Concertino Praga 2018
On Tuesday, January 23rd, an international jury of experts chose the winners of the 52nd annual Concertino Praga radio competition. This year, the competition had been announced in the category of chamber music – duos, trios, quartets and quintets and the participants were from Bulgaria, Latvia, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Austria, Slovenia and Ukraine. The Czech Republic was represented by two ensembles.
The young musicians’ performances were assessed by the following jury members:
Karel Dohnal (clarinet), Jaroslav Kubita (bassoon), Kaspar Zehnder (flute), Michal Rezek (piano), František Souček (violin), Michal Kaňka (violoncello) a Gail Helen Henry (Radio Producer of the Irish national Classical Music station RTÉ lyric fm).
The overall winner and Helena Karásková Prize laureate is Duo Bubreg from Austria. Duo Bubreg will have a profile CD released by Czech Radio and will also receive the financial prize of 1 000 EUR.
"I admire every competitor, because I know how challenging the preparation for every competition is. The absolute winners totally captured me by their confident performance. The combination of saxophone and clarinet is not quite common, but they prepared a very interesting and demanding repertoire." says clarinettist Karel Dohnal, a member of this year's international jury of Concertino Praga.
"All participants have demonstrated their musical talent and instrumental skills that are at their age
really admirable. I consider the absolute winners (Duo Bubreg) to be top performers." adds Jaroslav Kubita.
The following prizes were awarded in the DUO category: 1st prize Duo Bubreg (Austria), 2nd prize Duo Martinka - Graf (Czech Republic), Honorable Mention Duo Kuznetsov - Lanin (Russia) and Duo Dimitrov (Bulgaria).
In the TRIO category, the following prizes were awarded: 1st prize Trio Illimitato (Germany), 2nd prize Bacewicz Trio (Poland), Honorable Mention Music Adrenalin (Czech Republic).
In the QUARTET category, 2nd prize was awarded to Codam String Quartet (Bulgaria), other prizes were not awarded.
In the QUINTET category, 2nd prize was awarded to Woodwind Instruments Quintet (Russia), other prizes were not awarded.
The winners will be proving their skills during the laureates’ concert at the big hall of Slovanský dům on Thursday, June 7 2018 (Prague). The concert will be followed by the traditional South Bohemian Concertino Praga Festival, which is taking place from June 11 to June 15 2018 and consists of four concerts in concert halls and castles of South Bohemian towns.
Complete results can be seen in the attached List of Results of the International Competition for Young Musicians Concertino Praga 2018.
