Baffle of the Bows

When it comes to fiddling, there is hardly a more important contest in the world than Poland's two-week Wieniawski Violin Competition.* The contest opened in Poznan this year with 45 contestants from eleven countries (including five Americans) bowing away at each other. On hand were 17 judges, eleven from Iron Curtain countries. In a rigorous round (unaccompanied Bach sonatas and Wieniawski caprices), almost half the contestants were eliminated. Two stood out; it would be a contest between a U.S. and a Russian violinist.

The American, and the crowd's favorite from the beginning, was Cleveland-born Sidney Harth, 32, concertmaster and assistant conductor of the Louisville Orchestra. His Soviet competitor was a talented Russian girl, Rosa Fain, 28, pupil of Russian Violinist David Oistrakh, one of the judges. Only 13 violinists lasted to the finals. The required work: a Polish violin concerto. Both Violinists Harth and Fain selected Wieniawski's Second Concerto.

Contestant Harth tossed off the most brilliant sections of the concerto in true virtuoso fashion. Contestant Fain showed brilliant technique, warmth and sincerity, though there seemed to be something constrained about her playing. Harth, on the other hand, got himself into trouble with some of the judges by playing too freely. When the vote was counted (Oistrakh giving both contestants identical, maximum scores), Violinist Fain nosed out Violinist Harth by 409 to 406 points. Some of the Western judges were wroth, argued that Louisville's Harth would have won but for open political partiality. At week's end the six top contestants played a joint concert in Warsaw, and the crowd put in its vote. Although encores were discouraged, Russia's Fain had to play one. To tumultuous applause, the U.S.'s Harth was forced to play two.

* Named for Poland's famed Violinist-Composer Henri Wieniawski (1835-80).

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