In the second round repertoire of the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition the competitor can choose one of the three contemporary pieces, which received the top three awards at the first international Jean Sibelius Composition Competition. It was organized as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Finland's most prestigious composer. Besides violin music, the other categories were music for choirs and the piano. The organizer was the Sibelius Birth Town Foundation in Hämeenlinna, Finland. The members of the jury were Kaija Saariaho, chairperson, Mark Andre, Liza Lim, Magnus Lindberg and Jukka Tiensuu.
In the competition program the composers introduce their new pieces:
Hyun-jun Park: Another Cadenza
This piece was composed with an impression from the violin concerto of Jean Sibelius. Beginning with imagination: how would it be, if there is another cadenza composed by him at his old age when he didn't write music any more? It was composed to function not only as a cadenza which is practicable to mix with the original one, but also as a separate unaccompanied piece. This means that the movement of energy from a gush of emotion felt from cadenzas and musical structures are combined. And every single section was composed to have their own distinct character and mutual infuences. Main themes came from melodies and rhythm from the concerto of Sibelius, started at the transfiguration of its rhythm, melodies, articulation. These motives go through several stages of contrast such as expand and reduction, repetition and omit, sustenance and interruption, then head for a climax and disappear with fading away coda. The process is my own reinterpretation of the creative beauty that Jean Sibelius has shown in his masterpieces, hommage to the great composer who struggled to find his way between the past and the future.
Hyun-jun Park (b. 1989, Seoul, South Korea)
Francisco del Pino: Jardin de Lágrimas
Jardin de Lágrimas (Garden of tears) is part of a cycle of solo string works. It is conceived as a hihgly virtuosic étude in which several layers of melodic material are developed by means of an extensive use of hidden polyphony. Both the rhythmic structure and the global form are based in a fixed sequence of numbers and propostions, which eventually proliferates affecting all levels of construction. Beyond that, the overall expressive curve is treated in an almost romantic sense, and there exists in the piece a certain 'narration' that the listener is invited to discover. The title refers to the constructive aspect as well as to the emotional contents of the work: development, blossoming and proliferation on the other hand; anguish, melancholy on the other.
Francisco del Pino (b. 1980, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Junghoon Nam: Taste for the Arts
The title Taste for the Arts is a translation of Korean expression for natural music. In this work, Korean traditional instruments, Janggu, Gayagum and Hyegum are described by one violin. The work focuses on aesthetic harmony and diversity between Eastern and Western cultures and follows classical development of motive.
Junghoon Nam (b. 1992, Daegu, South Korea)
