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Chang fills demanding
Shostakovich concerto
with passion

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By Ruth O. Bingham
Star-Bulletin

CELLIST Han-Na Chang, only 17-years-old, proved herself a phenomenal musician in a stunning performance with the Honolulu Symphony yesterday. She burned through Dmitri Shostakovich's Concerto No.1, Op. 107, a tour de force in the cello repertoire, once described as a "white, hot fusion of expression and technique."

Few 17-year-olds are ready to understand such a serious work, much less attempt to play it. Chang displayed remarkable expressive depth and passion in what was unquestionably the finest performance of the day.

Shostakovich's concerto, which begins powerfully and increases in intensity, demands both emotional and physical stamina. Chang played with tremendous energy, through quietly haunting passages to the turbulent finale. Her second movement was especially moving, its ending echoing into a vast, despairing silence.

Chang's harmonics seemed to float above the accompanying celeste, and the polyphony in her cadenza was flawless. In short, she delivered a riveting performance that left me breathless. You have to hear it to believe it.

For the concerto, Maestro Samuel Wong shifted his podium to one side, facilitating his communication with Chang and suggesting a partnership. The arrangement seemed to work well: the ensemble between Chang and the orchestra was excellent, and solos with French horn principal Ken Friedenberg were noteworthy.

Wong balanced the severity of Shostakovich's concerto by starting the concert with the youthful exuberance of Georges Bizet's symphony, composed in 1855, when Bizet was, like Chang now, only 17. The symphony, well crafted for such an early work, exudes what Viennese call Gemütlichkeit, a pleasant enjoyment of life, without delving deeper. Its sweetly serenading second movement showcased oboist Scott Janusch, whom Wong rightly calls "the poet of the orchestra."

Maurice Ravel's famous or infamous, depending on your viewpoint Bolero closed the concert to a standing ovation. Bolero makes an odd concert piece, not only because of its astonishingly long, uninterrupted crescendo, but also because of its origin as a ballet. Although it is fashionable to pretend that music is simply music and its context irrelevant, ballet music differs significantly from concert music. In ballet, visual and aural interact to lend each other coherence and variety.

Not surprisingly, Bolero's greatest successes have been visual: the original ballet, the movie "10," Torville and Dean's Olympic gold medal skating routine, etc.

Also not surprisingly, audiences love Bolero, but less because of the music itself than its recalled visual connections and rapid familiarity: once you have heard it, you know it forever. At last, a popular 20th century piece!

Bolero begins with possibly the quietest opening ever. As Wong explained, "The better the player, the more inaudible." The Honolulu Symphony, then, was excellent: the audience caught its breath, straining to hear, as the music rose from a hushed silence and slowly built to its climax.

Ravel treated the orchestra as an ensemble of soloists, and it is the soloists' crisp, tightly controlled articulation that provides the fire simmering below a languid surface. Numerous soloists displayed fine control, but first prize belonged to percussionist Riley Francis on snare, who held that unforgettable rhythm steady for more than a quarter hour without faltering.

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