Axis Guitar Competition Cat. 3
It took a few editions of the festival, but finally I was in the position to write a ‘live report’ of the amateur categories of the Axis Guitar Competition, because my own Masterclass and workshop schedule permitted it.
The third category of the Axis Guitar Competition is intended for players with an age up to 15 years. This time the youngsters were a majority compared to the second category because the latter category suffered a bit from cancellations.
The progress is just like the first category: warming-up on a scheduled time and then onwards to the stage in time. The warming-up location was on the top floor of the Concordia Theatre, so the descent required careful planning.
The jury occupied the back rows of the theatre, under chairmanship of Gerard Kroeze, Lyz Day, Celia Preuschoff, Ed Westerik, Matijs de Roo, Marcus de Jong, Jaap Majoor and Bobby Rootveld would judge the performance of the candidates.
Arvan de Wit was the first candidate. He started with El Negrito, one of the many Valses Venezolanos by Antonio Lauro. I found out that even on the present day Lauro is known by many in his own country after some chatting with a number of Venezolan engineers in my company. De Wit performed the melody with a nice dynamic approach.
His second piece was Classical Gas by Mason Williams, a hit which contributed to the popularity of the classical guitar in the seventies. Arvan made it quick through all arpeggio patterns, playing a performance which sounded well, even without band (the original had lots of accompaniment).
The second participant was the youngest by far, he needed a special little chair. And there appeared Alvin Udijana with a half-size guitar. He played three pieces by heart and installed a capo in the progress.
The most striking during this performance was, that Alvin observed neither left nor right hand, not even with the tricky passages. Everyhting was inside his head in some way. In some way it looked spectacular yet a bit unreal. I am curious how his play will develop once he gets older and starts to learn the subtleties of musicianship. Apparently the technical aspect progressed a bit already.
Mara Groeneveld was next. Because of the hurry she had forgotten her foot stool, so she played without, balancing on her left foot. A stressful enterprise! So I would say next time, just borrow a foot stool! Plenty of guitarists around. I would have borrowed her my Ergoplay right away.
Yet she started cheerfully. Lagrima by Francisco Tarrega. The challenge of this piece is emphasis on the melody and the phrasing. Despite her difficulties with her posture she perfectly made it to the high E!
Her second piece was an Andantino by Fernando Carulli. She nicely phrased all repeats, although I must admit that Carulli should have written less repeats in this piece. Or did she mistake a Da Capo for a full repeat?
Martin van Son featured with a worldwide known and sometimes maligned piece: Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel. Despite its apparent simplicity it is a complex multi part piece, so I was curious how it would sound on solo guitar. The result was quite good, the player succeeded to maintain the pulse of the music despite the complex arpeggio patterns.
His next piece was a Bossa Nova by some Gilberto X. It was a tricky arrangement because it lacked support of a bass- or chord line. Unfortunately the Bossa effect beame a bit fuzzy. The
Rules of Competition permit guitar ensembles for the third category. A nice gesture, because I consider it quite tricky to judge ensembles in relation to solo players.
The Humphrey Baumann Guitar Quartet made maximal use of the space offered by the Rules of Competition, because four youthful guitarists hit the stage. This was an unexpected problem for the stage management, because all of a sudden they had to dig up four chairs, music stands and foot stools. After some commotion the problem was solved in a professional way.
The name of the quartet was a puzzle for me. Who would Humphrey Baumann be? I guessed it was the name of the leader, and the guy at the left side acted like one.
The quartet played an arrangement of Concerto in D for four violins by Georg Philip Telemann, with the movements Adagio, Allegro, Grave and Allegro. I remembered the piece from an album by the Romeros.
The announcement in English of the third movement with a French title -Grave- (yesss, they made international announcements) caused some smiles amongst the audience, because it was no funeral march indeed!
Concerto in D is a very social piece in which identical phrases take turns amongst players in a question-answer game in relay race form. The guitarists were quite aware of this and listened well to each other despite the tempo variations.
After Concerto in D followed a Sakura like piece in Japanese atmosphere. It became a nicely arranged ensemble.
Niels Gercema conclude the competion’s programme. He started with Estudios Sencillos Nr. 3, 5 en 7 by Leo Brouwer. Estudio 3 took the blink of an eye (Rapido). In Estudio 5 he played the bass pattern with the rests well. He made a fair attempt to live up with the expectations of Estudio 7 (subtitled Lo mas rapido que posible), yet it would have been wiser to be less ambitious in that case.
He continued with Lagrima by Francisco Tarrega. The high E passage was a succes, but playing the melody in the E minor section in a clear legato way proved to be a greater challenge. As a matter of fact it is, because of the necessary stretches required if you want to emphasize the melody.
His final piece was a theme and a variation from Variations on an Anatolian Folk Song by Carlo Domeniconi. He neatly played this more complex and mature work.
It was fun to hear the youngsters play again. They clearly took advantage from the workshop stage presentation, everyone introduced him/herself and announced the pieces. Well done!
After some deliberation, the jury was unanimous: 1) Niels Gercema, 2) Martin van Son, 3) Mara Groeneveld and an incentive prize voor Alvin Udiana.
Congratulations to the winners!