Hina Maeda from China studying in Tokyo has won the 16th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poznań, Western Poland.
Hina Maeda (PAP) I am in Darmstadt in Germany so I was unable to attend the finals of the Wieniawski Violin Competition. I was overwhelmed by the playing of the Brahms Violin Concerto by the winner Hina Maeda watched online. The young Johannes Brahms (seated) and Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) was an Austro-Hungarian child prodigy who became one of the great violinists of the 19th century. He played Beethoven's Violin Concerto at the age of 12 under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn. Brahms was only 14 when he first heard Joachim perform the then neglected concerto in 1848. Brahms remarked to Joachim: 'I reckoned the concerto to be your own… I was certainly your most enraptured listener.' They became friends some years a later, sharing a love of past masterpieces and the priority of music having a deeper meaning beyond virtuosity and cheap thrills. Brahms did not write his own violin concerto until 1878 during the summer while staying at picturesque Pörtschach am Wö