The big red one

Cellist Gregory Dubay performs

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By Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.com

A musical analogies quiz: Harp: Meditation Violin: Sunday morning brunch

Drums: CNN "America Recovers" promo

Cello: ?

The answer of course is "sweat-soaked, blood-boiling fever dream," as anyone who's listened to Edouard Lalo's celebrated Cello Concerto is well aware. And if you answered incorrectly above, then by all means don't miss this weekend's Honolulu Symphony concert, when the orchestra's principal cellist, Gregory Dubay, takes on a piece that might best be described as French coolness crossed with Spanish zeal.

Gregory Dubay Dubay plays Lalo's Cello Concerto in D minor with the Honolulu Symphony; program includes Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3 ("Organ Symphony") and Ibert's Divertissement When: 4 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Where: Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall, 777 Ward Ave. Cost: $15 to $55 Call: 792-2000

"The Lalo is to concertos what Bizet's 'Carmen' is to opera," he said. "It's very hot-blooded with lots of Spanish rhythms. Very enjoyable. And it tells a good story."

One story it tells, at least obliquely, is that of the family history of its 19th-century creator. Although the Lalos had lived in France since the 16th century, they were originally Spanish. Indeed, much of the composer's subsequent fame comes from the cello concerto and one symphony employing similar themes ("Symphonie espagnole"), though it's the cello concerto that gets the highest marks from musicologists. Also appreciative of its inventions are soloists, including Dubay.

"It really takes advantage of the full range of the cello," he said. "From the beautiful low notes right at the beginning of the piece, the cello comes in on its own in the very low register, kind of like a narrator coming out to tell a story. Later on, there are these very beautiful singing lines in the upper register. And in the last movement, which is the most wild dynamically, you don't even use the low string at all. In fact, if I broke the low string I would only miss one note."

Since Dubay brought it up, we -- like everyone else in town, it seems -- couldn't resist asking about his cello, which, thanks to an old-style varnish, has acquired the affectionate moniker Big Red.

"People come up and ask me, 'What is your cello made of?'" he said, quite as if the thing were another species entirely. "Out from under the lights of the stage it's kind of a burgundy color, but for some reason, when you put it under the lights it just glows."

Both visually and musically, it seems, though, Dubay was at a loss to explain how one might be connected to the other.

"It doesn't even have any blood -- like 'The Red Violin.'"

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