10:38
Good morning from a new venue - the concert hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music! In a little over 20 minutes we'll be bringing you the Grand Final in the Wind Quintet discipline. Stay tuned!
Live blog days
11:05
And we're off! The first contestants of the day: the Alinde Quintet from the Czech Republic, bringing us Carl Nielsen's Wind Quintet of 1922.
11:05
Not the first time we've heard this ensemble playing Nielsen of course: they played the last movement Theme & Variations in Round 1, way back on Wednesday.
11:07
The story of this piece is well know but let's remind you of it anyway! Nielsen wrote for five friends who played in the Copenhagen Wind Quintet - many of them also former colleagues of his from the Royal Danish Orchestra.
11:08
Nielsen wanted to unlock the distinctive character of each of the five wind instruments - flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. But he also wrote for the characters BEHIND the instruments: the individual people, his friends, who played them.
11:09
That opened something of a Pandora's Box for Nielsen. He quickly decided, when he'd finished the Quintet, that he wanted to write five solo concertos - one for each instrument.
11:11
Nielsen duly wrote clarinet and flute concertos, but sadly died before he could deliver concertos for horn, bassoon or oboe. The two concertos he did finish were so technically difficult that the bassoonist was, apparently, highly relieved that he would never have to play a concerto written for him by his friend.
11:13
Anyway, the Wind Quintet is justifiably a treasure of the wind repertory, played all over the world. It is characterised by Nielsen's signature combination of the simple and the complex - his ability to inject wondrous lyricism into music that can feel brittle, and to have his music dance even when it appears to be very serious.
11:28
The 'theme' for this final variation movement is, of course, Nielsen's own - his tune for the hymn "Min Jesus, lad mit hjerte få". It's always a beautiful, moving moment when the tune returns in his harmonized incarnation at the very end...and with a little extra 'tail' too.
11:34
Dvořák's American String Quartet as you've never heard it before...for five winds!
11:35
This was the Alinde Quintet from the Czech Republic's 'free choice' - an arrangement of Dvořák's piece by David Walter.
11:38
So I guess it was the clarinet that got that viola solo...
11:41
We are hearing the first of two performances of Jørgen Jersild's "At spille i skoven" now. This piece for wind quintet was first performed here in Copenhagen in 1947. It's a tough piece, with lots of notes and an awful lot going on...the trick is to make it sound like that is not the case.
11:45
Jersild, from the generation after Carl Nielsen, was undoubtedly inspired by his senior's own Wind Quintet. But this work is altogether more exuberant - the wind quintet equivalent to a picnic in the woods.
12:20
Today's second contestants in the Wind Quintet category - the SenArts Wind Quintet from Barcelona.
12:21
This is the quintet that played the Franz Danzi quartet in Round 1...without scores!
12:23
We heard Ligeti's 6 Bagatelles in Round 2, but not from the SenArts Quintet, who have chosen it here as their 'free choice'.
12:24
It is always fascinating to see what bassoonists use as a mute, isn't it? It looked like Clara Canimas i Furcarà was putting a sock down her bassoon there...we've also seen bassoonists use what look like rolled-up paper down their instruments.
12:25
Plenty more mute-spotting to do, as the Nielsen wind quintet asks the bassoonist to mute their instrument in the final movement.
12:28
As mentioned before, these musicians play together in the orchestra pit of the Gran Teatre del Liceu - Barcelona's magnificent and distinguished opera house. In the pit of an opera house, you learn a lot about subliminal communication with other musicians!
12:34
Another piece we've not yet heard in this competition: the Wind Quintet No 1 by Jean Françaix.
12:34
The piece was written in 1948, but not performed until 1956 - some say, that's because it took 8 years for an ensemble to be able to play it.
12:35
As you can hear, it's extraordinarily fast - all those up-down chromatic scales, you wonder where the players have room to breathe.
12:37
It's also music full of humour - very Françaix...and also très Français!
12:40
The syncopations in this 'presto' movement are very easy to trip-up on. No sign of that from these Spanish players though!
12:51
As in Round 1, Nielsen's Wind Quintet is compulsory in this final round. Each ensemble must play all three movements.
12:56
Nielsen's Wind Quintet demonstrates one of the many complications of being a wind player: having to master not one, but two (or more) instruments...
12:56
...so, just as a bassoonist may be obliged to learn the 'contrabassoon', or a clarinettist the 'bass clarinet', so an oboe player in Nielsen's Wind Quintet must also prove their mastery of the Cor Anglais...
12:57
...or as it's known outside England (ironically), the 'English Horn'. This is the deeper, thicker, mellower instrument the oboist plays at the start of Nielsen's third movement.
12:58
...or rather, 'from' the start of the third movement - as the cor anglais is played throughout the Praeludium and the following Theme and Variations.
12:58
The switch has just happened...
13:16
We're taking a short break now before the last our wind quintets performs at 13.25 local time. Stay tuned!
13:31
We've heard Ravel over in the string competition, now it's time for Ravel on winds.
13:33
Ensemble Astera from Switzerland bring us two movements of the composer's Le Tombeau de Couperin - a homage to music of the baroque which movingly disguises Ravel's own memorials for comrades fallen in the First World War.
13:50
Whether or not they win, these wind quintets now have Jørgen Jersild's enchanting wind quintet 'Making Music in the Woods' in their repertoire. So that is, in fact, a win!
13:51
But it's fair to say, this ensemble from Switzerland appears to be feeling Jersild's music deeply...
14:00
And so for the last time today, we hear Carl Nielsen's Wind Quintet - without which, this competition would not exist.
14:04
The challenge with this Nielsen score is achieving some sense of blend while also providing contrast - of tone colour and character. That is certainly a strong suit in this Swiss ensemble's performance.
14:18
That wild clarinet solo was conceived for Aage Oxenvad, clarinettist in the Copenhagen Wind Quintet, and a wild character! If you like that, you'll want to hear Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto (also written for Oxenvad).
14:19
As we near the end of this Wind final, let's remind you what's at stake: First Prize: €15,000 / Second Prize: €10,000 / Third Prize: €5000 / Special Prize for interpretation of the commissioned work: €2,500
14:20
Prize ceremony for the Wind Category is expected around 14.40 local time...so not long to wait.
14:41
We are expecting the jury announcement for the wind competition any second...stand by.
14:52
So...we have a verdict.
14:59
The wind jury chaired by Andreas Sundén is about to announce its verdict...
15:00
Special Prize for the Best Interpretation of the Commissioned Work: Ensemble Astera.
15:04
Third Prize, €5,000 - Alinde Quintet.
15:05
Second Prize: €10,000 - SenArts Wind Quintet.
15:06
First Prize: €15,000 - Ensemble Astera.
15:08
Andreas Sundén on Ensemble Astera: 'Refined sound treatment and precision, this ensemble play with well balanced energy, playing convincingly as a group and individually, with reflection and depth of expression for the composer.'
15:09
We will be back here at 5pm local time for the string final. see you in just under two hours!