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Stirring passage
By Ruth O. Bingham
to ‘New World’
Special to the Star-BulletinSLOW is always risky in this caffeine-driven society: we don't have time for depth. Honolulu Symphony maestro Samuel Wong took that risk in the opening concert of the new millennium by taking the second movement of Dvorák's "New World" symphony markedly slower than usual.
Wong gave those long, smooth Romantic melodies room to breathe, to live and soar before dying. Slow though the movement was, its continuity never faltered. The result, roundly "applauded" by the coughing corps that had held its breath throughout, was one of the most beautiful and inspiring performances I have ever heard.
The entire piece displayed the orchestra's finest work: energetic, focused, well-paced. Dvorák does make one long for a true trumpet fortissimo that cuts through in climaxes, but balance in general was excellent, revealing oft-obscured details. In short, Sunday's performance presented a truly exceptional interpretation.
Honolulu Symphony with pianist Cecile Licad: Repeats 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Blaisdell Concert Hall. Tickets $15 to $50. Call 792-2000. Licad also performs in recital 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Mamiya Theater. Tickets $33. Call number above.
Guest pianist Cecile Licad dominated the first half of the concert with Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, op. 43. Wong called the piece "devilish" because it uses the somber dies irae theme from the Catholic mass for the dead, but "devilish" more accurately describes its enormous technical demands.
Licad's technique dazzled, especially in fast, light or slow, sweeping passages, and her solos framing variation 18 sang beautifully.
Licad was less assured when playing with the orchestra, the tension in her shoulders both visible and audible. Frequent eye contact between Wong and Licad seemed less a sharing of interpretation than an attempt to retain ensemble. That intricate balance of dialogue between orchestra and piano that makes Rachmaninoff so compelling never quite congealed, obscuring Paganini's theme and the structure of the whole.
Perhaps it was the piece. It is not a question of technique: pieces and performers must somehow match styles and Licad's lightness too often had to submit to Rachmaninoff's titanic chords. Not surprisingly, Licad chose Chopin's
"Minute Waltz" as an encore, revealing herself to be an enchanting soloist.
Wong opened the concert with two fanfares, the second commenting on the first. The first, Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, can be dignified or wild, depending on how you hear it. Wong's version was a bit of both: refined brass with a wild timpanist, a rather startling combination. The second, Joan Tower's Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, No.4 (1992), established that the uncommon woman is more complex, wordier, and busier than the common man.
Ruth O. Bingham has a Ph.D. in musicology from Cornell University, and teaches at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.
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