The level of bassoonists who entered this year's Gillet Competition was among the highest we have seen, reflecting a number of changes in the event over the past several years. With an upper age limit of 28 for 1992, many of the bassoonists who submitted tapes were "young professionals" who have already begun their performing careers. Now that the Society covers transportation costs for the competitors to perform, we are also finding that the initial pool of entrants is uniformly international each year. Of course, the decision to award a Carnegie Hall recital as part of the first prize has attracted a great deal of attention, too.
Preliminary round adjudicators for the 1992 bassoon competition
were Eberhard Marschall (Munich), Gerhard Rapsch (Berlin) and
Karl Ventulett (Frankfurt). We owe these men a great deal of thanks,
since the preliminary round tapes take a lot of time to evaluate.
After listening to all of the submitted tapes, they selected the
bassoonists for the final round. The five finalists selected for
1992 were, in alphabetical order: Clarens Bohner (Germany), Matthias
Buhlmann (Switzerland), Jean-François Duquesnoy (France),
Stefanie Liedtke (the Netherlands), and Albert Kegel (Germany).
These fine performers appeared in concert at the I.D.R.S. conference,
playing on the morning of Friday, August 14.
Repertoire for the final round consisted of movements selected
from the competition list (Telemann F minor Sonata; Devienne e-minor
Sonata; Crusell Concertino; Persichetti Parable). The members
of the jury were Gerald Corey (Canada), Sergej Krasavin (GUS),
Frank Morelli (USA) and Valentino Zucchiatti (Italy), and the
jury was chaired by Werner Seltmann (Germany). After careful and
thoughtful deliberation, the distinguished international panel
of judges awarded the first prize to Jean-Francois Dequesnoy and
the second prize to Stefanie Liedtke. Jean-François performs
on le basson, studied with Maurice Allard and Gilbert Audin, and
he performs in the Paris Opera orchestra. He will be presenting
his Carnegie Hall recital during the spring of 1993, and we will
be sure to advertise the date when it is set.
The 1991 competition winner, Pauline Oostenrijk, will be appearing
in the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, on Sunday, November
22nd, 1992, at 8:30 p.m. If you would like to attend and support
our winner (and hear a fantastic recital, too!), tickets can be
ordered from New York Recital Associates (212-769-0133), Carnegie
Charge (212-247-7800) or purchased at the Carnegie Hall Box Office
two weeks in advance of the performance. There is a special price
($12 instead of $14) if you identify yourself as an I.D.R.S. member.
Details for next year's competition appear elsewhere in this issue.
Note that we have again raised the age limit, this time to thirty.
The conference and the competition occur a bit earlier this year
(July 27-31, 1993), so mark your calendars now and plan to attend.
I make every effort to ensure that the competition music is "in
print" before publishing the list each year, but problems
can occur due to the demand after the list goes out. If you have
trouble locating the competition repertoire, please contact me
at 919-334-5970 for assistance.