14th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

14th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition

We present to you a 5-CD sound chronicle of 14th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition which was held on 8-23 October, 2011 in Poznań.

A selection of the recordings was not easy. For how to capture the unforgettable atmosphere of the fourteen days of auditions on several Cds? Which interpretations should be included to make this chronicle a representative cross-section of the many diverse performances, while allowing listeners to make their own judgment on the skills of the young violinists? These were the challenges faced by the producers of this sound chronicle.

The first CD is devoted exclusively to the competition winner, Soyoung Yoon of South Korea.The second CD features recordings by Second and Third Prize winners, Miki Kobayashi (Japan) and Stefan Tarara (Germany). The third CD contains the recordings by the finalists - Erzhan Kulibaev (Kazakhstan), Aylen Pritchin (Russia) and Arata Yumi (Japan). The fourth CD is dedicated to representatives of the Polish violin school, and the fifth features a selection of pieces performed by those who failed to qualify to the finals but are interesting artistic personalities.

The 14th edition of the Wieniawski Competition was unique in many ways. Its jury was chaired by the world-famous violinist Maxim Vengerov and included such household names as outstanding violinists Zakhar Bron, Bartosz Bryła, Edward Gracz,Erich Gruenberg, Koichiro Harada, Dong-Suk Kang, Leonid Kerbel, Piotr Milewski, Bartek Nizioł, Vera Tsu and Pavel Vernikov, as well as the prominent conductor Yuri Simonov. Ida Haendel served as the jury's honorary chairperson. For the first time in the history of the event, the participants were selected, by Maxim Vengerov himself, in a series of preliminary auditions held in nine cities around the world (Bergamo, London, Quebec, Yokohama, Seoul, Moscow, Baku, Brussels, Poznań). In one of the competition stages, the entrants performed with a chamber orchestra.

The overriding goal of jury members was to select all-round violinists, who combine technical brilliance and virtuoso skills (1st stage - works for solo violin) with an ability to perform with other musicians (2nd stage - works for violin and piano, 3rd stage - with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, 4th stage - with the Symphony Orchestra of Poznań Philharmonic) and are at the same time unique artistic personalities. In our view, the prizewinners of the 2010 Wieniawski Competition possess all these features and we hope that you will feel the same as we invite you to listen to the sound chronicle of the event.