Colburn Orchestra, Lin, play Tan Dun
October 30th, 2009, 10:39 am · 1 Comment · posted by TIMOTHY MANGAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Review: The Colburn Orchestra and violinist Cho-Liang Lin perform Tan Dun’s “Out of Peking Opera” as part of the Philharmonic Society’s “Ancient Paths, Modern Voices” festival. The Orange County Register, Oct. 30, 2009. SEE SLIDE SHOW
It’s been a good month for the cause of youth orchestras in Southern California. Gustavo Dudamel sent a signal by opening his tenure as music director of the L.A. Philharmonic conducting the YOLA Expo Center Youth Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl.
Last week, the Orange County Youth Symphony, now in its 40th year, collaborated seamlessly with the visiting Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra to give the U.S. premiere of a work by Kurt Schwertsik.
And Thursday night, the Colburn Orchestra of L.A.’s Colburn School Conservatory of Music came down the freeway to perform a program for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County just as if it were a visiting orchestra from abroad. No apologies necessary.
A listener’s sentiment is always with a youth orchestra, of course. You root for them. But with the Colburn Orchestra, led by Yehuda Gilad, you can just sit back and listen and forget that these are kids at work.
Well, young men and women, in this case. This is the Conservatory’s premier orchestra, consisting of college-age musicians who are preparing for musical careers. Thursday, it was appearing as part of the Philharmonic Society’s ongoing “Ancient Paths, Modern Voices” festival, a collaboration with Carnegie Hall that explores the world of Chinese arts, both old and new.
The work here falling under the festival’s rubric was Tan Dun’s “Out of Peking Opera,” a violin concerto in all but name, with the Taiwan-born Cho-Liang Lin as soloist. The composer, who has since become celebrated and an Oscar-winner, wrote the work when he first came to New York, in 1988, leaving “behind the ancient continuity of Chinese society.”
The clash of cultures is vivid. At the beginning, Tan directly quotes a Peking Opera melody, a quiet, fragile thing, decorated with evocative gongs and cymbals. This represents, it is safe to say, the youthful Tan when he arrived here. The mayhem that follows it is the crush and thrill of urban, American life.
After its start, the work is not immediately recognizable as Chinese. The interesting thing about the generation of Chinese composers who came to the West, of which Tan is one, is how they embraced the Western art form. Here, Tan seems buried by it, using serialism and extended instrumental techniques a la Penderecki to create a brash expressionistic atmosphere. The Chinese element in his later works is much clearer.
The violinist is a frenzied loner. The orchestra bangs and threatens, a formidable opponent, not usually in support of the soloist. But the soloist is also stimulated by what he encounters, meditates on what has happened in quiet asides, before the whole thing erupts again. It’s an action packed, acerbic, topsy-turvy 17 minutes.
Lin sawed, grinded and careened effectively. The Colburn Orchestra provided clamorous fortes, moody bends and buzzing effects.
Lin, the orchestra and Gilad opened the concert with Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4. The violinist rode the elegant rhetoric with a firm hand and bright tone, perhaps too firm and too bright. The concerto never quite settled into its defining lyrical charm.
After intermission, Gilad and the Colburn rolled up their sleeves for a go at Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. This is a good piece for a young orchestra – its drama, sadness and triumph are right on the surface, even if their meanings are ambiguous.
But all was not just youthful enthusiasm. Gilad enforced a patient and thoroughly prepared interpretation, dotting i’s and crossing t’s, outlining long phrases and weighing instrumental balances. The musicians responded with a high degree of polish, confidence and poise, swaying in their seats.
One listened with admiration and with worry. What will happen to these talented young players when they graduate? Surely, there won’t be jobs for all of them, or even most of them. The world has never been an oyster for the music school alumnus. Perhaps they’ll end up in another country, China maybe (with its burgeoning interest in classical music), and, like Tan, find their way. We can only hope.
- Colburn Orchestra
- With: Cho-Liang Lin, violin
- Where: Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall
- When: Oct. 29
- Presenter: Philharmonic Society of Orange County
- Next: Lang Lang and Friends, 7 p.m. Nov. 3, Segerstrom Concert Hall
- How much: $30-$195
- Call: 949-553-2422
- Online: philharmonicsociety.org
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