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Bach For More: NTD Violin Competition enters second day STORY: The eleven qualifying semifinalists take the stage one by one, grateful to have made it this far yet intent on delivering their best performances, and making it through this second round of competition. Moving on from the first round's Mozart concerti, each of today's players has chosen between Bach and Beethoven pieces, which present both much greater diversity of composition and a new opportunity to develop and demonstrate one's own style. The players are mindful of the fact that they will judged not only on their technical accuracy, but on their ability to interpret and evoke the emotional qualities of the music that they play. Beethoven is perhaps more than anything known for the powerful emotions expressed throughout his work, and Bach for the subtle complexity and sense of awe and wonder that are attributed to his music. But do these qualities come out in today's performances? (Timothy Robinson, Lecturer, Yale University) "Well, let me put it this way, I must have heard the same Bach fugue played today about 8 times, and each time by each of the young artists, I was hearing new things. I think there's a certain purity of a solo violin playing; the perfection of tone and intonation, and in my opinion the greatest works for the violin are by Bach, and maybe the string quartets of Mozart, Hayden and Beethoven. And so it has a certain purity and simplicity to it that I find extremely gratifying." The degree of freedom that the performers actually have with the music can be detected in both the diversity of their playing styles and the comments that they make about the pieces. For some players, the ideas being expressed by these Classical composers are something almost inexpressible in words, yet which comes out clearly on stage before the audience and judges' panel. Now, as the performers recuperate, await results and look back over the day's performances, they reflect a bit on the nature of the music itself. (Fang-Yu Liu, Semifinalist) "I played the Bach..." (need to fill in clip of him playing, as there is a long pause here while Ryan asks the next question) "I think it's kind of royal...and I think I need to find the articulation and intonation, and have it very clear, and make the music very, very brilliant." (Jean-Hee Lee, Semifinalist) "I played the Bach G Minor Fugue, because there were two choices for this round and the other choice was the Beethoven which I felt was rather similar to the Mozart in terms of style and I wanted to, sort of, branch out, and so I chose the Bach... "For Bach I feel that a lot of the expressions, the emotions that I'm trying to convey are rather abstract, and so it's hard to put a name to them in terms of any specific feelings and message." "Well, I think that, the fact that he was such a religious man, and wrote much of the music for the church, is so important, and should be remembered and you always have to keep that in mind while you're playing, and it changes the significance of a lot of his music because it becomes a lot more devout. And even if it's not the same god that you may be believing in, it's still that feeling of devotion that's so important." As the results are announced, the competitors are narrowed down to six contenders for tomorrow's final round, of whom most are guaranteed some form of official recognition, but only one of whom will receive the Gold Award. Those who will be moving on to the last round are Chen-Han Tsai, Kia-Hui Tan, Victor He, Yan Tong, Fang-Yu Liu, and Jean-Hee Lee. The semifinals have concluded, and the victorious violinists will put the Bach and Beethoven behind them to focus on tomorrow's final round, where they'll interpret the work of Paganini. This is Ryan Mitchell from the Town Hall Theatre, for NTD, New York. Tags: Violin Competition Bach Bethoven NTD International competition classical music culture chinese