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Piano semi-finalists rehearsed with an orchestra on June 23rd in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

For the second stage of Round II each of the semi-finalists will play a Mozart concerto for piano and orchestra.  The competitors will be accompanied by the Moscow Soloists Chamber Ensemble under the baton of Ayrton Desimpelaer (during the afternoon auditions) and Moscow Chamber Orchestra (State Chamber Orchestra of Russia) conducted by Alexey Utkin (for the evening auditions). 

On June 23rd the pianists will be introduced to the conductors after which there will be orchestral rehearsals for the first six competitors.

The auditions of pianists in Stage II of Round II will take place on June 24th and 25th.  The performances begin at 5:00 pm.  The final results in Round II will be announced on June 25 at 10:30 pm.

The jury will evaluate the performances in Round II in order to select six pianists who will vie for the prizes in the final round of the Competition.

Stage II of Round II of the violin competition will commence on June 24th.

For two days the violinists remaining in competition will perform with the Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra conducted by Valentin Uryupin.  On June 24th there will be performances of Mozart’s violin concertos by Pavel Milyukov (Russia), Alexandra Conunova (Moldova), Mayu Kishima (Japan), Younguk Kim (South Korea), Stepan Starikov (Russia), and Bomsori Kim (South Korea).  On June 23rd these musicians rehearsed with the orchestra.  On June 25st the artistry of Yu-Chien Tseng (Taiwan), Clara-Jumi Kang (Germany), Yoo Jin Jang (South Korea), Haik Kazazyan (Russia), Sergei Pospelov (Russia), and Christopher Tun Andersen (Norway) will be on display.  The orchestral rehearsals for these musicians will take place during the first half of the day.  The results of Round II will be announced on June 25th at 11:00 pm.

Following Stage I of Round II in the cello competition there was a day of rehearsals that presented the competitors with the challenge of finding a common language with an orchestra and conductor new to them.

During two days all twelve of the competitors must play one of Joseph Haydn’s cello concertos with a chamber orchestra.  There will be two different orchestras for these auditions in Round II. The first session will begin at 5 pm in June 24th. Vladimir Altschuler will be at the podium conducting the Chamber Ensemble of the Shostakovich State Academic Saint Petersburg Philharmonic as Anastasia Kobekina of Russia, Pablo Ferrández-Castro of Spain and Leonard Elschenbroich from Germany give their performances.  The second session beginning at 7:30 pm will feature the Chamber Ensemble of the Mariinsky Theatre conducted by Alexei Bogorad as Alexander Buzlov of Russia, Valentino Worlitzsch of Germany, and Seung Min Kang of South Korea play.

The first day of auditions in the voice competition took place in the Mussorgsky Hall of Mariinsky II.

The programme of Round I consists of three pieces:  an aria from a cantata, oratorio, or opera composed in the 17th or 18th centuries; and aria from the 19th century; and an art song by Tchaikovsky.  The day began with Hannah’s aria from Haydn’s “The Seasons” performed by soprano Diana Kazaryan, a student at the Rostov Conservatory and ended with Azucena’s alarming story from Verdi’s “Il trovatore” interpreted by mezzo-soprano Anna Litvin, a graduate of the Nizhniy Novgorod Conservatory.  Seven Russians, two Armenians, one Pole, two Chinese, and one soloist from South Korea—these were the countries involved on the first day.  The greatest challenge for all of the vocalists seemed to come from the “early aria” that only a few were able to negotiate comfortably.   Ewa Tracz of Poland can take credit for the best German language with her rendition of Zaide’s aria from Mozart’s opera of that title.  Ao Li of China used a finely balanced rhetorical style in Zoroastro’s incredibly fast aria from Handel’s “Orlando”.  Certainly this vocalist’s breath control and ability to shape the dynamics of the emotional changes built into that dramatic aria merit high praise.  He also thrilled the audience with the way he could inhabit a role like a Stanislavsky-trained actor as he took on not only Ralph’s aria in Bizet’s “La jolie fille de Perth” (which is hardly ever heard in Russia) sung as a theatrical number, but also Tchaikovsky’s “Reconciliation” where he sang in the best tradition of Shalyapin with deep immersion in the character.  This Chinese bass also impressed with his excellent command of Russian, and clearly he has very broad experience appearing on stage in major theatres.  In 2013 he was a prize winner in the Plácido Domingo Operalia World Opera Competition.  It was good to see on the first day that the art of bass singing has not vanished—it has revived.  Russia’s Dmitry Grigoriev with his rich full-blooded bass voice offered some stiff competition to the excellent Chinese basso.  Despite some anxiety, Dmitry was very convincing in Susanin’s aria from Glinka’s “A Life for the Tsar”, and there was an aristocratic tone to his performance of Tchaikovsky’s “I Bless You, Forests”.

There were two mezzo-soprano competitors Yulia Matochkina from Russia and Eun Kyong Lim from Korea.  Eun Kyong Lim sang Dalila’s aria, Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse, from Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila” before one of the finest Dalilas of our time—Olga Borodina seated on the jury panel. 

Sopranos vied to convey best the pantheistic exaltation in Rusalka’a aria from Dvořák opera of the same name.  It was sung by Gelena Gaskarova, Emilia Ablaeva, and Xianglei Fang.  It was surprising to see how Tchaikovsky’s gift for melody affected singers of every nationality, empowering them to be open.  All the foreign singers showed great respect for the artistry of this Russian genius, and they were remarkably intelligible and expressive even in singing rather difficult Russian words.  This was particularly true for Xianglei Fang who got a second wind as she began to sing Tchaikovsky’s “Lullaby”.

The first day also made clear how important the accompanist is for solo singing.  Unfortunately, there were quite a few numbers where the lack of ensemble between vocalist and pianist undermined the unity of the interpretation.  It was no easy task that these young people set for themselves as they pushed themselves from Baroque arias to 19th century ones:  no sooner had their voices begun to adjust to the many  trills and jubilatio than they had to switch over to the stylistically opposite Romantic register with its extended melodic lines and completely different emotional content.  It was quite a challenge for baritone Grigory Chernetsov to “hit the brakes” for Renato’s aria in Verdi’s “Un ballo in maschera” after the flurries of ornamentation in bass aria, Revenge, Timotheus cries, from Handel’s oratorio “Alexander’s Feast”.  His voice again and again gave off traces of the tremolo of Baroque pipes.  This is part of the incredible difficulty of this competition.  If you get through it, you have run through the gauntlet.