KEY POINTS:
Taking a break in the Queenstown Memorial Theatre between 18 young violinists playing their Bach and Mozart, Anne Rodda reflects on the Fourth Michael Hill International Violin Competition.
As director, she is happy to be "part of a team that's been able to provide a fantastic experience" although "wrinkles were building over Friday's flights because five of the seven judges were flying in and it looked very dodgy".
All arrived for the concert launch at which American judge Mark Kaplan astounded us with Berio's virtuosic Sequenza VIII, introducing the piece with an amusing spiel about how the special relationship between a low A and a low B is threatened by a tricky G sharp.
"There we were in this funny little hall at the bottom of the Pacific," Rodda remarks, "with five of the judges performing. It felt like they were giving a gift to the competition, the competitors and the community."
Rodda praises the initiative of Michael and Christine Hill who "always set the bar high and never rest with what they have, which in turn sets the flavour of the competition".
She is also thrilled that Auckland will meet the judges in masterclasses tomorrow and Friday, in which five will work with local students. "It's good for the country and gives a connection or engagement with the next layer."
As in previous years, all competitors have to play a specially commissioned New Zealand work, in this case Ross Harris' Fanitullen. Rodda sees export potential here "as all the players will take it back home and perform it through the rest of their concerts".
"It also gives them some insight into New Zealand music," she adds.
There are practical aspects, too. "They don't get to look at it until early April, so it's a level playing field and they don't have the chance to hear anyone else interpret it."
Ross Harris, wrapped up warm for the first day of the semifinals, tells me the piece's title is "a nice crisp word, fun and punchy". It is Swedish for "devil's tune" and he has tried to echo traditional Scandinavian music "which has lots of strings for a lot of the time".
Fanitullen is a wild Mephisto turn, "with a lot for the players to do in a very short space of time," Harris says." I didn't feel that a long spacious landscape piece would fit into the high pressure context of this event."
One prize has already been decided, with Dominican Yuuki Wong carrying off $2500 for the best performance of Fanitullen. He tells me how the short piece is "very violinistic but not just technique for the sake of technique, which is why I memorised it. I really enjoyed playing it."
Two chamber music rounds tonight and tomorrow evening will see Wong and five other semifinalists cut back to the three who will go on to Saturday's final concert with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra - a programme which could well be an evening of Brahms, as four contestants have chosen his concerto.
Each finalist is a character. Dallas-born Celeste Golden laughs and agrees that she was aiming for "Texan grandeur" in her Bach Chaconne.
Berliner Stefan Hempel explains his sweet tone in Mozart's K 219 with "Mozart always writes for the human voice".
New Yorker Noah Geller's special surprise with the same Mozart score was a cadenza by Raymond Leppard. "It was written especially for my teacher, Cho-Liang Lin," Geller says, "and I knew no one else would be playing it."
For three days, the seven judges have listened, weighed up 108 performances and made their decisions; now it's the final run.
American Pamela Frank, whose most recent recording is a critically acclaimed account of the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich concerto, enjoys adjudicating and is drawn to "all the individual talents, each of which brings something unique".
"Competitions open doors, but that's all," she stresses. "Whatever happens after that depends on the personality of the musician.
"The thing that matters most is which voice speaks to you and I call it the goosebump factor - whatever makes my hair stand on end, gives me goosebumps or touches me."
