Jāzepa Vītola’s 8th International Pianist Competition has entered the next phase, and now the first six of the 12 participants of the second round have already shown their skills. Four Latvian representatives reached the second round – Ārika Jākobsone, Andrejs Mārtiņš Grīnbergs, Daniil Mickevičs and Evelīna Jēkabsone, as well as Jan Škrobāneks (Czech Republic), Edvins Švaikovskis (Lithuania / Poland), Mantas Šernius (Lithuania), Mikita Burzanica (Ukraine), Julien Chans. (Malaysia), Tobias Dietrich (Germany), Titus Thomp (Estonia) and Nils Hanson Meng (Sweden).
But in the second edition of the special competition diary of Latvijas Radio 3 – Klasika, we look back on the events of October 9, when eight young pianists appeared in front of the jury and the audience with their half-hour long first round performance.
Before we give them the opportunity to reveal their feelings, it is worth listening to the artistic director of the competition, Jāzepa Vītola, professor of the Latvian Music Academy’s Piano Department Jura Kalnciema in the said one, which reminds, according to what principles the repertoire of the competition was selected, with which each of the participants has to deal. “When creating our festival program, we took into account the criteria that are used in the programs of major international pianist competitions,” emphasizes Juris Kalnciems.
It is already known that the representative of Latvia also made it to the second round of the competition Daniil Mickiewicz. But yesterday, after the half-hour long first-round program, he was happy to reveal his feelings: “Now there is a feeling of relief – and it’s very, very good! I like that feeling. After performing on stage, it’s always like that: you get energy from the audience, you get energy from them giving yours, and it always pays off – especially if the performance is more or less successful.”
The representative of Latvia also reached the second round Erika Jakobson, who after performing in the first round did not hide that this competition required a lot of determination and courage from her. Professor Sergej Osokin encouraged him to participate in it: “He offered to participate in it and gain experience. I trusted my professor and overcame my fears…”
Among the audience of the first round – also a pianist, an active chamber musician, head of the Concertmasters and Chamber Ensembles Department of the Emīla Dārziņa Music School Aija Kuzmane: “Impressions are as varied as a woodpecker’s stomach, and right now I have three specific people who meet the highest artistic level. Of course, our Daniil. Yesterday, I was very, very approached by Mikita Burzanitsa from Ukraine and Julien Chan from Malaysia.”
The performance of the participants of the first round in the Great Hall of the Music Academy was also enthusiastically watched by the oboist Maris Kugis: “This time my interest is more as a future conductor, less – as an oboist. Although also purely as a musician – it is very pleasant to compare young, future pianists, about whom we cannot know which of them will be the winner.”
And another assessment from a distance, this time looking back at the second day of the first round of the competition: the wonderful pianist, enthusiastic chamber musician and leader of countless master classes reveals her thoughts on what she saw and heard Agnes Egliņa: “How interesting: it’s the same room, it’s the same piano, but every half hour a different pianist comes and there’s a different story, a different touch, a different atmosphere. And it’s so very interesting!”
Latvijas Radio invites you to express your opinion about what you heard in the program and supports discussions among listeners, however, reserves the right to delete comments that violate the boundaries of respectful attitude and ethical behavior.
2023-10-10 19:47:40
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