The finalists in the three categories of the 2022 Carl Nielsen International Competition – violin, clarinet and flute (the three instruments for which Nielsen wrote a concerto) – have been announced.
 
In the violin category they are Hans Christian Aavik, Eun Che Kim and Bohdan Luts. The three clarinettists are Panagiotis Giannakas, Ann Lepage and Oleg Shebeta-Dragan. And the three flautists are Alberto Acuna Almela, Seohyeon Kim and Alberto Navarra.
 
For clarinet finals which take place on Saturday afternoon (at 15.00 CET) each contestant will play the first movement of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and the Carl Nielsen Clarinet Concerto with the Copenhagen Philharmonic conducted by Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer.
 
That evening (at 19.00 CET), the three flautists will each play Busoni’s Divertimento, Op 52 and Nielsen’s Flute Concerto with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and Daniela Musca.
 
The violinists have two separate opportunities to shine in the final. The ‘pre-final’ (for which the Competition’s President Nikolaj-Szeps-Znaider will conduct the Copenhagen PO) finds each contestant playing a major violin concerto from a short list drawn up by the Competition. In fact, the three concertos by the violinists will result in two performances of the Sibelius Violin Concerto and one of the Tchaikovsky. (19.30 CET on Friday.)
 
Then on Sunday afternoon at 14.00 CET, the violinists will return and each will play the Nielsen Violin Concerto with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and Daniela Musca.
 
The results will then be revealed during a Prize Giving Ceremony on Sunday at 18.00 CET.
 
The finals – hosted by Gramophone’s James Jolly and Andrew Mellor – will all be streamed live on Gramophone’s website.

Gramophone is a media partner of the 2022 Carl Nielsen International Competition