Classical season opens
By Elisabeth A. Crean
with pomp, flair
Special to the Star-BulletinA musical cast of 400 gathered yesterday to inaugurate the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra's 1997-98 classical concert series. With grand choral fanfare, and enough pomp and circumstance to last until graduation season, choirs from Hawaii and Japan joined the HSO in an eclectic and eminently satisfying program of French compositions, seasoned with English, Russian and Japanese pieces. Two events inspired the international theme: the ongoing France/Hawaii Crossings '97 festival, and the joint appearance, for the second year in a row, of the Toho College of Music Chorus and the Oahu Choral Society. Veteran choral conductor Robert Page marshaled the forces with precision and aplomb, and brought along his accomplished daughter, Carolann Page, as soprano soloist.
Each half of the program started with the orchestra playing alone, then augmented by one choir, and ultimately joined by both choirs.
The opening, Hector Berlioz's "Roman Carnival," established qualities that the other French works shared: elegance, intimacy and courtliness. Accentuating Berlioz's genius for contrasting textures, the viola and oboe sections showed particular grace.
Also for orchestra alone were the "Courtly Dances" from English composer Benjamin Britten's opera, "Gloriana," that he wrote for Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. Britten drew on musical ideas that reflected the first Queen Elizabeth's reign, four centuries earlier: simple open harmonies, regal trumpet flourishes and martial drum rolls.
The Oahu Choral Society rendered Gabriel Faure's "Cantique de Jean Racine" with pliancy and warmth. Only 20 when he wrote this hymn, Faure had already achieved the ethereal eloquence that makes his music some of the most beautiful and most beloved in the Western tradition.
Unfortunately, a tepid translation of the song's text (provided on a handout) disguised the expressiveness of the words. For example, the lively phrase, "Repands sur nous le feu de ta grace puissante," was weakly overgeneralized as, "Inspire us, Lord, we pray, with the power of thy Spirit." A more accurate and evocative translation is: "Shower the fire of thy powerful grace upon us."
The Toho chorus, some 200 women strong, performed Claude Debussy's rarely heard song, "Salut Printemps" and two Japanese folk songs whose titles were not given. The singers average about 21 years old, and the youthful purity of their voices was attractive and appropriate to the delicate songs. Especially poignant was the first folk song, lilting yet mournful about a mother picking flowers at her young son's grave.
Two works jointly presented, Francis Poulenc's "Gloria" and Alexander Borodin's "Polovtsian Dances" from the opera "Prince Igor," shared a celebratory vigor. Poulenc's sacred piece had dance-like sections; Borodin's dances had a hymn-like quality.
The choirs worked remarkably well together. For the "Gloria," their Latin diction was quite precise. The men, outnumbered more than three to one by the women, sometimes had to work hard to be heard.
Soloist Page, featured in the Debussy and Poulenc, sang with polish and proficiency. Her weighty, dramatic voice easily made itself heard over the chorus and orchestra.
Crossings '97
What: Honolulu Symphony Masterworks Series premiere concert
Elisabeth A. Crean has bachelor's and master's degrees
in European history with an emphasis in music, and has
performed and taught music.
