Reveling in sounds of East
By Elisabeth A. Crean
Special to the Star-Bulletin
GORGEOUS music. Flawless execution. This combination made yesterday's Honolulu Symphony concert at the Blaisdell Concert Hall a reverie-inducing marvel. Dreams of Asia linked the program's three pieces: Two 19th century composers' versions of "Scheherazade" and a modern piece called "China Dreams." All three works painted Eastern imagery.
The Honolulu Symphony: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Blaisdell Concert Hall, $15-$47.50, call 538-8863
Bright Sheng, a young composer from Shanghai now living in America, filled "China Dreams" with nostalgia for his homeland, using the prism of a traditional Western orchestra to refract the shimmering, peaceful and stormy aspects of Chinese landscape and history.The orchestra adeptly executed his intentions. Pizzicato violins sounded like traditional Chinese plucked instruments. Sinuous trombones slid through the halftones and quarter tones that characterize Eastern melody and harmony. The aggressive percussion section carried out complex rhythms on a multi-cultural array of instruments.
While Sheng came at his work from an Eastern perspective, French composer Maurice Ravel and Russian Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov saw Asia through the eyes of late 19th century European fantasy. Their ideas of Asia were more Turkish and Persian than Chinese or Japanese.
Ravel and Rimsky-Korsakov drew on the wildly popular stories of Scheherazade, the sultan's wife who staved off her husband's wrath by spinning tales for 1001 Arabian nights.
Ravel created a modest song cycle from three French poems inspired by the clever woman. Mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao brought a buttery, supple voice to Ravel's songs.
Where Ravel's "Scheherazade" was small in scale, Rimsky-Korsakov's was grand. The orchestra reveled in the composer's dazzling rush of colors, textures and moods: bright, stormy; shiny, rough; delicate, jaunty. Most outstanding were the solo violin passages, played by new concertmaster Ignace Jang, which represented the voice of Scheherazade herself.
