THE FIELD NARROWS
Violinists compete in Montreal
Good, better, best. This does not sum up the act of judging musical performance but it is the fundamental template for what goes on as the Montreal International Musical Competition moves from the semifinals to finals.
The instrument under consideration this year is the violin and the likelihood of hearing a performance that fails to meet the threshold of “good” is slim. It is sometimes said reflexively that standards are rising but the more accurate generalization is that high standards are broadening.
This is to say that more players are good. At the same time, the identification of better and best becomes increasingly difficult, according to the law of diminishing returns.
At least this seems to be the case where the violin is concerned. In opera the stable is growing but not necessarily with voices at a high level. It is obvious that we do not have the array of opera stars we once had in any vocal category with the possible exception of countertenor.
But back to the violin. There are many good players. But like proper philosophers we must analyze the concept of goodness. This week, I heard an MIMC quarter-finalist play a solo Bach movement with what initially seemed high spirits and zesty rhythm.
Good. But soon I heard traces of roughness and a certain notquite-rightness on the intonation front. And hey, the violin is made of wood, right? This one seemed to be made of steel. After two or three minutes I knew there was no way this player would make the semifinal cut. Sometimes good is not good enough.
Listening is more interesting at the better-best level, which is what the semifinal round of any reputable competition promises us. Of course, the full appreciation of a competition requires comparison. An ordinary concert performance can be heard as good (or not so good) on its own terms.
Critics are supposed to say how good a performance is, so they generally make at least an implicit comparison with prevailing standards. Judges in competitions must make a double comparison, as competitors square off against prevailing standards as well as each other.
So the contestants had better be better than good in the semifinal round. In the finals they need to be best.
Four competitors from South Korea — Bomsori Kim, Gyehee Kim, Anna Lee and Ji Won Song — are among the 12 who have made the semifinal cut of the MIMC as announced late Wednesday night. Another, Christine Lim, is listed as hailing from both South Korea and the United States. Keep in mind that South Koreans finished first and second in the 2015 MIMC, which was dedicated to voice.
Other semifinalists are Sirena Huang (United States), Petteri Iivonen (Finland), Richard Lin (Taiwan/United States), Fedor Rudin (France/Russia), Ayana Tsuji (Japan), Xiao Wang (China) and Minami Yoshida (Japan). No Canadians this year, even in the opening round.
All semifinalists must play the first movement of the Sonate en sol of the late Jean Papineau Couture, this being the “imposed piece,” a requirement in most competitions and a most useful tool for making comparisons. Usually a few competitors seek extra brownie points by committing the imposed piece to memory.
Semifinal sessions in Bourgie Hall will wrap up on Saturday, starting at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. The finals with the OSM, under Giancarlo Guerrero, are in the Maison symphonique on Monday and Tuesday starting at 7:30 p.m. The gala concert of winners is on Thursday, also at 7:30 p.m. in the Maison symphonique.
Go to concoursmontreal.ca for ticket information. Take note of the live-streaming option at concoursmontreal.ca/ live. Medici. tv will stream the finals and gala concert and (like the competition itself ) offer these events as ondemand products. Go to medici. tv. Radio-Canada and CBC Radio 2 will also present excerpts and reports. Compare and contrast to your heart’s content.
What does it take to get Phyllis Lambert and R. Murray Schafer into the same room? Apparently, a benefit concert for the Canadian Music Centre by the Quatuor Molinari.
This program on June 14 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture will include the String Quartet No. 1 of the aforementioned Jean Papineau-Couture, an excerpt from the String Quartet No. 6 of Petros Shoujounian and Schafer’s most recent string quartet, which bears the intriguing title Alzheimer’s Masterpiece.
Pianists Louise Bessette and François Bourassa also perform. The benefit price of $100 is not so far north of a regular ticket these days. For details, go to the CMC website at cmcquebec.ca/.
August will be a working month for the OSM. The annual free concert at Olympic Park takes place on Aug. 10 and is titled Galaxy of Heroes as a joint tribute to the Rio Olympics and the 40th anniversary of the Montreal Olympics. Kent Nagano conducts Holst’s The Planets with a visual adjunct described as “the participation of Olympic athletes and some 100 young athletes from the younger generation in Quebec and projections on a giant screen.”
On the following evening in the plaza of Place des Arts, another free outdoor event involves the world première of an electroacoustic work by Robert Normandeau that marks the 50th anniversary of the Montreal métro as well as a screening of the 1926 silent comedy For Heaven’s Sake with a soundtrack improvised (indoors) by Philippe Bélanger on the Grand Orgue Pierre- Béique.
Straight-up classical tastes will be attended to by the Classical Spree in 30 concerts over two days (Aug. 12 and 13) in various halls and with various reputable performers, domestic and imported. Nagano and the OSM give us Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 “Organ” (with Jean-Willy Kunz). Pinchas Zukerman visits with Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Go to osm.ca for details on these and other OSM summer activities.