A set of three articles available on Klassiek Centraal, the largest Dutch-language website for classical music criticism, brings you some of the flavor of this year’s Queen Elisabeth Competition for cello in Brussels.
In the first, I describe the historic Casals cello, to be loaned for the next four years to the competition winner, and then give an overview of the new concerto by composer Fang Man that all finalists were required to play.
The second is a description of the atmosphere in the Bozar concert hall, which supplements the daily updates from critic Ludwig Van Mechelen on the finalists’ performances.
And the third and most exciting is my interview with the contest winner, Italian cellist Ettore Pagano, with his insights about competitions, why Sergei Prokofiev is the “most Italian” of the Russian composers, and what young people can do to succeed in music and other pursuits.
I can’t take credit for the Dutch translation, however: I submitted the articles in English, and Ludwig Van Mechelen translated them for publication.