| The Second Paganini Violin Competition will be held in Moscow Until recently, the phrase “Paganini competition” meant one thing - the well-known violin competition in Genoa for half a century. There, in Paganini’s homeland, his Guarneri violin is kept, which laureates have the opportunity to play. The only violinist to play the legendary instrument in concerts was the Russian Sergei Stadler, when he organized the “Paganini Violin in the Hermitage” festival (at the same time Academician Likhachev awarded Stadler the title “Russian Paganini”). Stadler became one of the organizers of the Paganini Competition in Moscow and for the second time (the first competition was held in 2003) heads the jury.
The second Moscow Paganini Competition was announced open on the 222nd birthday of the “demonic genius” - October 27, at a press conference at RIA Novosti. Minister of Culture Alexander Sokolov said that “the first pancake was not lumpy at all,” and approved the idea of uniting the laureates of the Moscow and Genoese competitions (competition participants and jury members) in a gala concert at the award ceremony. This “gathering of stars” will take place on December 1 at the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater. Invitations to this social event with coffee and champagne will be distributed “where it is really needed” - from the Academy of Sciences to music schools. (There will simply be no tickets.) The evening should become the pride of the capital. “Everyone needs to know: every year on the first day of winter, the best violin concert in the world takes place in Moscow,” said Maxim Viktorov, chairman of the board of trustees of the Violin Art Foundation, with the active assistance and funds of which the competition will be held.
Any violinist over 14 years old can take part in the competition, regardless of his performing “religion”: if he wants to play in an “authentic” manner, please do so. The restriction applies only to the winners of the previous competition. Auditions will begin on November 23 (the 1st and 2nd rounds will be held in the Small Hall of the Conservatory), and on the 30th the final will take place in the Great Hall of the Conservatory with the participation of the Vladimir Ziva Orchestra. The compulsory program, of course, includes works by Paganini, “from which everything immediately becomes clear,” noted Stadler, reproaching the Tchaikovsky Competition for excluding Paganini’s opuses from the mandatory ones.
In addition to the monetary reward (10, 8 and 6 thousand dollars), three winners will receive statuettes “Paganini with a golden violin”, “Paganini with a silver violin” and “Paganini with a bronze violin” by the sculptor Alexander Golyshev (there are only three of them - to divide the prizes impossible). The Violin Art Foundation has established a Grand Prix for talent that displays “Paganini’s charisma” or obvious originality, and not necessarily from among the laureates (after all, any competition is more focused on “sportsmanship” rather than on the personal qualities of the musician). The winner of the Grand Prix will be provided for a year with a luxurious Antonio Stradivari instrument (circa 1720), which belonged to Henryk Wieniawski, the first professor-violinist of the first Russian conservatory, who died in Moscow and left the violin here. Wieniawski's instrument (like himself), according to Stadler, is our national pride and a worthy response to Genoa. The Stradivarius is provided by the State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments, with which the Violin Art Foundation has been collaborating for many years. The foundation itself has a modest collection of strings and is trying to expand it by searching for instruments all over the world, restoring them, and purchasing them at auction at the Sotheby's auction house (one of the competition's partners). Last year's winner, Elena Semenova, received an excellent violin from this collection for temporary use from the foundation.
In addition to the constant Stadler, the jury included violinists Eduard Grach (professor of the Moscow Conservatory), Maxim Fedotov (professor of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music), cellist, pianist and conductor Alexander Rudin, laureate of the Tchaikovsky Competition Michaela Martin (Germany), Julian Rakhlin (Austria) and Itskakh Rashkovsky (Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London). Tatiana DAVYDOVA |
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