Weeping Japanese wins Wieniawski Competition
NewsIt was well past midnight before the jury in Poznan, Poland, chaired by Augustin Dumay, decided to give the 50,000 Euros first price to 20 year-old Hina Maeda from Japan.
Second prize went to Meruert Karmenova of Kazakhstan and the third to China’s Qingzhu Weng.
Maeda, who had given vivacious performances, could not stop crying after the result was announced.
She studies with Machie Oguri, Koichi Harada and Mayuko Kamio at the Tokyo University of Music.
Huna Maeda is an experienced competitor.
The circumstances under which musicians are expected to perform in a competition format are so abnormal, as Béla Bartók and others have maintained (as if the pressures of performing in public aren’t strange enough as it is), that crying upon victory seems pretty normal to me. Once again I don’t see the reason to refer to this artist in the headline as a “weeping Japanese,” however.
That video (the Wieniawski Concerto No 2 that is) was fun to watch and very well produced I thought. I liked how she savors the melodies that Wieniawski lavishes even in technical passages (his melodic gifts were very real), instead of just pushing through them. I wonder if she ever heard the Mischa Elman recording.
And yeah I heard the little sputtering problem in the staccato passage in the third movement, and her expressive facial expressions would have told me what had just happened even if I watched with the sound turned off. I have seen that same expression in a YouTube of Martha Argerich where she blurs some passage work in a Scarlatti Sonata played as an encore.
For those who feel she seems to be smiling too much as she plays, what my father remembered best (apart from the wonderful playing) when he first heard Gregor Piatigorsky in the 1930s was that Piatigorsky was grinning the entire time he played. Why not when you’re that good?
Totally agree! Spot on. Great comments! What my sister remembers most and gave her great satisfaction, is Hina’s smiles!! Crying upon being announced the winner, is an emotional response in reaction for being overwhelmingly happy and grateful for so many things that came together for her and her performances. Truly remarkable and memorable.
Thank you for your honest response ❤
Radiant personality, fully in love with music she performs and generously sharing it with orchestra, conductor, and we all, audience!
Extraorinary violinist! What a beautiful, emotional performance of a difficult piece of music. She brought such excitement to the piece, one had to was compelled to give her one’s full attention. This young lady is an extraordinary artist! I wish the best for her.
(And, the headline did her a disservice.) She smiled identifying with the most exhuberant parts of the music. Beautiful playing!
I’ve known her since high school.
She has a serious playing style.
Unfortunately, the level of participants in this year’s Wieniawski Competition was not high. Rather, I was disappointed at a very low level.
There were zero world-class soloist candidates.
Burst of emotions under giant pressure is normal for a human being.
No need to mention this as ‘weeping japanese’, this is disrespectful for a person who put so much effort to reach this level. Wish a 0.001% of her effort was put to composing this headline, then it would be better.