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ORONO — It was a
passionate affair that Maestro Xiao-Lu Li
conducted with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra on
Sunday at the Maine
Center for the Arts.
The music of
Aram Katchaturian, with violinist Chuanyun Li,
and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony
combined for a truly electric afternoon of
music.
Prefacing these
two larger works was a heartfelt tribute to
Peter Re, the conductor of the Bangor Symphony
from 1964-1976. Re’s composition, “Celebratory
Overture,” was commissioned for, and played at,
the Centennial celebration of the orchestra in
1996. It was repeated on Sunday, with Re
conducting, to mark the 40th anniversary of his
first season in Bangor. After the piece was
played, and after a standing ovation in tribute
to Re’s work in strengthening the orchestra
during the decade plus of his tenure, he was
presented with a framed citation of appreciation
and a large crystal bowl.
Violinist
Chuanyun Li’s biography sounds like the typical
prodigy, if there is such a thing, winning
prizes at age five and scholarships by the
trunkful. A native of China, the 24-year-old has
been in the United States for seven years, at
least when he was not on the road somewhere in
the world.
Li had the
freshness and exuberance of a teenager as he
approached the devilishly delightful “Concerto
in D minor” by Katchaturian. The music is
derivative of Armenian folk repertoire with
highly punctuated rhythms and improvisatory
melodies but its attraction lies in the
brilliant orchestration and total exploitation
of the violin as an instrument.
These two
factors were so melded in this performance that
it seemed the whole orchestra was playing the
concerto, not accompanying it, this due to the
uncanny rapport between soloist, conductor and
musicians.
Li’s style of
playing had an enviable freedom from technical
concern that allowed him to play “outside of the
box.” Which he did, quite literally. The young
man required space for roaming as he poured out
intensely romantic passages or the glittering
chords and spiccatos of the first movement
cadenza. He created his own fingerboard shifting
patterns, reminiscent of Fritz Kreisler, to
enhance the melodrama of the beautiful second
movement lament and the third movement theme all
on the G-string. That third movement was a tour
de force for everybody and it all came off like
a whirlwind.
Li was called
back over and over, and graciously consented to
play two encores. The first, a Chinese piece he
called “The Song of the Fisherman’s Harvest” by
Zhi Lee, was pentatonically based on typical
Oriental motifs, very lovely. The second,
Monti’s “Czardas” was pure gypsy, and left the
audience gasping.
This artist’s
career is certainly one to watch.
The orchestra’s
role in the Katchaturian was very, very good, as
indeed it was in the Shostakovich that followed.
There seemed to be a higher level of confidence
among the musicians. Exposed solos, like the
horn and celli passage in the first movement,
the extensive bassoon and viola work in the
second and the “right-on” tutti syncopation of
the third were solid, musical and rewarding.
The Shostakovich
“Sixth Symphony, op. 54, B minor,” might be
thought of as the final work of a strange
trilogy of symphonic efforts in the life of this
epochal composer. He was in trouble with the
Communist Party for his Fourth Symphony and had
to withdraw its debut, whereupon he wrote the
magnificent Fifth in 1937 for the 20th
anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The Sixth
(1939) became sort of a rebound from such
tumultuous political intervention. It is unusual
in form, having only three movements, one long
(Largo) and two short (Allegro and Presto).
The first
movement opens with violas, celli and bassoon in
an expansive theme that was executed with a
full, rich sound invoking the introspection of
the score. A shorter subject, developed in fugal
style, follows it with episodic solo passages
for woodwinds, again well interpreted by the
musicians. The entire movement is downward,
ending with a pianissimo bass clarinet. Being
Shostakovich, however, it never loses coherence.
The second
movement, a scherzo, can’t make up its mind
whether to dance or fake it. Maestro Li was a
master at anticipating meter changes and strange
hemiolas while cueing violin squeals and
offbeats. This section has been called cynical
but another way to hear it might be
tongue-in-cheek.
The third and
final movement of this intriguing work starts
out for all the world like the Lone Ranger
theme. It could easily be incidental music for a
play or film. Lynn Brubaker, concertmaster,
played a great solo passage right in the middle
and then it was back to the bombast of the
glorious Soviet march of progress. Even that, in
the hands of a master, was well worth hearing.
The concert, as
a whole, had a warm spontaneity that infused all
who were there. Xiau-Lu Li has inspired
excellence and pride in his players.
He has sought
out artists of top caliber, not yet known, and
taken the community into his expansive
personality in a way that seems to generate
loyalty and commitment. That he has recently
signed a five-year contract is a piece of very
good news. |
