CRESCENDO
Symphony keeps energy after holiday
By Valeria Wenderoth
Special to the Star-Bulletin
After the holiday break, the Honolulu Symphony returned Friday with a lively concert of vigorous pieces by Wagner, MacMillian and Dvorák, skillfully conducted by internationally known maestro Roberto Minczuk. Scottish percussionist Colin Currie contributed with extra vigor to the concert, making the evening a real musical attraction.
COURTESY PHOTO
The Honolulu Symphony returned Friday with a concert conducted by internationally known maestro Roberto Minczuk.
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The concert opened with a pristine performance of the "Rienzi Overture" (1838 to '41). From the very beginning of the piece -- and even before, with a long moment of silent concentration -- Minczuk elicited a well-balanced and yet very intense interpretation of this multifaceted work. Scoreless and fully concentrated, he unified the piece's frequent changes of tempo and dynamics while the orchestra responded with a cohesive and expressive sound.
Michael Zonshine's trumpet opened the overture with a round and clear sound and, soon after, the melody of Rienzi's prayer and motive heralded the drama. Impressive also were the tone and strength of the whole brass section.
Again, Minczuk did not need a score for Dvorák's "From the New World" (1893). This piece, with its bombastic repetitions, open sounds, and allusions to African-American and native-American folk music, is still an audience favorite. It was a good rendition, especially from the symphony flutists, oboist Scott Janusch and clarinetist Scott Anderson.
COURTESY OF HONOLULU SYMPHONY
Scottish percussionist Colin Currie added extra vigor to Friday's Honolulu Symphony concert.
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BETWEEN those pristine pieces, the 1992 high-voltage percussion concerto "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel" made a strong impact. In this piece, composer James MacMillian combines spiritual dimension with our contemporary world of contradiction and isolation.
The composer explains that the rhythm of the heartbeats, continuously suggested throughout the piece, represents the human presence of Christ. On the other hand, dissonance and separate but simultaneous musical fragments build a great deal of anxiety. The piece reminds one of Maxwell Davies' 1960s pieces and of Varèse's "organized sounds" of "Americas."
Currie played with very few short breaks (why do we call this piece a "concerto," anyway?), with exceptional precision and energy. Musicians and athletes should envy his ability to control rhythm and his physical dexterity. He walked up and down the stage, switching from one instrument to another with ease and yet an incredible determination.
When Currie did not play, he followed the game with a level of concentration reminiscent of world-champion athletes. He was fabulous on all sorts of percussion, from drums, marimba, vibraphone, gongs and congas, to bells and chimes. Especially powerful was the second section, when Currie played irregular rhythms and a beautiful cadenza on the marimba. It would be great to see him play again with the symphony.
Valeria Wenderoth has a doctorate in musicology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she also teaches.