Reviews
Mei-Ann Chen airmails resume to Sinfonietta
Chicago Sun-Times
by Bryant Manning
October 6, 2009
original link
Mei-Ann Chen airmails resume to Sinfonietta
CONCERT REVIEW | Season’s first guest conductor floats like ‘Butterfly’
The Chicago Sinfonietta’s 23rd season, which opened Sunday afternoon in River Forest, spotlights several exciting guest conductors this year as the orchestra continues its search to replace the venerable Paul Freeman.While no one can ever quite fill the shoes of an orchestra’s founder and longtime music director, the pickings for a replacement are hardly slim. Taiwan-born conductor Mei-Ann Chen, who shared conducting duties in a highly engaging “East vs. West” program Sunday at Lund Auditorium, brought immediate excitement with her caffeinated podium presence and near-fanatical respect for dynamics.Now enjoying a one-year post as assistant conductor to Marin Alsop of the Baltimore Symphony, Chen has a flair for a global repertoire that dovetails with the Chicago Sinfonietta’s mission. She led Chinese erhu player Betti Xiang in a wondrously sweeping account of “The Butterfly Lovers” Concerto (1959), a popular fairy tale scored to music by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao. The erhu, a tiny cellolike instrument that sits on the lap, sounds closer to a sluggish violin with its teary-eyed tone and naturally bending notes. Xiang brought an expressive depth to her performance that only a 30-year veteran of the instrument can. An-Lun Huang’s sprightly “Saibei Dance” was a “Carmen”-esque thrill, while Ravel’s whimsical “Mother Goose” Suite had everyone looking back on their youth (and quite literally, too, with a crying baby in the audience interrupting several key moments). From the podium, Chen etched such a graphically shaded account in both works that it would be a shame to not see her back in town very soon. Chicagoan Jeremy Jordan, 20, is a tremendously talented young pianist in just his third year at the Juilliard School. With Freeman as conductor for Rachmaninoff’s seldom heard Piano Concerto No. 1, Jordan fused an old-school austerity with a punch-the-clock workmanship that recalled the old Russian composer himself. Jordan isn’t a virtuoso who strives to draw eyes to himself, and you could see this best in his soberly drawn cadenzas. He didn’t rhapsodize carelessly, either, with the innately flowery poetry of the andante, and we thank for him it.With a harder-edged tone and natural booming bass, Jordan could benefit from bringing out more treble in his playing. To his credit, balances between orchestra and piano were often weighted to the former, which should have improved when the program was repeated Monday in the cleaner acoustical space of Orchestra Hall.Jordan’s jazz chops also informed an impressive encore, his own transcription of Wagner’s Siegfried’s Funeral March from “Gotterdammerung.” With Jordan filling out the work’s violent episodes to create a three-dimensional canvas, it was inspiring to see a young musician so confidently setting his place at the table with a musical god.Copyright © 2009 Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago CLASSICAL REVIEW
West meets East as
Sinfonietta kicks off transitional season
by Lawrence A. Johnson
Sun Oct 04, 2009 at 8:55 pm
The Chicago Sinfonietta’s 23rd season marks a gradual changing of the guard. A variety of guest conductors will take the helm of the orchestra for what, in essence, is a round of public auditions for the opportunity to succeed Paul Freeman, the Sinfonietta’s founder and outgoing music director.
Sunday afternoon’s generous season-opening program at Dominican University in River Forest—to be repeated Monday night at Orchestra Hall—presented the local debut of the Taiwan-born conductor Mei-Ann Chen, along with two talented concerto soloists.
Chen, former assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony who is taking up the same post in Baltimore this fall, looks like a gently amiable college professor, yet she is clearly a dynamic figure firmly in charge on the podium. The Sabei Dance (from Sabei Suite No. 2 by the Chinese-Canadian composer An-Lun Huang) offers a kind of Eastern-flavored Khachaturian yet made a rousing opener, with Chen drawing a blazing and propulsive performance from the Sinfonietta.
Chen was equally impressive in the more subdued canvas of Ravel’s Ma Mere l’Oye (Mother Goose). The Sinfonietta couldn’t quite deliver the requisite luminosity and tonal sheen, but this was a sensitive rendering, alive to the piquant chinoiserie of Laideronnette and presenting a notably characterful Belle et la Bete, the performance mitigated by some less-than-ethereal string solos in the Jardin Feerique finale.
The Butterfly Lovers Concerto is a hugely popular work in China, and, increasingly, the rather complex tale of tragic, transcendent love by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao is proving a guilty pleasure for many Western violinists, including Gil Shaham.
Sunday’s concert offered the rare opportunity to hear the concerto, not in its standard violin version but performed on the erhu by soloist Betti Xiang.
The traditional Chinese stringed instrument, is similar to a body-less violin, though it is held upright and bowed across the front like a cello. The erhu produces a twangy, exotic—to Western ears—timbre, yet Xiang conjured a wide dynamic range and a surprising array of unearthly sounds from the instrument.
The sentimental concerto is not exactly a timeless masterpiece but has undeniably lovely moments and was given a vital and expressive performance by Xiang with Chen eliciting highly responsive and energized playing from the orchestra.
In addition to providing a gracious introduction for guest maestra Chen, Freeman took the podium for the afternoon’s other soloist, pianist Jeremy Jordan.
product of Chicago’s Walter Payton College Preparatory School, Jordan first performed with the Sinfonietta at age 17— “our mascot,” as Freeman called him Sunday. Now 20 and a student at Juilliard, the solemn young man showed himself a greatly gifted pianist, blessed with a steel-fingered technique and a poetic sensibility well suited to Rachmaninoff ’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
The youthful effort, written at age 19 and later substantially revised, remains the least played of the composer’s five piano concertante works, but the young Chicago native made a strong case for this neglected music. Rachmaninoff’s themes may be less indelible than in his later concertos and the finale goes on longer than it needs to, but the First still has its attractions, cast in Rachmaninoff’s brand of rhapsodic Russian melodism.
Jordan was alive to the caprice-like solo writing as well as the moments of unbridled virtuosity bringing imposing power to the first-movement cadenza and blazing prestidigitation to the final pages. Freeman and the orchestra provided equally fiery support.
The pianist showed more bravura and a wry wit with an unorthodox Wagner encore—-Jordan’s own clever and effective transcription of Siegfried’s Funeral March, the fistfuls of notes thrown off with impressive accuracy and sonorous impact.
The Daily Gazette
Miller, ASO combine for a fine show at the
Palace
GERALDINE FREEDMAN
October 28, 2007
ALBANY -- The Albany Symphony Orchestra under conductor David Alan Miller did some
superb work Saturday night at the Palace Theatre. Playing before a huge crowd, many on their
way to the gala afterward, the program began with the Overture to Wagner's "Tannhauser."
The work was new for both the orchestra and Miller. The orchestra's sound was mellow, and the
long sustained lines breathed. Connections between phrases could have been more seamless and
the various wind chorales more homogenous, but overall, it was a successful foray into Wagner's
music. "The Butterfly Lovers Concerto" by Gang Chen and Zhan-Hao He with celebrated Chinese erhu
player Betti Xiang was exotic yet wonderfully accessible. The erhu is a two-stringed, bowed
instrument that sounds a bit like a viola. The piece, which is extremely popular in China, follows an ancient Romeo and Juliet-like legend
in which the erhu sings the part of Juliet and the principal cellist is Romeo.
Xiang was marvelous and played with great passion. Her lyrical lines insinuated in and out of the
tones, mostly over modal scales, and she played many very fast passages with great clarity.
The orchestra parts, which were not complex or sophisticated, ranged from Puccini-like lyricism
to the rowdy kind of stuff found in a movie score for a John Ford western.
The crowd loved it, and Xiang played an encore called "The Harvest" by Zhou Wei that showed
off even more of her virtuosity.
But from the first moments of Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique," the orchestra was on another
plane. Miller has conducted the work many times with other orchestras, but not with the ASO,
and the familiarity showed. Rather than feeling his way, he knew what he wanted, and the
orchestra worked with that center.
Everything was superbly delineated: the quality of sound, pitch, dynamic ranges, ensemble,
feeling and musicality.
It was wonderful to listen to this masterpiece written in 1830 by a 27-year-old who was going
through all the mysteries, agonies and ecstacies of a love affair.
Miller and the orchestra caught the flavor, the moods and the passions with exuberance, charm
and much finesse.
The next ASO concert is Nov. 16 with Michael Morgan conducting Yarnell, Grieg and Prokofiev.
Times Union
ASO all over the map, in a good way
By JOSEPH DALTON, Special to the Times Union
First published: Sunday, October 28, 2007 review
ALBANY -- China by way of Germany with a long final stopover in a land of hallucination. That was the itinerary for Saturday night's gala concert at the Palace Theatre of the Albany Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Alan Miller. The program's centerpiece was the "Butterfly Lovers" concerto by Gang Chen and Zhan-Hao He, with soloist Betti Xiang playing the erhu, a two-stringed traditional Chinese instrument. When it premiered in 1958, the concerto touched a chord in China that continues to vibrate. Its story is about the ill-fated love shared by two youngsters, but the piece resounds with a triumphant nationalistic spirit. Stylistically, the "Butterfly Lovers" was a prototype of the East-West musical fusion that continues to fascinate composers. There is an unmistakable Asian sound and a secure grasp of Western orchestration. But the piece also draws heavily on orchestral cliches that were long ago relegated mostly to the realm of film scores. Big melodies are reprised again and again, and the ASO delivered them with dignity and confidence. By inviting a soloist to perform on the erhu, rather than the violin for which the concerto was originally scored, Miller added some fresh color and even a bit of fascination to the performance. Xiang plays with a tone that can be sweet and singing or fierce and impassioned, and it arrives as if by magic from an instrument that at a distance appears to be little more than two crossed sticks resting on a little box. A native of Shanghai and an American resident since 1996, Xiang has performed with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble and last year she and Miller gave the "Butterfly Lovers" in a subscription program of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her brief encore Saturday included a few tapped rhythms on the instrument's body and was as clever and enjoyable as anything in the preceding concerto. Masterpieces well executed and faithfully interpreted made up the balance of the program. In a switch, the brass didn't have to wait until the night's end for their hard work. In Wagner's "Tannhauser" overture, which opened the program, they grew from a near whisper to a mighty roar. After intermission, Berlioz' "Symphonie Fantastique" was a searing emotional journey. The highlights, as usual, came at the end, with the bloody "March to the Scaffold" and chilly "Dream of the Witches," surely a nod to the Halloween season.
Chicago Tribune
Blockbuster' opener is rainy
CSO triumph
by John von Rhein
Tribune music critic
Published September 15, 2006
Star-crossed lovers became storm-tossed lovers Wednesday at Millennium Park, where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra presented the first of two free "Blockbuster Week" concerts.
A program built around real and fictional figures unlucky in love had the ill luck of being performed under a cold, misting rain that didn't clear up until the event was over. But the CSO soldiered bravely onward.
An estimated 2,500 listeners turned out as the CSO previewed Symphony Center's season long contributions to Silk Road Chicago, a citywide celebration of music and art spearheaded by Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project. David Alan Miller conducted Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" Overture-Fantasy and Berlioz's "Symphonies Fantastique," but the only true cross-cultural event was a Chinese classical piece, "The Butterfly Lovers."
The violin concerto was composed in 1957 by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao, two composition students at the Shanghai Conservatory. It is a musical retelling of an ancient Chinese folk tale about thwarted lovers who find peace and happiness only in death, when they turn into a pair of butterflies.
Western and Eastern musical elements merge with a naivete and sophistication that make the three-part work so sweetly appealing. The solo part, played here on the two-string Chinese fiddle known as the erhu, borrows its sliding melodic intervals from Shanghai opera, its techniques from standard Western concertos. The lush scoring, simple harmonies and obvious pictorial effects often give it the feel of romantic movie music.
The Chinese erhu virtuosa Betti Xiang was the astonishing soloist. She "sang" the female half of the doomed couple with an agility, subtlety and lyrical grace any opera singer would envy. The erhu is played like a cello, but in Xiang's sensitive hands, it could soar with a violin's range and color, or skitter like a stone thrown across a rushing stream. The orchestra handled the pretty accompaniment, well, prettily.
Miller, a familiar figure to ravinia audiences but not to downtown, led a lyrical and dramatic account of the Tchaikovsky tone poem. Also, what emerged from the amplification was a rather pale and tubby reflection of what the CSO can achieve in Romantic warhorses such as this.
The Berlioz was unexceptional for its first four movements but came alive (as so many "Fantastiques" do) in the final "Dream of a Witches' Sabbath," complete with ominous offstage chimes, sardonic wails from the high clarinet and macabre chatterings from the violinists' bows.
Chicago Sun-times
CSO weaves a tapestry of sounds - concert review
CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA at the
Pritzker Pavilion
by Marta Tonegutti
Chicago Sun-times Friday, September 15, 2006
A fine tapestry of sounds and colors was woven Wednesday night by the musician of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by David Alan Miller in a special appearance at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.
As the first of two free outdoor concerts that conclude Millennium Park's Blockbuster Week and continue the yearlong Silk Road Chicago celebration, the event drew an enthusiastic audience, who braved the inclement weather to hear the CSO and guest soloist Betti Xiang, performing on the erhu, a traditional two-string Chinese fiddle.
The program, skillfully attuned to the occasion, featured the signature mixing of Eastern and Western influences of the Silk Road, made here particularly relevant by the presence of the 1959 concerto "The Butterfly Lovers" by Chinese composers Chen Gang and He Zhanhao. Inspired by a centuries-old Chinese romantic folk tale, it's a work as popular in its home country as it is virtually unknown here.
The program also included two beloved titles of the Western classical music canon, Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" overture and Berlioz"s "Symphonie fantastique," which were rescued from their hyper-familiarity and usual blockbuster effect by the crisp, unsentimental reading offered by these superb musicians and Miller, a conduct er familiar with the probing intricacies as well as the eclecticism of modern and contemporary music. He successfully applied the same clarity, rigor and freshness of thought to these quintessential Romantic pieces.
Tchaikovsky's overture set the tone, with Miller's intense but precise gestures guiding and containing the swelling of the orchestral sound in beautifully molded melodic phrases and cleanly shaped rhythmic patterns, which exposed the music's harmonic richness and made it all the more effective. Despite the problems posed by the use of outdoor amplification, which inevitably creates an altered and disembodied orchestral sound even for listeners in the pavilion, Miller used the full dynamic palette well, summoning delicate pianissimos and well-balanced crescendos of the work's familiar"love theme" toward the organ-like sonorities of the finale.
A radiant Xiang took center stage for "The Butterfly Lovers," claiming for her erhu the part originally composed for violin in imitation of the traditional Chinese fiddle. She mesmerized the audience as much with her virtuoso performance as with the instrument's plaintive voice-like quality, familiar to us through chinese opera and now through cinema.
What came to life in the riveting dialogue between soloist and orchestra was a continuous piece of music in three long sections, compellingly infusing the Western symphonic forms with the Eastern sonorities of the pentatonic scale, and with highly expressive musical gestures derived from the Chinese operatic tradition.
A demanding cadenza for the solo erhu was beautifully executed, as were the melancholy exchanges between erhu and first cello, with the two instruments giving voice to the tale's unhappy lovers.
The second part of the program, devoted to Berlioz's expansive symphony, was as successful. Again, the amplification made it arduous to listen for nuances of sound and interpretation, but what came through was never the less eloquently satisfying. The piece served naturally as a showcase for CSO's impressive principal players, and for the whole woodwind, brass, and percussion sections.
Miller and the CSO made sure, however, that nothing got lost of Berlioz's inventive dramatic construction and colorful harmonies and orchestration, attacking each of the five sections with renewed energy and precision, and bringing the work, after the frenzied witched's dance, to a majestic close.
Let's rejoice, then, in a new CSO season that promises as much fantasy in its programming as it does in its mastery of musical execution.
