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Another young man, who impressed with outstanding virtuosity, is the French cellist Sébastien van Kuijk who plays with emotional abandon and enough charisma to drive his sound straight into the bone marrow. He is bound to make a great addition to any concert stage and was another big audience darling at Kronberg.

But the real stars were the celli and one of the big attention grabbers was Steckel's 1780 Gagliano cello, an expensive instrument that leaves its modern counterparts way behind in terms of tonal beauty and sound. Its slim ribs reminded of the shapely hips of a curvy female and so everyone wanted to get a picture of it after the concert. 'I have it on loan from an organisation,' Steckel explained proudly to admirers and autograph hunters.

Despite his physical absence, Pergamenschikow's presence and influence at Kronberg remained evident: for the final concert, flyers announced the upcoming Boris Pergamenschikow scholarship on 21 October 2004 while highlighting the famous cellist's close association with the Kronberg Academy. Claudio Bohorquez, now a concert cellist and cello teacher in his own right, came to play a special concert titled 'Award-winning cellists' -- of the three performers for that concert, it is significant to note that two of them were Pergameschikow students, confirming the Russian's place as one of the most important discoverers and teachers of cello talent of our time. Borhorquez caught flak from the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper when his Latin temperament (he was born and raised in Germany but both of his parents are Latin American) took over and he threw protocol aside during the 1 September concert. Instead of Benjamin Britten on the program, he spontaneously played his own, breathtakingly excellent, improvisation in memory of his great teacher and mentor, something that brought him plenty of 'good on you's from the public.

'Sitting backstage and waiting for my turn,' Bohorquez explains, 'I suddenly remembered the last PCCC when I was in the position of these young people out there, fighting for a place among the top five. I recalled how I had won it last time, and my teacher who had brought me there. So, spontaneously, I wanted to do something in memory of my great friend and teacher who, sadly, can no longer be with us this time around. Everyone in the audience was on my side, I think.'

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