An unusually heavy and unprecedented snow and severe floods
almost paralyzed Israel
in February but did not dim the fine playing of the three finalists of the 11th
International Harp Contest, who played with the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra to an almost full house.
Thirty-six harpists from 16
countries (France ,
USA , Poland ,
Russia , Japan ,
Austria , Yugoslavia ,
Turkey , Germany ,
Taiwan , Canada ,
Denmark , Switzerland ,
Czechoslovakia ,
South Korea and
Israel ) began
in the First Stage; sixteen contestants continued to the Second Stage. The
Pearl Chertok Prize for playing the required Israeli composition (by Avni,
Braun, Shidlovsky or Tal) was awarded in the First Stage to Mariko Anraku of Japan ,
who played the work by Zvi Avni. All four works had been commissioned by the
Contest. The Gulbenkian Prize for playing a Contemporary work in the Second
Stage (Britten, Casella or Krenek) was given to Marie-Pierre Langlamet, who
played Britten.
Six contestants made it to the
Semi-Final Stage, in which everyone played Sergiu Natra’s Music
for Violin and Harp with Lazar Schuster, Concertmaster of the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra, an then played a 40 minute free choice recital. At the
end of this stage, three harpists were chosen for the Final Stage and the
Fourth Prize (The Rosalind Weindling Prize) was awarded to Xavier de Maistre of
France .
The three finalists played
Debussy’s Danse sacree et Danse profane and Saint-Saens Morceau
de concert with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Mendi Rodan
conducting. The Jury then decided that the First Prize (a Lyon & Healy
harp) would go to Marie-Pierre Langlamet of France ,
who presently plays at the Metropolitan Opera in New York .
The Second Prize (The Rosenbloom Prize of $5,000) was awarded to Jana Bouskova
of Czechoslovakia
and the Third Prize (A. Z. & Mara Propes Prize of $5,000) to Mariko Anraku
of Japan .
The Prize-Awarding Ceremony at the
Residence of the President of Israel was cancelled because of the heavy snow in
Jerusalem and took place at 21 Tel Aviv Hotel. The diplomatic representatives
of Czechoslovakia ,
France and Japan
attended.
The very exciting and festive
Opening Concert of the Contest took place in the Jerusalem Theatre. The
President of Israel, Chaim Herzog, greeted the participants and the Jury. The
Ambassadors of the participating contestants’ countries were present.
Nicanor Zabaleta, a Guest of Honor
of the Contest, gave a short recital and was followed by Isabelle Moretti of
France, winner of the previous Contest in 1988, who gave a full recital.
The International Jury of this
Contest consisted of the following: Yahli Wagman, Judith Liber and Sergiu
Natra of Israel ,
Kathleen Bride and Grace Wong of the USA ,
Pierick Houdy of Canada ,
Bertile Fournier of France ,
Franz Muller-Heuser from Germany ,
Ion Ivan-Roncea of Rumania ,
David Watkins of England ,
Ayako Shinozaki of Japan
and Vera Dulova of Russia .
The contestants, the members of the
Jury and the Guests of Honor had an opportunity to tour the Old City of Jerusalem,
the Holocaust Memorial and the Israel
Museum
The general public and the media
took great interest in the Contest. In spite of the bad weather the various
stages of the Contest were very well attended.
Nicanor Zabaleta gave a Master
Class at the Jerusalem Music
Center
