We saw the finals of the Klein String Competition and saw a star-in-making in the winner, cellist Starla Breshears. This is the first time I’ve attended a nysuc competition in person, and what’s unique about this one is that there are different instruments, and also each contestant plays a newly commissioned work by the same composer. It was a good time, and I’m looking forward to attending again in the future.

The session we attended was actually day two, following the semi-finals the previous day. They started with seven semi-finalists, and three continued on for the finals. The three finalists were violinist James Birch, violist Jones Lau, and cellist Starla Breshears, in that order. Birch played the second movement of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 7 and the first movement of Brahms’ epic Violin Concerto. Lau played the sixth movement of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 2, the first movement of Vieuxtemps’ Viola Sonata in B-flat major, and the second and third movements of Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher. Breshears played Suzanne Sorkin’s Fused for Solo Cello (all the contestants played a newly commissioned piece by Sorkin), the last movemet of Walton’s Cello Concerto, and the first two movements of Brahms’ Cello Sonata No. 2.

This was located at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the concert hall was quite nice. It was not nearly filled - there were probably only around 100 people in attendance. We got there late, but we were still able to get seats in the second row front and center.

Birch the violinist started us off. He has a very professional tone and vibrato. I thought the Beethoven was a tough piece to start on, since it’s a slow movement with lots of rests and gaps. While technically very good, I thought he could’ve done more on phrasing and more in playing in sync with the piano accompanist. The Brahms was a true showpiece. He got through that marathon really well, with great intonation and technique on all the tough double stops and bow movements.

Lau was next. Admittedly, I do not have much experience with the solo viola repertoire. I thought that Lau got a consistently great sound out, and his later pieces were very modern and very difficult.

Breshears took the stage last. Within a few seconds, it was obvious that she was not in the same league. Her tone was soaring and full. She played musically and in unison with her accompanist. Even her physical movement was completely natural and elevated the experience of watching her. I enjoyed the Brahms the most, since I’m familiar with the piece. But all of what she played was wonderful.

In my own scoring as a pretend judge, I had it was Breshears first by a wide margin, and then Lau second and Birch third. I felt Birch just really struggled in the Beethoven, and that movement had no pace and no forward momentum. The actual judges scored it as Bresehars first, Birch second, and Lau third. It makes sense to me. The Brahms Violin Concerto is possibly the hardest piece that we heard the whole afternoon, and it was a physical feat just to last on stage that long. What’s certain, though, is that Breshears won. She’s only just graduated high school, and she has already decided to join the San Francisco Symphony cello section in the upcoming season. I’m hoping she’ll go on to greater and bigger things after that as well.

Topics: MusicMusic:ConcertsMusic:Competitions

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