Sensation in Genova

A spectacular Final at the Premio Paganini

After a performance of Nicolo Paganini in London 1831, a local critic wrote „you may not believe half of what I´m telling you, and I am not telling you half of what there is to be told!“ The Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in Genova, Italy, has been held since 1954; its list of winners reads like a history of the violin in the 20th century. Among the winners are Salvatore Accardo, Gidon Kremer, Leonidas Kavakos, Isabelle Faust and countless others. There is some magic in Paganini´s music that is timeless and still captures audiences today- and last night was no different. 
Among more than 100 applicants, 32 were invited but only 24 able to travel to Italy; 14 advanced to the semifinals, and 6 performed at the dreaded two-day final that requires violinists to perform both a „standard“ concerto (Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky or Sibelius) and the Paganini No. 1. From the beginning, it was quite clear that the competition would be decided between Giuseppe Gibboni (20,Italy) and Nurie Chung (16, South Korea). While Chung played with seasoned perfection and beautiful colors on his 1730 Stradivari, Gibboni was able to capture the audience with a lively and exciting Paganini of superb quality. Being last, and being Italian, might have given him only just the necessary advantage to win the competition, which has not seen an Italian winner since Giovanni Angeleri in 1997. Nevertheless, he was not the only sensation in this great final, and Nurie Chung, five years younger than Gibboni, is only at the very beginning of his career. It won´t be long before we will hear from him again, this much everyone agreed on.