I might be wrong, but I don’t think I heard this year’s winner of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels last night.
There's no denying there was drama, as one of the violinists broke a string as she was tuning up in between pieces, and there was also charm, as another semi-finalist added a cheeky smile to win over at least the audience (who knows if that kind of thing has an effect on the jury). There were also painful facial expressions and hunched shoulders at times, neither of which looked conducive to making a beautiful musical sound.
Don’t misunderstand me, these young musicians have an enviable ability. But I’m not convinced I heard the violinist who will join the ranks of David Oistrakh and Vadim Repin, previous winners of the competition. After all, this is one of the world’s top violin competitions, aimed at musicians aged between 17 and 27 who have completed their training and are ready to start an international career. Expectations are high.
If I had to pick one of the four violinists performing yesterday to go through to the final, I’d go for Moldavia’s Ilian Garnet. His performance was the only one, for me at least, that added an extra bit of magic and went beyond technical perfection.
Only on Saturday night though will we know for sure which of the 24 semi-finalists will stay in the competition. And then the 12 lucky finalists will be whisked off to the Queen Elisabeth College of Music where they will live a rather isolated week until their final performance.
Bring on the finals!
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