It’s Russia vs Ukraine in Queen Elisabeth semis
OrchestrasThe last 24 in the 2024 Queen Elisabeth violin competition were decided last night in Brussels.
They include Dmitry Smirnov of Russia, a dark horse, and Bohdan Luts of Ukraine (pic), recent winner of the Nielsen and Long Thibaud contests.
Each will play a Mozart concerto, followed by a new, unpublished work by Charlotte Bray, to be heard for the first time tomorrow.
The jury consists of: Gilles Ledure (Chairman), Augustin Dumay, Miriam Fried, Lorenzo Gatto, Philippe Graffin, Koichiro Harada, Dong-Suk Kang, Kyung Sun Lee, Midori, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Baiba Skride and Isabelle van Keulen.
Bravo to QE competition for welcoming young artists to participate regardless of nationality.
Mr Luts already stands out as possessing a sound that has been delivered from an old time machine.
This tone may not be woke enough for the current ears.
Mr Smirnov is an interesting musician. Probably a little too interesting for a competition.
This tone may not be “woke” enough? What the hell is the matter with you?
The only way I can answer your question is to say, Clearly, you haven’t been paying attention.
The same young artists and reviewers and online commenters abhor the tones of violinists from the past, the golden age. Elman, Heifetz, Oistrakh, Szeryng, Haendel, Ferras—they play with ‘too much feeling’ according to recent commenters.
Visit the youngsters over on YouTube and you’ll find what they all seek to desire is primarily a clean (read: inoffensive) tone and phrasing that matches the historical practice (youngsters are increasingly devoted to this point). One commenter upon hearing Heifetz play Tchaikovsky: “there’s too much vibrato.” Top rated, Thumbs-up feedback.
Indeed, Mr Luts is too good for these youngsters. And Mr Smirnov is far too interesting in his phrasing to be “accurate.” The woke generation want another Hahn, or a social justice warrior musician—ideally someone with both traits.
I can only hope Luts and Smirnoff win joint prizes, but that’s two white males, which would be unheard of today.
The last great winner violinist:
Sergei Khachatryan (2005)
The last great winner personality:
Ray Chen (2009)
Without the help of Google, I doubt you can name the past three winners.
Share first prize?
It’s Russian AND Ukraine in Queen Elisabeth semis, this is the title I’d like to read….we are speaking about music, it is a competition and each one compete against each other, but the word Versus put the story under a completely different point of view, personally I wish to see a world with Russian AND Ukrainian
And guess who wins? I bet 10:1 on the Ukrainian guy.
I met Dmitry seven years ago at a festival. He’s always been a deeply devoted musician – not afraid to try out new things. I’m so happy to see him doing well in this competition! I don’t care for political readings: a musician is a musician from wherever they may come.