CONCERT REVIEW
Midori sparkles in season opener
By Ruth O. Bingham
Technically speaking, the Honolulu Symphony is not a symphony at all, but an orchestra. "Symphony" simply serves as an apt metaphor for what they do and identifies their primary repertoire. Even after centuries, the core of that repertoire remains unassailable: the symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.
Lois Greenfield
But it is often the concertos that draw and hold an audience. That held true Friday night at the opening concert of Honolulu Symphony's 104th season.
As soloist, Midori drew passion from every note of Brahms' Violin Concerto, which she imbued with a cadenza that entranced listeners.
World-renowned violinist Midori threw herself into the music — heart and soul, mind and body, capturing the limelight.
Midori performed Brahms' Violin Concerto, drawing passion from every note. Her playing — rhythmically free, emotionally driven, lacking only the appearance of ease — raised goose bumps repeatedly.
She attacked fortes physically and floated high pianissimos to the edge of disappearing, entrancing the audience. During her cadenza, the audience held its breath, so intensely focused that nobody would have noticed even if a pin had dropped.
Maestro Samuel Wong and the orchestra partnered Midori well, but Midori proved to be such an aural magnet, it was difficult to pay attention to them.
With the Honolulu Symphony; first concert in the Halekulani MasterWorks classical series
This season's orchestra revealed a new principal cellist, Richard Andaya, and rotary trumpets in the brass section that, as trumpeter Mark Schubert explained, blend more smoothly into the orchestral fabric and more closely emulate the sound of 19th-century trumpets.
Midori
For most of the evening, summer rust showed through the orchestra's performance, affecting intonation, ensemble, balance and precision.
Their reading of Beethoven's witty Symphony No. 8 had dynamics and exuberance in full measure, but lacked both syntax and finesse. The surprises and mysteries that Beethoven created passed by, unplayed.
Perhaps the most glaring rough edge was in the balance between orchestra and timpani, which dominated every forte and quite a few mezzos. That imbalance may have had something to do with the timpani's placement in its own resonance chamber: center back, alone, on risers.
The orchestra had fine moments — the counterpoint between lower and upper strings in the development of the first movement, the horns and clarinet duet in the third movement, the sforzandi near the end of the last. Best of all were several excellent solos by oboist Scott Janusch, especially the meltingly sweet solo in the second movement of the Brahms.
In the end, however, it was Midori who drew the fairly large audience and who elicited a slow-motion standing ovation.
Editor's note: This is classical music reviewer Ruth O. Bingham's first piece for The Advertiser. Bingham, a lecturer with the University of Hawai'i-Manoa music department, holds a doctorate in musicology from Cornell University; master's degrees from Cornell and UH-Manoa (1982); and a bachelor's in musicology and German from UH-Manoa. She has been reviewing classical music in California and Hawai'i since 1988.
