Kelemen Quartet Scores Another International Success
The Kelemen Quartet, which was formed of teachers and students of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in 2010, won the first prize at the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition in Italy.
The Italian contest, which ended on June 1, is ranked the most important quartet competition beside the Melbourne International String Quartet Competition, where the Kelemen Quartet was awarded second prize in 2011. In the same year, the ensemble participated in the Paolo Borciani Competition as well, but the major prizes were not announced then. "In spite of that, our participation was successful, and critics kept talking about us as the biggest discovery of the competition ever," said Barnabás Kelemen.
The quartet consisting of Barnabás Kelemen (violin/viola), Gábor Homoki (violin/viola), Katalin Kokas (violin/viola) and Dóra Kokas (cello) earned the first prize among ten string quartets in the unusually long competition which took seven days and four rounds. Their repertoire included, among others, the works of Beethoven, Schumann, Mozart, Haydn, Bartók and Thomas Adès, and in the finals on Sunday they performed Bartók's String Quartet No. 5. (the Bartók quartet can be viewed via this link). From the distinguished members of the jury Barnabás Kelemen made a special mention of Martha Argerich, the world renowned Argentinean pianist. As he pointed out, the jury valued highly their Haydn and Mozart interpretations, but it also appreciated their performance of the Bartók pieces.
Photo by Tamás Dobos
Furthermore, the violinist underlined that 21-year-old Dóra Kokas was the youngest among the contestants. "Dóra broke her arm in February during our tour in Australia, and the plaster cast was removed only one and a half months ago. She gave her first concert one week before the competition. These circumstances make our victory even more valuable," said Barnabás Kelemen, who founded the string quartet with his wife, Katalin Kokas in 2010. Gábor Homoki, the young violinist of the ensemble, graduates this year at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, and gave his diploma concert on 7 June 2014 in the Grand Hall. Barnabás Kelemen considers their competition win as an important acknowledgement and a great honor, and since this was the last time the quartet participated in this kind of contest, the Paolo Borciani Prize is a worthy closing of this period.
The International String Quartet Competition "Premio Paolo Borciani" (Paolo Borciani Prize) was created in 1987 in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and is dedicated to their famous fellow citizen, founder and first violinist of the Quartetto Italiano.
The competition, which is organized every three years, already saw some Hungarian successes: in 1990 the Keller String Quartet won the first prize, and other Hungarian string quartets received further awards on several occasions.