Is it because I have now heard the required piece 8 times that I can no longer listen to it as enthusiastically as on the day I heard it for the first time? Do the clichés stand out more, namely those that recur in every virtuoso piece: impossibly fast scales, double stops, octave jumps and the like? Is it because it is quite long – 20 minutes is no joke – and loud? In any case, four more times to listen intensely to this work, duty calls.
Júlia Pusker (Hungary, born 7.9.1991)
You quickly feel that it won't be quite as it should be. The Hungarian violinist plays rather aggressively with a lot of scratchy bow entries, which also means she is not always in tune and makes slips. There is also too little music. In the flageolets, the hidden pitfalls in this work, not everything is equally pure and her bowing is too short. The orchestra also cannot convince me, if that also comes across with this candidate, a real problem arises.
At the beginning of Ludwig Van Beethoven's violin concerto, the orchestra is not at its best and that persists quite a bit. What is the matter? Fatigue? The latter is not unlikely. The orchestra members are required, with every competition, to perform double duty during the daytime with rehearsals and again during the final evenings. Beethoven's violin concerto is in my opinion one of the most beautiful violin works ever composed. This work is the story of love, but here we hear rather someone being rejected. There are too many inaccuracies in the playing of this laureate, the song and especially the broad, so typical Beethovenian broad binding bows are really too limited and at times almost rough, although sometimes she does paint very beautiful images. What is going on? Nerves? Something like that, because she also doesn't stand spontaneously, rather tensely on the stage. And at the end you read it from her face: "Sorry people, I've lost my way". Oh well, it can happen at a competition. That can be disappointing, but not to worry, there will be better opportunities on many stages where there is no competition stress.
Photo: © Kurt Chan
Yukiko Uno (Japan, born 11.11.1995)
That personalities emerge in something like the required piece is clear. Not one performance has the same interpretation. How the jury judges is an open question, but I would certainly place this Japanese violinist in the first six places. Four more candidates to go, so certainly no fuss about this and that. However, she plays without any fanatical virtuosity and places more emphasis on the beautiful sound of a violin, although her instrument lacks resonance in the lower strings. Despite that flaw, I have enjoyed this work most with her interpretation so far.
Brahms' violin concerto receives similar attention from her with a lot of phrasing, bows that are melodic and delicate in building up and down in well-balanced crescendos and decrescendos. Here too, the numerous virtuoso passages receive a musical foundation and she binds it all together. Despite this candidate also dropping some notes and a few times not hitting the right pitch accuracy, she came across as someone who is not competing, but performing a violin concerto. That she did, performing and you could see her enjoying herself.
Photo: © Bruno Vessiez