Today was the final of the concerto competition of the Academy of Performing Arts. I thought, a bit of culture would be nice once in a while. 😉
Even though I knew to expect a high quality of the presentations, I was still amazed at the really high standard this time. The four finalists were really giving their best!
- Clarinet Concerto No. 1 by Carl Maria von Weber
presented by Ying-Te Liu, clarinet
Very nice piece of music by Weber, though the clarinet sounded a bit lost in comparison to the accompanying piano. - Concerto No. 1 in C major by Joseph Haydn
presented by Jisun Kim, cello
I was bit biased with that piece, since I quite like Haydn. But on the other hand, I’m not a big fan of cellos. Too much show, for my taste! 😉 But, to be fair, an almost flawless (to the uninitiated ear at least) presentation. And that without music, over 30min from memory (in contrast to Ying-Te Liu)!! - Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven
presented by Kwon Jin, piano
Another very long presentation (~40min), without any help of printed music. Impressive. Though, he always looked like he was in severe pain. Unfortunately, I’m not a very big fan of Beethoven… - Cello Concerto (not sure which one) by Dmitri Kabalevsky
presented by Sarah Lee, cello
Again, a very, very good presentation, purely from memory (I can’t even remember more than 7 words, how should I remember that much???). Interestingly enough, it sounded very much like the old masters even though Kabalevsky was living in the 20th century. Quite liked it.
Betting on the person who’d make it, I went for Jisun Kim. And yes, she made it!. Looks like Read Gainsford, the guest adjudicator, read my mind… 🙂
Very cool evening all in all, Jody and I really enjoyed it.
PS
Before I forget, I was definitely impressed by Tania Park, the lady accompanying three of the four finalists on the piano. Playing three rather different composers and having to concentrate all the time on the soloist is not really an easy task!