Is it because I heard the assigned piece 8 times in the meantime that I can no longer listen to it as enthusiastically as the day I first heard it? Do the clichés stand out more, namely those that recur in every virtuoso piece: impossibly fast scales, double stops, octave jumps and so on? Is it because it is quite long – 20 minutes is not nothing – 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 will not be quite as it should be. The Hungarian violinist plays rather aggressively with a lot of scratching bow attacks which also means she is not always in tune and makes small mistakes. There is also too little music. In the harmonics, the hidden pitfalls in this work, not everything is equally pure and her bows are too short. The orchestra cannot convince me either, 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 in its best form and that continues quite a bit. What is the matter? Tiredness? The latter is not impossible. 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 tells the story of falling in love, but here we hear someone being rejected instead. There are too many inaccuracies in this laureate's playing, the singing and certainly the broad so typical Beethovenian broad connecting arcs are really too limited and at times almost rough, although she sometimes manages to paint quite beautiful images. What is going on? Nerves? Something like that because she is also not spontaneous, rather tense on the stage. And at the end you read it from her face: "Sorry people, I got lost". Oh well, it can happen at a competition. That can be disappointing, but no worries, there are better opportunities on many stages where there is no competition stress.
Photo: © Kurt Chan
Yukiko Uno (Japan, born 11.11.1995)
That personalities stand out in something like the assigned 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 already among the top six. Four more candidates to go, so certainly no fuss about this one and that one. She does play without any fanatical virtuosity and places more emphasis on the beautiful sound of a violin, although her instrument in the lower string leaves something to be desired in terms of carrying power. Despite this flaw, I have so far enjoyed this work most with her interpretation.
Brahms' violin concerto receives from her a similar attention with much phrasing, bows that sing beautifully and finely build up and down in nicely balanced crescendos and decrescendos. Here too, the numerous virtuoso passages receive a musical foundation and she binds the whole together. Although this candidate also drops stitches and a few times does not quite hit the right pitch accuracy, she came across as someone who is not competing, but playing a violin concerto. That she did, performing and you could see her enjoying it.
Photo: © Bruno Vessiez
