Lee interprets
By Ruth Bingham
teen’s music
Special to the Star-BulletinHonolulu Symphony Halekulani Classical Masterworks opener with Yura Lee
MOZART, violinist Yura Lee said, sketching a parallel between herself and the composer, "had the mind of a kid but the ability to perform like a mature artist." Lee might well feel kinship for a fellow child prodigy: at 13 and barely a teen-ager herself, Lee performed Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, K. 219, which Mozart composed when he was only 19. The Honolulu Symphony opened the 1998-99 season by redefining "teen-age music."
Performance has always involved an element of entertaining spectacle and the epitome of that is child prodigies, highly popular entertainment in Mozart's day. Wonder over high-quality performance arose out of a sea of average performances and out of personal appreciation for how difficult it is to play masterfully. Unfortunately, over the years the impact of prodigies has diminished, in part because of the abundance of recorded music available for comparison.
As with all child prodigies, her youth is an integral part of the performance. Audiences come not to listen for a best-ever performance of the piece, but to witness what a child can do. And what Lee can do is impressive.
Despite some early difficulties with her high notes, Lee played with strength and assurance throughout. The final movement, with its so-called "Turkish" interpolations, displayed Lee's technical command and a fiery bravado. Her technique was highlighted by Conductor Samuel Wong's brisk, almost waltz-like, tempo.
THE middle Adagio movement, known for its lyrical depth, reveals a maturity far beyond Mozart's 19 years and can be interpreted with heart-rending solemnity. Wong and Lee, however, presented a lighter, more pleasantly melancholy reading that offers an intriguing alternative. Would Mozart have played it with the seriousness 200 years have conferred? Or would he have played more like the teen he was?
While the first half of the concert celebrated the vigor of youth -- in composition, in performance, in style, the second half commemorated death in Mozart's last work, his Requiem Mass, K. 626, which he left unfinished. Juxtapositions in the program were striking: youth and death, exuberance and solemnity, early and late compositions ...
Joining the symphony was music director Timothy Carney's Oahu Choral Society and four soloists: soprano Nicole Heaston, mezzo-soprano Lorna Sterling Mount, tenor Michael Sommese and bass-baritone John Mount.
Throughout the Requiem, all four soloists contributed musical high points. As a group, they blended and balanced well; as individuals, they shone. Of special note was Mount's opening duet with trombonist Eric Mathis in Tuba Mirum.
The society provided a smooth choral blend and sang with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, it was difficult to hear the text and in virtually all vocal music, words matter.
Conductor Wong delivered his usual fine job of balancing ensembles with soloists and of weaving divergent interpretations into a whole.
Ruth O. Bingham has a Ph.D. in musicology from Cornell
University, is a free-lance writer and teaches part-time at
the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
