Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Performance Arts IVCI: 3rd - day prelims
Posted by Tom Aldridge on Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 10:13 PM
It was the third day, and I’m almost getting accustomed to sitting in my favorite chair — seat M 20 — in the Indiana History Center’s Basile Theater, listening to ten young violinists for almost as many hours. It’s also true that as my diurnal cycle mainfests, I get sleepy, then I get alert, but not quite regardless of who’s playing. As Eric Silberger started bowing away at 3:40 p.m., after having bowed my head — but not in supplication — for some period while still listening, it was like I was shot with adrenaline. Silberger’s Caprice No. 1, Op. 1, for solo violin by Paganini immediately riveted my attention as no previous International Violin Competition of Indianapolis participant had done that day. Silberger proceeded to move his way purposefully through the “Adagio” and “Fuga” from Bach’s G Minor Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin, Mozart’s Sonata in A, K. 301, Hebrew Melody by Joseph Achron (1888-1943) as arranged by Leopold Auer and Paganini’s Caprice No. 11, from the same series of 24, comprising Op. 1.
It wasn’t merely that Silberger, who’s just 21 by the way, played virtuoso passages like a true virtuoso player; he insinuated into his playing a beautifully controlled, nearly faultless tone, something the other nine failed to do by varying degrees. Vibrating one’s left fingers against the fingerboard while drawing the bow across the strings with the right hand adds richness, nuance and thus beauty to the instrument’s timbres—an effect violin playing over the last century and a half has added to its aesthetics. It follows that there is either not enough of this “vibrato”— which makes for a thin sound (by our present standards), too much — which produces cloying over-opulence and muddles pitch accuracy — or the optimum amount, which very few players possess (that’s because it “ain’t easy”). In 2002, IVCI silver medalist Sergey Khachatryan had it in spades. Already-successful young touring violinists: e.g. Hilary Hahn and Gil Shaham have it, plus Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein, Josef Gingold, Aaron Rosand, Arthur Grumiaux and perhaps best of all, the youthful Yehudi Menuhin — in past generations. Of course they all possess and possessed just a bit more professional polish than Silberger presently has. But he’s potentially on his way as his style matures; he has the “tone” that others will never have. He did make a slip in the Caprice No. 11, which possible detractors will blow out of proportion, just as happened in the Sibelius Concerto with Khachatryan in 2002, which many allege kicked him out of getting the gold medal, as everyone had expected.
And oh yes: Silberger is a home grown boy, an Indy resident during his childhood while his father, Mark Silberger, was a violinist with the Indianapolis Symphony. As a participant in the 2006 IVCI, Eric, in which I heard the same potential, didn’t make it past the preliminaries. With four years of added maturity, he certainly should this time around. At the very least.
On Wednesday, as the final preliminary day, I’ll talk about the event’s repertoire and share my thoughts on who ought to have made it to the semifinals, hopefully along with who the nine jurors determined did become the 16 semi-finalists — a fact unknown to each of them till the computer does its thing.
Comments (1)
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Absolutely wonderful news, Eric!!
You will surely win the competition this year.
Good luck..... John Brunas
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