This box set from the third cello session of the Queen Elisabeth Competition brings together the 12 prize-winners who offered audiences exceptional musical moments throughout the competition. It opens with the concertos performed by the first four laureates. As tradition dictates, the programme begins with Prokofiev's Symphony-Concerto performed by First Prize winner Ettore Pagano, followed by Lutoslawski's Cello Concerto performed by Second Prize winner Tae-Yeon Kim. These are followed by Barber's Cello Concerto performed by Third Prize winner Leland Ko and Shostakovich's Cello Concerto performed by Fourth Prize winner alvaro Lozano Cames. A full disc of chamber music extends the journey, ranging from Josef Suk to Kaija Saariaho, and featuring Harold Noben's compulsory work alongside other highlights from the competition. The programme then returns to the orchestral repertoire with concertos by Anton Kraft and Leopold Hofmann, before concluding with Four Odes to the Tidings of Flowers by Fang Man, the compulsory work of the final round. Beyond the prize list itself, this album reflects the richness of an edition marked by the broadening of repertoire, the curiosity of it's performers, and the extraordinary diversity of musical personalities gathered in Brussels. A vivid testament to the art of cello playing today.
The 21st edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, dedicated to the piano, came to a close on Saturday 31 May 2025 in a packed Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, pulsing with the energy of the twelve finalists. A flagship event on the Belgian and international music scene, the Competition highlights exceptional young artists every year. The 2025 4-volume collection gathers the most striking moments from this edition. First Prize winner Nikola Meeuwsen succeeds Jonathan Fournel, Lukas Vondracek, Boris Giltburg, Denis Kozhukhin, and Anna Vinnitskaya. He shines here in Prokofiev's Concerto No. 2, accompanied by the Brussels Philharmonic under the baton of Kazushi Ono, as well as in Mendelssohn's Variations serieuses. Other orchestral performances on the album include: Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 3 by Valere Burnon (Third Prize, VRT Canvas-Klara audience prize and Musiq3 Prize), Brahms' Concerto No. 2 by Wataru Hisasue (Second Prize), and Schumann's Concerto by Arthur Hinnewinkel (Fourth Prize). The collection closes with Mozart's Concerto No. 27 performed by Jiaxin Min, accompanied by the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie conducted by Vahan Mardirossian. A prominent place is given to solo and contemporary repertoire: the two compulsory works, Music for the Heart by Kris Defoort - performed by Yuki Yoshimi - and Two Studies by Ana Sokolovic - by Shiori Kuwahara - precede Liszt's Reminiscences de Norma by Masaya Kamei (Fifth Prize) and Brahms' Sonata No. 1 by Sergey Tanin (Sixth Prize), recorded at Flagey. A vibrant testimony to this unforgettable edition, to be discovered and rediscovered with each listen.
The 4CD box set of the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition will be available as from Saturday 8 June 2024. The laureates of this year will be heard in their performances of the Mozart Concertos with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie conducted by Vahan Mardirossian, as well as the major concertos from the repertoire from the finals with the Belgian National Orchestra under the baton of Antony Hermus. Of course, their chamber music performances from the semi-finals will not be overlooked. The programme of the discs will be available as from 2 June 2024.
The Queen Elisabeth Competition 2024 gives us the opportunity of diving back into the performances of 4 prize-winning laureates of the 2009 and 2012 sessions devoted to the violin. In this exclusive box set we shall hear Ray Chen (First Prize and Canvas-Klaraprijs 2009), Lorenzo Gatto (Second Prize and Prix Musiq3 2009), Vineta Sareika (laureate 2009) and Andrey Baranov (First Prize 2012). Ray Chen starts off this box set with the concerto of Tchaikovsky with which he made such an impression in 2009, and also winning the audience's Canvas-Klaraprijs. An indelible moment of the Queen Elisabeth Competition; Ray Chen had won over the public, taking with him the Belgian National Orchestra conducted by Gilbert Varga at the height of it's form. He had previously offered in the final a magnificent Sonata of Franck, full of maturity, and this can be found on disc for the first time. Next comes the Belgian Lorenzo Gatto, revealed to the international audience in this same competition. In the final he had presented a masterly Concerto of Paganini, yet also a very great Sonata No. 3 by George Enescu. His programme is here completed by two extracts of his performances in the semi-final at the Brussels Conservatory: the Sonata for violin solo Op. 27/6 by Eugene Ysaÿe, and, as an encore, the Havanaise Op. 83 of Saint-Saens. Vineta Sareika also left her mark on the 2009 competition. She who is today Konzertmeister of the Berlin Philharmonic had offered the highly majestic Concerto of Elgar, a monument of the repertory. Yet the Queen Elisabeth Competition is also the occasion to hear Mozart's concertos, and here we find Vineta Sareika in the Concerto No. 5 KV 219 of which she gave a splendid rendition in the semi-final, accompanied by the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie conducted by Michael Hofstetter. Finally, this box set concludes with Andrey Baranov, First Prize in the 2012 Competition. Imperial in the Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich, he shows that he is also a musician full of refinement and sensitivity in Mozart's Concerto No. 3 KV 216 and the two pieces of Tchaikovsky in the semi-final in Flagey - the Meditation (Souvenir d'un lieu cher) and the Valse-Scherzo - complete the portrait of this musician who is also a magnificent chamber player. Four personalities, four sensitivities, four superb violinists to rediscover without delay in some of the great concertos in the repertory and in recordings, for the most part newly released.
This 4CD box set includes mostly unreleased performances of the First Prizes and winners of the audience prizes from the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in 2013 and 2016. You will find: Boris Giltburg (First Prize and Canvas-Klaraprijs 2013); Mateusz Borowiak (3rd Prize and Musiq3 Prize 2013); Lukáš Vondrácek (First Prize and Canvas-Klaraprijs 2016); and Alberto Ferro (6th Prize and Musiq3 Prize 2016). Four pianists with very different artistic personalities, each nonetheless having left his mark on two memorable piano sessions of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and provided some magnificent musical moments to be found in this box set.
Queen Elisabeth Competition 2022: Cello Music from Haydn to Schubert to Widmann
Queen Elisabeth Competition
CD
$42.99Aug 26, 2022
After two special years, this second edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition dedicated to the Cello has rediscovered the fervor of the audience and the extraordinary enthusiasm created each year by this major musical event in Belgium and abroad. The 4 album box set with the best moments of the 2022 Cello Competition highlights the great diversity of the repertoire for this instrument, even if it is resolutely turned towards 20th century music, reflecting the performances offered by the candidates of this session. It opens with the masterful performance of Lutoslawski’s Concerto by the first laureate Hayoung Choi, followed by Jörg Widmann’s compulsory work by Marcel Johannes Kits (3rd Prize) and Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 1 performed by Yibai Chen (2nd Prize), all accompanied by the Brussels Philharmonic under the baton of Stéphane Denève. The second album takes us back more than two centuries, with Haydn’s Concertos performed by Marcel Johannes Kits and Bryan Cheng (6th Prize), in the company of the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie conducted by Vahan Mardirossian; then come two Boccherini sonatas by Oleksiy Shadrin (4th Prize) and Taeguk Mun, heard during the first round. Three great cello sonatas make up the 3rd disc: Shostakovich firstly with Petar Pejcic (5th Prize), Franck with Stéphanie Huang and Schubert’s Arpeggione with Jeremias Fliedl. We then return mainly to the 20th century to close this box set with a disc including in particular the sonatas of Britten (Hayoung Choi), Ligeti (Yibai Chen) and Schnittke (Oleksiy Shadrin). In a repertoire that will be new for some, the 12 laureates of this 2022 session present, thanks to their musical personalities, an original program which will allow you to find some of the most beautiful moments of this Queen Elisabeth Competition.
The second edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition dedicated to the cello gives us an opportunity to re-immerse ourselves in the performances of four laureates during the very first session dedicated to this instrument, in 2017. This 4-album box set features recordings, most of which have never been previously released, from the first round, the semi-final, the final, as well as from the laureates’ concerts, each cellist including a concerto from the mainstream repertory in his program. On these releases we shall hear Victor Julien-Laferrière (1st Prize), Yuya Okamoto (2nd Prize), Santiago Cañón-Valencia (3rd Prize) and Ivan Karizna (5th Prize and Musiq3 & Canvas-Klaraprijs audience prizes).
Piano 2021 / Fournel, Redkin, Mugawa, Wolff, Belgian National Orchestra
Queen Elisabeth Competition
CD
$42.99Aug 27, 2021
Without any doubt this session of the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition 2021 will stay fixed in our memories. In spite of the constraints imposed by the health crisis (absence of the public, number of semi-finalists and finalists reduced by half), 58 candidates presented themselves to play before the members of the jury. The media maintained exceptional visibility at the competition right from the first round (television, radio, internet and social media) and the audiences confirmed an ever growing passion for the Competition. In this 4 album-box set you will find the 6 laureates of this session, that saw the Frenchman Jonathan Fournel win First Prize; you can enjoy his performance in Brahms’ Second Concerto with the Belgian National Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolff, as well as the whole of his recital in the semi-finale. The Russian Sergei Redkin, second laureate, is present in the Third Concerto of Rachmaninov as well as the set piece by Bruno Mantovani. Two concertos by Mozart with the Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie conducted by Frank Braley are also on the programme: No. 23 (KV 488) by Vitaly Stakirov (5th Prize) and the No. 27 (KV 595) with the Japanese Keigo Mugawa (3rd Prize). Chamber music is also well represented, revealing notably Tomoki Sakata (4th Prize) in the Liszt Sonata and Dmitry Sin in Schumann’s Concerto without orchestra. These artistes, all of them exceptional pianists, who tomorrow perhaps will appear on the world’s leading concert platforms, can be discovered here in their first ever recordings.
The violin is undeniably the key instrument of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. Since the very first edition of the Ysaye Competition, won by David Oistrakh in 1937, and Leonid Kogan's victory in the first edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1951, an impressive succession of laureates has helped to shape the musical life of the last 80 years. This 4-album set includes highlights from the performances of the 12 laureates of the 2019 Violin Competition. These young artists are heard in their chamber music programme of the semi-finals, in their performances of the Mozart concerti in the semi-finals with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie conducted by Jean-Jacques Kantorow, as well as in the great repertory concertos in the final with the Belgian National Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolff.
