The judges have awarded the first flute prize to Josephine Olech of France, principal flute of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
Second was Marianna Julia Żołnacz of Poland.
Third was the Spaniard, Rafael Adobas.
The final round was outstanding.
The press service of the Mariinsky Theater has…
From the general manager’s self-admiring Sunday sermon in…
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Anyone who’s not heard Nielsen’s flute concerto may be in for a great big treat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW3ZxOp9bQQ
Coundn’t find the winner’s perf on YT, if it exists.
We appreciate your kind message, but it’s a bit startling. For wind players it’s kind of like saying “Anyone who’s not heard Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto may be in for a treat”.
Well, to be fair: a “famous” flute concerto is like a “famous” opera singer. Only relatively few people will have heard of it (let alone heard it).
My orchestra’s doing the Tomasi trumpet concerto next season and I’m like “the what? By who?” (not whom since I am an American and don’t speak proper English)
Yes that was my thought.
There are quite a few concertos that are not a treat to hear so it is worthy to flag the ones that are.
Not sure if this link will work. Josepine’s final round, Mozart and Nielsen, is on the Medici competition website:
https://nielsen2019.medici.tv/replay/final-with-joséphine-olech/
It let me hear about 30 seconds before requiring me to register my e-mail address. That said, she sounds phenomenal.
Not very good news for Rotterdam Philharmonic. She will either go solo or move to another orchestra such as Berlin or Vienna Philharmonics, or Bavarian Radio Symphony.
Maybe, maybe not. She’s certainly good enough, but it depends on what she actually wants to do.
~30 years ago Timothy Hutchins famously turned down the principal flute positions in New York and (twice) Boston because he liked Montreal.
Probably not. There will have to be an opening in one of those orchestras, which may not happen anytime soon, and Rotterdam is a great orchestra, not easy to “step up” from. And a solo flute career isn’t necessarily such a great thing; even the great Emmanuel Pahud returned to the Berlin Phil after a couple years of doing solo/teaching (still maintaining a healthy solo career in his non-Phil weeks). I actually wonder whether winning this competition is any kind of step up for someone who already won a major principal job.
The other two finalists were outstanding, but much like Sebastian Jacot, outstanding winner in 2014 and now Gewandhaus principal, Olech is the
finished article and a well above the others. A wonderful player. Bravo!