Pauline van der Rest, at the age of 19, will represent Belgium at the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Musical Competition. She is among the 70 candidates selected for this twentieth edition dedicated to the violin. The event will be held from this Monday, May 6 to June 12 in Flagey and at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
The 70 candidates were selected from 290 violinists aged between 18 and 31. Several candidates having had to abandon their participation, there are now 63. To apply, each musician had to record four works on video: a sonata for solo violin by Bach, a Caprice by Paganini, the first movement of a sonata by Mozart, Beethoven or Schubert, and a work of your choice. The selection was made behind closed doors by an international jury, chaired by Gilles Ledure.
Queen Elisabeth Competition: already a withdrawal even before the start of the tests
The selected candidates will take the first public test, which will take place from May 6 to 11. During this test, they will perform the works or fragments of works that the jury will have chosen from the prepared works: the Sonata n. 3 in D minor by Eugène Ysaÿe, three Caprices by Niccolò Paganini and a piece that the candidate will have chosen from the following: Trois Romances op. 22 by Clara Schumann; Impromptu concertante by George Enescu; or Dryads and Pan, extract from Myths op. 30 by Karol Szymanowski.
The semi-final will take place from May 13 to 18. Each of the 24 semi-finalists will perform a recital with piano accompaniment and, on another day, a Mozart concerto with the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, conducted by Vahan Mardirossian. The recitals will be composed of works of your choice and a new compulsory work, written especially for this session: “The Sun and Her Flowers” by Charlotte Bray.
As for the final, it will take place from May 27 to June 1. The twelve finalists will each perform a concerto of their choice and a new work composed by Thierry Escaich. They will receive this work on the day they are lodged at the Musical Chapel. They will therefore have one week, no more and no less, to study it, without outside help. The compulsory piece will be performed with the Belgian National Orchestra, under the direction of Antony Hermus.
Founded in 1937, the Queen Elisabeth Competition puts a different discipline in the spotlight each year. Last year, during the edition dedicated to singing, South Korean baritone Taehan Kim won first prize (with 25,000 euros) for his performance.
