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Crescendo
Ignace "Iggy" Jang
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Symphony wants to hear your favorites
Last September, the Honolulu Symphony opened its season to a rousing, standing ovation. Some notable highlights from this year: the bigger-than-life Renée Fleming, for her supreme mastery and captivating presence; the uplifting tribute to the Ehime Maru tragedy; the tempestuous Shostakovich Symphony No. 5. But I am curious to know what you considered to be highlights. After all, the quality of our performances is best gauged by the response from our listeners.
Festival of Sounds
Honolulu Symphony with pianist Stewart Goodyear:
In concert: 8 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Sunday
Place: Blaisdell Concert Hall
Tickets: $12 to $65
Call: 792-2000 or Ticketmaster, 877-750-4400
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For our season finale, artistic advisor JoAnn Falletta and the symphony have saved the best for last. Think brilliant piano playing, and Rachmaninoff comes to mind. His "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" promises to be an audience favorite, performed by guest soloist Stewart Goodyear.
Goodyear has already performed with the Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland orchestras, and made his debut with the New York Philharmonic. He's also an accomplished composer, with a body of work comprising piano as well as large-scale creations.
Perhaps Goodyear is following in the footsteps of Rachmaninoff. The "Rhapsody" is a great vehicle, from both a performer's and composer's perspective. It is named such because of its free form, a set of variations based on Paganini's theme. The revolutionary violinist was renowned for his virtuosity, and the theme comes from his famous "24th Caprice for Violin" solo.
How did Rachmaninoff compose his variations? With rhythmic, tempo and harmonic changes. He also used inversion, which in this case was so effective the variation became more popular than the main theme. Imagine yourself on a staircase skipping around, then reversing the order. That's essentially an inversion.
John Williams followed the same technique when scoring "Star Wars." Recall the Darth Vader theme: For the prequels, Williams inverted the motive when portraying the young and innocent Anakin Skywalker.
Thankfully, there will be no two sides to maestra JoAnn Falletta this weekend. Our guest conductor will lead the orchestra in Respighi's celebratory "Church Windows." The Italian composer of the late Romantic era possessed great flair in his orchestral writings, and the work is the ideal platform for Falletta's bravura.
"Church Windows" is Respighi's musical version of the stained-glass scenes found inside cathedrals. The piece reflects personal interpretations of biblical passages. There are four impressions: "Flight into Egypt," "St. Michael the Archangel," "Matins of St. Claire" and "Saint Gregory the Great."
From everyone at the symphony, a big thank-you to all of the readers and concertgoers, and a great summer to all. Please drop us a line!
Ignace "Iggy" Jang is the Honolulu Symphony's concertmaster. His column will appear on the Monday prior to each concert of the season to illuminate works to be performed. E-mail comments and questions to Jang at
suggestions@honolulusymphony.com