May 31, 2005 at 7:15 PM

Some impressions of an amateurviolinist and regular concerthallvisitor of The ELISABETH-COMPETITION.
I listened two days -5,6 may-,the first round of the Elisabeth competition, specially to hear in the concerthall the sonates of Bach and the 24 different choosen caprices of Paganini. The difference between the candidates was not so important for me -most of them were good or very good-, but I hate the bell because a Japanese guy and a Greec one couldn’t play their whole first round. 5 may is the national Dutch liberationday from the second World War, so I had a free day and I could not work on 6 may, because our Machinefactory was closed between 5 may and the weekend of 7,8 may. On 9,10,12 may I heard the semi’s in the evening, specially to hear Ysaye in the concerthall (at home I have a cd of Frank Peter Zimmermann of Ysaye). The 11th and 13th may I must play 2 concerts with an amateurorchestra and on the 12th I had an appointment, so I missed on those days the semi’s. After my work I immediately drove with my car from a village near Rotterdam to Antwerpen and then over the A12 to Brussel, where I parked my car just outside the cityring without parking money and took my folding bike out of the back of my car and biked to the conservatory in Brussel. After the semi’s again back on the bike to my car and driving back home in Holland because I had to work the next day. In the conservatory in Brussel I saw statues of my idols Henri Vieuxtemps (I have his 7 violinconcerto’s on cd) and Jeno Hubay (I have his 4 violinconcerto’s on cd from the Hungarian Vilmos Szabadi www.szabadi.com ) and a foto of Eugene Ysaye ( Albrecht Breuninger, 2th price Elisabeth will soon record all pieces of 9 minutes for violin and orchestra of Ysaye like Chant dhiver’op. 15).One our after my arrival from a holiday I drove with my car again to Brussel to the last evening of the finals and I heard two times 1th Shos. 1 time Shos that goes, because I heard the piece for the first time in the concerthall (and I know it from a cd), but 2 times is a bit much. It has even 6!! times been played. Why not his second violinconcerto? Why always this first one, which isn’t very special. I have played the 13th symfony of Shos, Babi Yar, this year with an amateurorchestra. THAT was a great piece. Why always this non-critical herd-animal behaviour. For the public (like me as amateurviolinist) it is boring to hear the same concerto’s all the time. But we know the process and the vicious circles and often the false arguments and laziness to play something original (and often beautiful, but unknown) violinconcerto’s. The violinconcertorepertoirelist, “Violin repertoire”, is also much to short on the right side of the homepage of this website. So please make it larger.On this “Violin repertoire”, where of course the second violinconcerto of Shostakovitch IS MISSING!! Why in godsname???? I have both violinconcerto’s of Shostakovitch on a Naxos-cd, played by Ilya Kaler. When I turn this cd I don’t hear quality differences between these two. A lot of violinteachers have a poor violinconcertorepertoireknowledge and teach their pupils the same pieces. I rather hear a bad violinist with a bad intonation and a bad strike like the Greec guy on 5 may and the Japanese guy op 6 may, who get after one or two pieces the bell, who play an unknown violinconcerto in the concerthall, than a very good finalist playing the evergreenviolinconcerto’s.I hope that the violinconcertoreperoirechoice of the finalists in 2009 will be more original and that the jury will give more points for orginal repertoirechoice in their judgement. And please stop ringing the bell in the first round. It is good for the public to hear a bad candidate to understand how good other candidates are and how difficult the pieces of the first round are.
And I think after the fell down of 800 meter runner Dalibor Karvay at this Olympics in the semi’s, by the jury (just like in Olympic gymnastics) he will reach the finals in the next ElisabethOlympic800-final of 2009 and perhaps he will take the gold medal and will hear the national anthem. And why agediscrimination till 27 if you want to compete when you are 40, which is also possible at the Olympic games? Ok in 800 mter running there are differences, because of the physical differences of man and woman, which disappear when both sexes play the violin. I also missed big names in the jury. Ok, enough emotions, impressions, criticism and double Dutch for you professionals and violinstudents of me, fiddler on the roof.
But nevertheless it was a special happening to be part of the public in this competition compared with a normal concert in the concerthall.

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May 31, 2005 at 7:15 PM

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