JAVS Fall 2008

acclaim and a Broadway tickertape parade upon his return home.

The Primrose International Competition has taken its place among these events. Based on attending most competition per formances as well as many so called “signature events” (concerts performed by attending viola pro fessionals), I found it easy to come to the conclusion that the artistic level of this competition and the concerts of the Viola Congress attained the highest imaginable level. The preliminary rounds required ten-minute performances of the candidates, with piano accompani ment. The competition supplied three renowned pianists for the candidates’ accompaniment: Andrew Campbell, Eileen Buck, and Walter Cosand. The distin guished jury panel was composed of Claudine Bigelow (chair), Korean violist Ensik Choi, French violist Bruno Pasquier, Romanian born violinist Eugene Sarbu, Israeli-native violist Amir Shiff, and American violists Carol Rodland and Steven Tenenbom.

Dimitri Murrath.

Competition director Ngwenyama watched all performances on closed-circuit TV, to be available to break unlikely ties. Candidates would appear onstage in their evening attire (even at morning or afternoon concerts) and, upon entering the stage, would take a bow, whether there was applause or not (there usually was applause at the conclusion). The pieces most prominently in evidence in the first rounds were Bela Bartók’s Concerto, op. Posth.; Paganini’s La Campanella ; and var ious Zimbalist arrangements of Sarasate pieces. All semi-finalists performed Recitative for Solo Viola by Scott Slapin, commissioned for this year's competition, in con junction with a sonata, a Bach work, and a second Primrose tran scription. In the final round, the Bartók Concerto was the favored work, and was performed five times, while the Walton Concerto was played once. Belgian violist Dimitri Murrath— twenty-six years old and a soft-spo ken and courteous individual—

won First Prize, which netted him $5,000 cash, a viola by Italian master luthier Carlo Testoni, a gold-mounted Arcos Brasil bow, and select concert appearances in the U.S. and Europe. He also won the Liben Music Prize for best per formance of New Orleans violist/composer Scott Slapin’s Recitative for Solo Viola . “I am thrilled beyond belief; this is an unbelievable moment,” Murrath said in his native French, and again in slightly accented but flu ent English. Second Prize ($3,000 cash and an Arcos Brasil bow) went to twenty four-year-old American violist Emily Deans, and Third Prize ($1,000 cash and a Brasil bow) went to twenty-one-year-old American violist Molly Carr. The Linnet Music Prize for an out standing performance of a Bach work was awarded to the German violist Barbara Buntrock, and the Primrose Prize for an outstanding performance of a Primrose tran scription was awarded to Yiyin Li of China, and to the second-prize winner Emily Deans. Finally, the

Ensik Choi.

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