MUSIC REVIEW
Concert provides artistry, musical insight into death
By Ruth O. Bingham
Death has never been an easy topic, but it was once a more familiar one. Today, death is a private grief, divested of the social recognition that gave structure and progression to our pain.
Attending requiem Masses — along with wearing black, holding wakes, tending graves and declining merrymaking — has fallen out of fashion. Mourning no longer fits easily into the smiling facades of our lives, but death — and, with it, the need for comfort — endures through the ages.
Scott Anderson, principal clarinetist with the orchestra, was the soloist in works by Busoni and Debussy.
"Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4)
Thus begins Brahms' gorgeous Requiem Mass, performed Friday night by the Honolulu Symphony and Honolulu Symphony Chorus. Chorus Director Karen Kennedy noted, "It is not a Mass for the dead; it's a Mass for the living, for those who are mourning. We've had a lot of mourning in our world lately."
In a stroke of genius, the Honolulu Symphony provided translations of the German text in supertitles, an aid long overdue in concert halls. The text is particularly crucial to this Mass because Brahms structured his music to it, "tone-painting" each phrase as anguish wends its way to peaceful acceptance.
With the Honolulu Symphony Chorus Part of the Halekulani MasterWorks series
Kennedy continues to tighten and focus the Honolulu Symphony Chorus' sound, giving more attention to dynamics and the tapering of phrases. The choral group now has a sweet core tone that holds even when singers have to reach for notes.
'Majestic Requiem'
Baritone Burr Cochran Phillips, representing the voice of mankind, and soprano Sandra Andersen, representing the comfort of mothers, delivered beautiful solos, singing with strong, clear voices suffused with warmth.
Stellar moments included the hushed opening, Stephen Dinion's timpani driving the second movement, Scott Janusch's oboe solos, and the cello and string bass melodies that provided the music's anchor.
The first half of the concert offered two features: Honolulu Symphony principal clarinetist Scott Anderson as soloist, and composer Hampson A. Sisler narrating his own work.
Anderson performed Busoni's Concertino for Clarinet and Debussy's Rhapsody, a beautiful piece full of floating melodies, colors and effects.
A fine soloist, Anderson played with great control and excelled in rapid, pianissimo swirls. The tightness in his uppermost register in the Busoni, with its consistently high tessitura, yielded in the Debussy to reveal Anderson's affinity for the impressionistic style.
Sisler presented three movements from his "Cosmic Divide," originally six short movements for pianos and percussion. Based on the Bible's Revelations 12-14, the work examines the divide between good and evil.
The orchestra performed the movements "Sun, Moon and Crown of Twelve Stars," "Heads and Horns of the Dragon" and VI "Hymn to the Lamb." Sisler introduced each movement by reading the corresponding Bible verse.
Maestro Samuel Wong's programming, intentionally or not, gave rise to cosmic, philosophical questions: the balance of good and evil, the role of death and how we mourn.
