by Joaquin Rodrigo. One thing became very clear: she has achieved quite some progress in the last year. This time she invested far more passion in the music rather than in play-acting, she just performed convincingly, full stop! Specifically her last Allegro was spectacular. Favourite!
Jan Sanen was a competitor from the last festival too. This time he played a virtuoso piece: Whirler of the Dance by Carlos Rafael Rivera. In this three movement suite he showed virtuosity with a swing and played the complex rhythmical patterns seemingly effortlessly. Of course the insiders know better.
The next candidate was new in this competition: Ivan Petricevic. He played a classical piece -Capriche nr 7 by Luigi Legnani- and two contemporary pieces by Dusan Bogdanovic, Hommage a Mompou and a movement from Sonata nr 2. He played all pieces technically skilful and presented them with a beautiful sound, so I found him a favourite right away. Later it showed that I was right this time.
Catharina Struys performed last year too. She showed her skills with two movements from the Sonatina by Jorge Morel. I was quite impressed by the way she made the slow movement breathe.
Marcus de Jong stepped up with an arrangement of Prelude and Choral from the Suite Compostelana by Federico Mompou. His tender and modest interpretation perfectly painted the sacral atmosphere of a pilgrimage towards Santiago de Compostela. Rightfully the audience remained silent for quite some time after the last tones had fled.
Then it was the turn of Erik Pronk, who played the three movements -Preludio, Allegro Burlesco and Andantino- from Suite Nr. 2 by Leo Brouwer, a beautiful suite in which Brouwer shows some avant-garde composition. Pronk presented the music faithfully, except for a short moment of fear of heights in the Allegro.
Jacek Siemiatowski was the only player who ventured a tremolo piece, Campanas del Alba by Eduardo Sainz de la Maza. His tremolo was perfectly regular and smoothly followed the acceleration and deceleration of the piece.
I remembered the Canadian -originally Rumanian- Floria Nica by her atmospheric sketches from last year. Now she took off with something more speedy, the Vrajonko by Dusan Bogdanovic. Then she returned to her pastel shades with at times an emotional thunderstorm in the All in Twilight by Tore Takemitsu. The tap on the guitar caused a very functional excitement in the music.
After he sat down, I saw that Gabor Toth was the only left-handed guitarist from the company. Caprico Arabe by Francisco Tarrega was his piece. It was fun to hear this old acquaintance of my pieces again, although the guitarist played it a little bit too Mediterranean, in the sense of laissez faire.
Katharina Godolt showed up with the Allegro Moderato from the Third Sonata by Manuel Ponce. She played the piece fairly, but it appeared a challenge to keep the coherency over the full piece.
Shawn Pickup performed with the daring exploit of the Passacaglia from the Tres Piezas Espanolas by Joaquin Rodrigo. The piece starts with a simple bass theme, which gradually evolves into an interplay between most complex patterns and the simple theme which has to remain clear throughout. He started brilliantly, but later on met the challenge in the end to keep up the energy in the virtuoso passages.
The last candidate was Marrisa Minder. She continued where Shawn Pickup had ended: the Fandango from the Tres Piezas Espanolas by Joaquin Rodrigo. She played well, but lacked just a little of the passion you normally expect from this kind of pieces.
Finally the big speculation could start. Of course the final decision was with the jury. The audience was sent off in a friendly way, so that the discussion about the points could take off.