FESTIVAL WITH A DIFFERENCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 914, 15 February 1957, Page 7

FESTIVAL WITH A DIFFERENCE

AMONG the many music festivals which are now held all over the world it is unusual to find a competition where in rotation prizes are offered for the makers of instruments as well as for composers and performers. Such a competition is held annually at Liége in Belgium and already it has won itself high international prestige. The Competition is concerned with the string quartet and was started in 1951 by the Quartet Ensemble of the city of Liége. They wanted to encourage all aspects of string playing and the contest seeks to emphasise the close harmony that must exist among composers, performers and craftsmen. : Craftsmen from all over Europe have been attracted by the instrument making

competition, first held in 1954 when it was won by a Frenchman, Jean Bauer, and to be staged again this year. Instead of submitting single instruments, entrants have to submit a complete quartet-two violins, a viola and a cello. They are asked to respect the classical canons generally accepted today for the making and designing of instruments but entries must not be imitations of old models. The wood must not have been artificially seasoned by any chemical process to produce premature maturity of tone and on the technical side they ask that the scroll be of simple shell pattern, the peg of rosewood, and that no additional ornament, purfling or decoration’ be added. When the instruments arrive at Liége they are unpacked and put on dis-

play in the city museum to await their trial. A panel of experts, which includes master craftsmen and an acoustics expert then examines the instruments for their craftsmanship and listens to their quality of tone. The Quartet of the City of Liége plays the same programme of classical, romantic and modern chamber music on each set and after this the jury is ready to make its decisions. The first prize is worth £1000 and the winning instruments are bought by the City of Liége which keeps them for the use of the most talented violinists of its violin school. A special label is put inside the prize-winning instruments, which thus carry the distinction all their lives. There have been three competitions for composers and last year nearly a

hundred specially written works poured in from 22 different countries, The Liége Quartet used to play all the works submitted but as they were in manuscript this proved too arduous, Now an international committee spends three months reading all the works and last year they selected thirteen to be played by the quartet. The tapes of five of the prizewinners have been made available to the NZBS through the courtesy of the Belgian Legation and these will be played in a series of programmes from all YCs starting on Friday, February 22 at 8.0 when quartets by the first prize winner, Manfred Kelkel of Germany, and by Amédée Borsari, of France, third prize, will be played. Two competitions for performers have been held. In 1952 the winner was the Parrenin Quartet (see photograph) which will be coming to New Zealand in April and May of this year for the N.Z. Federation of Chamber Music Societies. Many of their performances will be broadcast. Liége is an industrial town, over 200,000 strong, specialising in making steel and firearms and in coal mining. It has over the years developed a reputation for producing good string players. Its conservatorium is celebrated and it has also been the birthplace of several composers such as Grétry and César Franck, and the home of violin virtuosos such as Vieuxtemps and Eugéne Ysaye. Surprisingly enough, despite its record of having players in many orchestras all over Europe the violin in Liege is not a "popular" instrument in the sense that it is in some regions of Hungary and Bohemia. Between them, however, Brussels and Liege have produced some extremely fine violinists and teachers of violin and given Belgium an enviable reputation for fine string playing. a