Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Jian Wang Image : Leilei Cai
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Auckland Town Hall
Auckland Arts Festival
March 19 & 20
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
The highlights of this year’s Auckland Arts Festival were the two concerts presented by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the oldest symphony in Asia which has a formidable history of touring.
The seventy strong orchestra under the direction of conductor Long Yu, opened their first concert with a relatively new work by Elliot Leung – “Chinese Kitchen: A feat of Flavors”. Leung has made a name for himself both as a composer who spans Eastern and Western music but also as a composer for Hollywood films.
His background as compose of film music showed throughout his four movement Chinese Kitchen, the opening movement “Deep Fried River Prawns” displaying an inventive use of a dozen percussion instruments. The collection of instruments including maracas, cymbals, bells, clappers and xylophone created a syncopated sound which recreated the noise, colour and hectic movement of a Chinese kitchen.
This movement and the others showed the composers ability to create musical equivalents of the taste, texture and colours of Chinese dishes. In the second movement “Buddha Jumps on the Wall” the woodwinds created a luxurious sequence with the melodies taken up by the piano and harp. The music flowed effortlessly between moments of savage attack and sequences of little more than whispers. While this was a Western style music it was flecked through with clever traditional Chinese elements. The Western style music could be detected in some Copland style passage as well as a nod to the music of “The Wizard of Oz”.
With “Vegetable in Soup” there was a sense of vegetables bubbling away in a pot, the tempo of the music becoming more animated as the piece evolved and in “Deep Fried Sesame Balls” there was again adventurous percussion playing which could have come from an Indiana Jones film provided an electrifying display.
Conductor Long Yu used his hands and body to great effect with his generous movements and careful directions which adding to the sense of a watery, misty environment with surprises erupting from the music, seemingly at his command.
Playing Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme” cellist Jian Wang glided effortlessly through the work, revelling in the interplay with the orchestra in a tantalising display which emphasised aspects of the sophisticated composition. He made use of the various solo sections to show an understanding of the work as well displaying his extraordinary technical skills.
He was able to combine, as did Tchaikovsky, an understanding of the romanticism of the Rococo theme as well as debt to Mozart which gives the work its spectacle in the way that cello and orchestra intertwine. The theme was dissected and re-formed in different guises with Wang seemingly finding new opportunities in the melodies as well as exploring its tones, and textures.
Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 is one of the top ten piano concertos and is the last great Romantic piano concerto of the nineteenth century, full of lyricism as well as many dramatic moments. The pianist has to be capable of producing the most poignant of sounds as well as the most intense.
Pianist Serena Wang was able to deliver both these qualities of the work as she ranged from the pensive to the flamboyant.
From the opening moments where she responded to the brash horns and sharp flourishes of the orchestra Wang dominated the stage with some dazzling displays.
Her expression when playing changed continuously and she took on various poses from rapture to steely focus. At times there was a tenderness to her playing while at others a brutal rawness and then at other times she seemed to be cajoling herself into discovering new depths to the music
Her rapport with the orchestra was constantly changing as well. Battling with the orchestra, chasing the dramatic themes conjured up by the orchestra and then the dynamics would change, and the orchestra would attempt to match her feverish playing. There were also several moments of musical poetry when Wang had interchanges with the flutes, and clarinets.
After the frenetic finale the audience responded with a huge ovation, but this was matched by even great applause when she and the orchestra played a stunning version of Pokarekare Ana.
The second concert was bookended by two pieces which had featured ih their first concert Elliot Leung’s – “Chinese Kitchen: A feast of Flavors” and the orchestra playing of Pokarekare Ana with Serena Wang.
The major work on the programme was Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No 2 which was written ten years after his first symphony’s disastrous reception 1897. It is a masterpiece of late-Romanticism, combining a deep Russian melodic yearning with an intense symphonic structure, combining lush harmonies, with an emotional depth.
There were passages of great delicacy in the first movement which reflected his love of the Russian landscape and Russian history. However, he was unhappy with the political climate in Russia at the time and moved to Dresden, Germany, where he wrote the symphony in 1906. This aspect shows in the work as he seems to be looking forward to a new dawn both politically and musically, the music full of positive aspirations.
The soaring strings and blaring passages owe much to his early friendship with Thaikovsky and the earlier composer’s sounds recur throughout this symphony, notably the 1812 Overture.
In the second movement there were wistful, dreamy sequences as well as urgent, action filled sections while the romantic third movement was carried along by some delightful flutes, filled with intense yearning, giving voice to a modern Russia, a feeling which was being expressed by many Russian writers and dramatists at the time.
Also on the programme was Gigang Chen’s “Er Huang, for Piano and Orchestra” which had been commissioned by Carnegie Hall in 2009 and is based on the composer’s interest in Peking Opera.
Serena Wang’s playing developed with slow tentative sounds, providing a sense of a hazy, limpid environment. The pianist’s crisp sounds trembling above the subdued sounds of the orchestra were like an Impressionist work with each individual note and section clearly articulated.
They were like the images of raindrops on water, or the descriptions of flowers and landscapes. The moods expressed seemed simultaneously to be like Impressionist paintings of the late nineteenth century as well as a depictions of classical Chinese paintings where the aim was to capture not only the outer appearance of a subject but its inner energy and life force.
Wang seemed captivated by the music, being drawn deeper and deeper into its complexity. At times she expressed a celebratory approach to her discoveries, raising her arms in triumph.
Wang’s expression of triumph could be applied to the success of the orchestra’s success in providing Auckland with two outstanding concerts along with two exceptional soloists in Serena Wang and Jian Wang.
New Zealand Arts Review 