SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL VIOLIN COMPETITION 2018: GRAND FINAL / Review

GRAND FINAL,

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 

VIOLIN COMPETITION 2018

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (8 February 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 February 2018 with the title "Russian's breathtaking bravura scores top violin prize".

After three intense rounds of competition, the 2^nd Singapore International Violin Competition reached a climactic high in the Grand Final held at Esplanade Concert Hall. Three violinists were picked from a vastly talented crop of 29 to perform a concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joshua Tan.

Earlier, each participant had to master two solo recitals (30 and 60 minutes each) and a concerto by Mozart before arriving at the Romantic or 20^th century concerto that was to be the final arbiter. To be judged by an international jury formed by renowned concert violinists and pedagogues were two performances of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, sandwiching a sole Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major.

Lovers of the violin may be excused for having a field day in the glowing company of Chisa Kitagawa (Japan), Sergei Dogadin (Russia/Austria) and Oleksandr Korniev, who performed in that order.

Kitagawa was the youngest of the threesome, having turned 21 during the competition. Fated to be the first performer in all four rounds (she drew the unenviable No.1 slot during the pre-competition lottery), she displayed little or no anxiety in the ethereal opening of the Sibelius, carving out a pure and voluminous sound as the 1^st movement progressed.

Rock-like steadiness and apparent nerves of steel served her well in the cadenzas and climaxes when she could have easily been overwhelmed by the orchestra's unrelenting forces. That she maintained that level of composure all through to the rough-hewn finale was testament to her abilities. Never less than immaculate in deportment and totally without histrionics, she also made fine music.

Korniev, who resides in Singapore as a teaching assistant at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, displayed no less confidence. However his performance of the Sibelius had the feeling of being on edge throughout, possibly a sign of being somewhat less technically secure. There were mild lapses in intonation but his spirit never flagged, going for broke even if it risked possible collapse. All this made for a very exciting performance.

Wedged in between was a most extroverted reading of the Tchaikovsky, no less from a full-blooded Russian. Dogadin's solo entry was breathtaking, as if saying to his audience, “You listen to me, and you listen well.” Grand in movement and gesture, his playing rose to meet that outward extravagance, and the 1^st movement's cadenza sparked, crackled and caught fire, setting the passionate concerto alight.

  

A master of nuance, he was also capable of much subtlety, as in the muted central Canzonetta. However one suspects this was just the much-needed respite before being let off the leash into the most rip-roaring of finales. Here, natural instincts reigned for a suitably spectacular close, drawing loud cheers from the audience.

For his all-round bravura, Dogadin was awarded the 1^st prize of USD 50,000, with Kitagawa and Korniev bagging the 2^nd and 3^rd prizes (USD 25,000 and 15,000) respectively. Interestingly, Dogadin had won 2^nd prize in the 2011 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow (no 1^st prize awarded), and this was a vindication of sorts.

1st Prize: Sergei Dogadin (Russia / Austria)

2nd Prize: Chisa Kitagawa (Japan)

3rd Prize: Oleksandr Korniev (Ukraine)

4th Prize: Laurel Gagnon (USA)

5th Prize: Lisa Yasuda (Japan)

6th Prize: Shi Xiaoxuan (China)

The 4^th, 5^th and 6^th prizes went to Laurel Gagnon (USA, USD 6,000), Lisa Yasuda (Japan, USD 5,000) and Shi Xiaoxuan (China, USD 4000) respectively. Dogadin also won the Goh Soon Tioe Recital Prize (USD 5000), while Kitagawa received top votes for the Audience Prize (USD 2,000).

For being the Best Singaporean violinist, Gabriel Ng was awarded a master bow by Pierre Guillaume. There were also cash prizes for the best performance of the music of Bach, Paganini and the commissioned set-piece Clara-Luna by Singaporean composer Chen Zhangyi (USD 1,000 each).

The 6 finalists are joined by the winner
of the Bach Prize: Elly Suh (USA, extreme L)

Organised by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, the Singapore International Violin Competition has become the Formula One Grand Prix of music competitions in this region. If the first competition in 2015 had raised ripples of worldwide attention, this edition would have an even longer lasting impact.  

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL VIOLIN COMPETITION 2018: FINALS / Review

FINALS, SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL

VIOLIN COMPETITION 2018

with Yong Siew Toh 
Conservatory Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Monday & Tuesday (5 & 6 February 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 February 2018 with the title "Talent galore at violin competition".

The 2^nd Singapore International Violin Competition has reached its Finals round. Twenty-nine international competitors were whittled down to just six, each performing a violin concerto by Mozart with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra conducted by the competition's Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, the Israeli violinist-conductor Shlomo Mintz.

Held over two evenings, there were four performances of the Third Violin Concerto in G major (K.216) and two of the Fourth Violin Concerto in D major (K.218).  Mozart's concertos are small-scaled early works that call for sensitivity and musicianship rather than mere outright display, and it was very interesting to see how these young virtuosos responded.

The petite physical stature of Chisa Kitagawa (Japan) did little to deter a highly confident showing of Concerto No.4, which projected an outsized sonority that was both incisive yet musical. Its cantabile lines were gracefully delineated, especially in the stately slow movement, and the outer movement cadenzas tastefully crafted to suite the Rococo style.

In contrast, the burly Sergei Dogadin (Russia) was more of a showman in Concerto No.3, totally comfortable with his sleights of hand. He skilfully kept emotional excesses in check except during the outsized cadenzas which sounded almost disproportionate. His was otherwise a highly nuanced performance with lots of character.

Closing the first evening was another Concerto No.3, from Laurel Gagnon (USA) who was a towering physical presence. Her violin looked puny in her hands but she made it sing with a naturalness that was both disarming and distinctive. Her show of delicacy and restraint was admirable, and so were the very idiomatic cadenzas as she proved that less was more.

Two Third Concertos bookended a Fourth Concerto on the second evening. Oleksandr Korniev (Ukraine) and Shi Xiaoxuan (China), both alumni of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, did their alma mater proud with rather different but equally valid showings in the G major concerto.

Korniev, attired in just plain shirtsleeves, was as cool as they come. He matched Dogadin's flair with a deep and penetrating sonority of his own, and had equally showy cadenzas on offer. Other than a momentary straying of intonation in the slow movement, there was little to dislike in his outing.

Shi struck an even finer balance in the same concerto. An epitome of grace and refinement, her slow movement was one to be savoured over and over. Lisa Yasuda (Japan), the youngest finalist at 19, put on a virtuosic twist to the D major concerto, standing out for its resoluteness and slickness when tenderness and warmth would have been preferred.  

The international jury of nine members voted to advance Kitagawa, Dogadin and Korniev to the Grand Final with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joshua Tan. To be held on Thursday evening at Esplanade Concert Hall, the great concertos by Sibelius and Tchaikovsky await. A surfeit of violin pyrotechnics beckons.  

And the finalists are:
Chisa Kitagawa (Japan),
Sergei Dogadin (Russia) &
Oleksandr Korniev (Ukraine)

GRAND FINALISTS OF SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL VIOLIN COMPETITION 2018 NAMED

The three Grand Finalists of the 2nd International Violin Competition 2018 have been named. After three gruelling rounds of competition, including solo, recital programmes and Mozart violin concertos, the Grand Finalists are:

CHISA KITAGAWA (Japan)

SERGEI DOGADIN (Russia)

OLEKSANDR KORNIEV (Ukraine)

They will each perform a violin concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joshua Tan on Thursday 8 February at Esplanade Concert Hall.

The concertos will be performed in this sequence:

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto (Kitagawa)

TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto (Dogadin)

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto (Korniev)

Tickets for the Grand Finals can be bought here:

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cviolin0218

Some Photos from OLEKSANDR KORNIEV'S VIOLIN RECITAL

OLEKSANDR KORNIEV Violin Recital

with LIN XIU MIN, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Thursday (3 November 2016)

On an evening when Ray Chen packed the crowds into Esplanade Concert Hall, Ukrainian violinist Oleksandr Korniev did very well to get a good house at the Esplanade Recital Studio. The final year Yong Siew Toh Conservatory student (from Qian Zhou's studio) has just won the first prize at the international violin competition in Almaty (Kazakhstan) and the audience got a taste of what real virtuosity was all about.

His mastery of solo works – Paganini's Caprice No.24 and Ysaye's Sixth Sonata – revealed an intricacy of articulation, perfect intonation and sumptuous tone, all accomplished with seemingly effortless ease. His innate feel for various native idioms also added significantly to the charms of Spaniard Sarasate's Romanza Andaluza and Kreisler's gypsy-inspired La Gitana.

The two major works Cesar Franck's Sonata in A major and Wieniawski's Faust Fantasy saw him partnered by Lin Xiu Min, a practising medical doctor rather than a professional accompanist pianist, on the piano. What was remarkable about Lin was he played all the piano parts completely from memory, and half the time with his eyes closed. The technical details in the second movement of the Franck had no terrors for him, while he generated an orchestral sound for the Wieniawski. Their sense of ensemble and rapport was generally excellent in both these virtuoso works, bringing out performances of genuine distinction.

This was a true partnership of uncommon equals, and their encore was a rhapsodic work of Central Asian flavour by Korniev's father, composed for him when he was ten years old as an exercise of some sort. Apparently this was a World Premiere, its extended opening solo (not unlike Ravel's Tzigane) soon gave way to a raucous dance with piano before finishing quietly in a soliloquy. It can be surmised that the audience who lapped up every moment of this spectacular concert did not miss Ray Chen for a single moment.

GARY HOFFMAN Chamber Recital / Review

GARY HOFFMAN Chamber Recital

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Sunday (17 January 2016)

This review was published by The Straits Times on 19 January 2016 with the title "Cellist Gary Hoffman tugs at heartstrings".

A fairly sizeable audience turned up on a Sunday afternoon for a chamber concert by the Canadian cellist Gary Hoffman, who has developed a reputation as one of the world's leading chamber musicians. Performing with faculty and students of the Conservatory, the programme offered could scarcely have been more inviting as well.

Czech nationalist composer Leos Janacek's Pohadka is a musical fairy-tale in three short movements, scored in an unmistakeably haunting idiom with piquant harmonies and short repeated motifs which are largely derived from folk music. Hoffman's 1662 Amati cello opened with pizzicatos, sang and then wept, ably supported by Indonesian pianist Anthony Hartono's sensitive playing with well-nuanced pedalling.

That unusual palate-cleanser yielded the whiff of a breath mint before the more opulent offering of Anton Arensky's First Piano Trio in D minor. Colleague of Tchaikovsky and teacher of Rachmaninov, Arensky mined the same rich melodic vein which has come to characterise Russian romanticism.

Melancholic and sometimes sentimental, its thematic interest was shared by Hoffman's lush cello sound and Ukrainian Oleksandr Korniev's violin, which was every bit his match. Malaysian pianist Yap Sin Yee's busy part ranged from big-boned chords to an unexpected whimsicality in the scherzo 2^nd movement which exuded salon-like schmaltz that recalled Saint-Saëns' frivolities.

In the slow movement, Elegia (Elegy), the dyed-in-the-wool Russian brooding came to the fore, contrasted by a gossamer-light and dreamy central section. The passionate finale was conducted at high voltage but was not without moments of levity, and a reprise of the 1^st movement's opening theme. This seemed like a reminiscence of a past age, a yearning for the good old days.

The second half comprised just Rachmaninov's mighty Cello Sonata in G minor, which was a re-run of the heart-on-sleeve emotions displayed earlier in the Arensky trio. It seems one could not have enough of a good thing, because the performance with pianist and conservatory don Albert Tiu was a total treat.     

  

Hoffman's entry, literally a heave and sigh, was good enough to keep one transfixed for the work's entire 35-minute duration. His shaping of melodic phrases was excellent, keeping the thematic thrust and narrative coherent. He was aided by Tiu's unerring pianism, maintaining a cool head despite the multitudes of notes. The piano's bluster could have easily overwhelmed the cello, but that was never the case in this true partnership of equals.

The Andante slow movement tugged at the heart-strings with its unabashed lyricism, one of many high points in the recital. The hell-for-leather finale swept everything before it and the sonata concluded with the vocal ovation the performance deserved. One suspects the name of Rachmaninov helped draw the audience, but it is the quality of the playing that keeps them coming again.