Listeners blessed by live violin
By ElisabethA. Crean WITHOUT live music, something in the soul dies. All the crystalline compact discs in the world cannot replace the feeling of leaning forward to hear a near-silent wisp of melody played high on the violin's E-string. Or the rumble of bass, tuba and timpani reverberating as much through your bones as in the concert hall's skeleton.
Special to the Star-Bulletin
Yesterday's Honolulu Symphony Orchestra season finale provided both the ethereal and the thunderous. The concert reminded us how blessed we are that symphonic music still lives in our city, despite a depressed economy and an indifferent government.
Stellar soloist Gil Shaham played Johannes Brahms' "Violin Concerto in D" to a height of perfection and with a depth of feeling hard to put into mere words. Conductor Samuel Wong and the HSO musicians, inspired by Shaham's brilliance and warmth, rose to their finest work together.
If you go to one concert the rest of the millennium, make it this one. Another Johannes four centuries before Brahms, the Renaissance theorist and composer Johannes Tinctoris, wrote that music's ultimate effect was to "beautify the soul." Shaham, Wong and company reaffirmed this tenet magnificently by emancipating the difficult violin concerto from earthly constraints.
Shaham's technique went so far beyond virtuosity that the concerto became a showpiece not for the genius of the performer, but for the glory of the music. With a little help from his 1699 Stradivarius, Shaham inhabited Brahms' notes and phrases, and invited listeners to take up residence with him in the music's splendor.
Although a full orchestra packed the stage, Shaham cultivated the feeling of a chamber performance. He made himself a seamless part of the ensemble, knowing when to blend into, emerge out of, and soar above the orchestral texture. He reveled in the close, succulent harmonies Brahms scored for the violin and individual wind instruments.
Shaham's physical posture enhanced his sense of connection to the other musicians. He stood amidst the principal string players, not far in front of the group. The conductor did not have to look back over his shoulder to check in with the soloist. In fact, Shaham and Wong maintained constant eye contact, standing at times almost nose to nose.
Great music makes you feel. Shaham exquisitely rendered the emotional power of Brahms' romanticism. His sensitive touch conveyed both the elegance and the poignancy of the music. More than one tear fell at the overwhelming beauty.
A cinematic effect resulted, where time was suspended, the background went fuzzy, and all that remained in focus was the music.
It was magic.
Brahms' sprightly "Hungarian Dance No. 1" preceded the concerto. Its lushness and energy primed the audience for the violinist's appearance.
After Shaham fiddled, Rome burned up the concert's second half. Wong and the orchestra treated the audience to Ottorino Respighi's "Fountains of Rome" and "Pines of Rome," works celebrating the Eternal City's spectacular architectural and natural features.
Respighi filled both works with dramatic contrasts, painting visual images with colors from the musical palette. The players attacked the music with a zest that brought pictures vividly to life.
Harps glided, the xylophone glistened; flutes fluttered, the clarinet floated. Resplendent brass, booming from the balcony eaves for the finale of "Pines," provided the fitting triumphal flourish to a triumphant Honolulu Symphony Orchestra season.
At the beginning of the second half, Wong announced the retirement of principal violist Robert Karol, whose smile has danced its way through 20 years with the HSO. Karol was well into his previous 27-year stint with the Boston Symphony Orchestra before the conductor or the critic were even proverbial gleams in their parents' eyes!
Wong gave Karol a fiery red-orange lei and an embrace, after which the veteran slung the lei over his left shoulder, raised the viola to his chin and played on.
In Concert
What: Violinist Gil Shaham and the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Samuel Wong
> Elisabeth A. Crean has bachelor's and master's degrees in European history with an emphasis in music, and has performed and taught music.
