The 25-year-old British-Columbian cellist Leland Ko won the 2023 edition of the OSM Competition dedicated to strings on Saturday. The final test, now accompanied by the orchestra and webcast live, was of an exceptional level.
Each of the three finalists on stage Saturday afternoon at the Maison symphonique de Montréal, violinist Justin Saulnier, violist Emad Zolfaghari and cellist Leland Ko, could have found themselves at the top of the podium without there being any doubt about their legitimacy. selecting. At this level, it is possible, even probable, that small details of the semi-final, or even of the preliminary round, provided material to give the jury the trigger to form its decision.
In any case, on the concerto, we were at such a level that, in webcast at least (the concert is now also available in delayed mode), we did not see anything very discriminating. Ontario violist Emad Zolfaghari, who made the rash gamble of playing the Concerto for viola by Alfred Schnittke, which he took on, at the age of 19, with disconcerting aplomb and astonishing accuracy of color and expression, was even our favorite. There would even have been an interesting “signal” there, since Canada does not lack violinists or cellists.
But, as was said previously, no problem with the verdict: Leland Ko brought it to life and vibrate with an intrinsic class and a sonic richness that violinist Justin Saulnier perhaps does not have (a parameter that we will have pleasure in check it out one day in the theater, because he is a very interesting artist) the formidable Concert Symphony by Prokofiev. Justin Saulnier, the violinist, stood out for his fine sound, accuracy, and, above all, the interpretive intelligence of not romanticizing the 1er Concerto of Prokofiev and have it poured into a sort of “imitation Concerto by Barber.
Teachings
A very delicate mission for a select jury, made up of Richard Rodzinski, Christoph Eschenbach, Augustin Hadelich, Alisa Weilerstein and Jean-Jacques Kantorow, who were at work for the semi-final and the final.
The latter, admirably directed (1er Violin Concerto by Prokofiev!) by the Czech Tomáš Netopil, who deserves to return for a less thankless exercise, will have shown the increasingly clear tendency among the candidates to distinguish themselves with concertos which go off the beaten track. Appear in the final of a competition with the Concert Symphony by Prokofiev, an ungrateful, shady and difficult to penetrate work, is a concept in itself. THE Concerto for viola by Schnittke, was not to be outdone, and the way Zolfaghari brought it to life with passion was a feat. All that was missing was the Violin Concerto by Britten, a sublime work, but it is wise not to choose, because it is complex to accompany and the orchestras, which do not have much of it in the repertoire, do not really have the time to prepare it!
Obviously, another lesson is the superlative level of the recent generation of musicians in Canada. Our young people literally compete in international competitions. Since Bruce Liu in Warsaw, there has already been the emergence of another pianist: Kevin Chen, in 2023, at the Rubinstein Competition. It is therefore gratifying, but not surprising, that this national competition final had the level of an international competition.
In this case, we discovered three musicians that we want to see again. At this point, for us, the ranking doesn’t matter. For the candidates, it’s not the same thing: Leland Ko really had to win, because, “unknown” at 25 (his biography on the OSM website, which talks about origami, does not mention not only of Chinese-Canadian ancestry, he was born, raised, educated and lives in Boston, nor that his sublime 17th century Spanish instrumente century is lent to him, good prince, by the Instrument Bank of Canada), he will come up against, if he one day returns to the country, a market already “saturated” with the strong presence of Cameron Crozman (28 years old) , by Bryan Cheng (26 years old and 6e to Reine-Élisabeth) and Stéphane Tétreault (30 years old). There is more room for maneuver for Justin Saulnier, 18 years old, and, above all, for Emad Zolfaghari, 19 years old.