Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Seat Q135, $0).
Program
Overture to Candide
by Bernstein (1918-90).
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 (“Emperor”) by
Beethoven (1770-1827).
“Dream With Me” from Peter
Pan by Bernstein.
Navarra, for
Two Violins and Piano, Op. 33 by Sarasate (1844-1908).
Catenaires by
Carter (1908-2012).
Take What You Need
by Esmail (b. 1983).
Capriccio espagnol,
Op. 34 by Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).
Take a group of gifted, precocious and dedicated children,
with families that are willing to back them up (time and financial commitments,
emotional support), and you get the Julliard Pre-College division. Tonight was a “Centennial Gala” in
celebration of the long history of the pre-college, and on the program are
students, former students, and mentors.
The Overture to Candide immediately put me on notice that
this was going to be a great concert. It
is a fast-paced piece of music, and the orchestra did very well with it: great
dynamics, impeccable precision.
After the program several people came on the stage to
talk about the program and to thank its supporters. In fact our tickets were given to someone who
made a sizable donation to the program.
And somewhere the number $1.5M was bandied about as the amount raised at
this gala event.
The most well-known artist in the group was Emanuel Ax,
Pre-college ’66. It’s always a pleasure
to hear Ax play and enjoy the narrative he tells with the music, and today was
no exception. However, the weakness of
the orchestra was evident as it seemed to be overwhelmed by the soloist. Not necessary the sound volume (even though
at times that was the case,) but that it was relegated to an accompanist instead
of being an equal partner. And did I
hear a synchronization problem here and there?
Emanuel Ax played Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.
Shereen Pimental, who was a third-year college student,
sang beautifully Bernstein’s song.
Then the young people took over. Fionna (11) and Hina (14) Khuong-Huu played
this incredible Sarasate piece that was just incredible. And the Elliot Carter piece played by 12-year
old Harmony Zhu was described by the composer as “… a fast one-line piece with
no chords … a continuous chain of notes using different spacings, accents, and
colorings to produce a wide variety of expression.” Clearly these young girls have tremendous
talent, I do wonder if their level of talent is – by Julliard Pre-College
standards – typical or exceptional. If “typical,”
then “wow,” if “exceptional,” then I wonder how much Julliard has added to
their artistic growth.
The Khuong-Huu sisters.
Vijay Gupta, now with LA Philharmonic, talked about his
being rejected by the Pre-college when he was six (six!). He recently won the McArthur prize for his
work with the homeless and the incarcerated through his Street Symphony
charity. The piece he performed was
composed by the Julliard alumna Reena Esmail, arranged for the solo
violin. It was short, somewhat difficult
(lots of harmonics.) And what a nice
sound his violin produced.
Vijay Gupta, a recent MacArthur Prize winner.
The program ended with another spirited number:
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol. It was a performance worthy of any professional
orchestra, my only wish is some generous patron endow a violin to the
Pre-College. The concertmaster Annalisa
Welinder did very well with the several difficult solo passages, but the violin
sound was just a bit weak.
Robert Spano shaking hands with Concertmaster Annalisa Welinder.
Chung-Shu and I were probably the worst-dressed in this
gala event. Many were in the evening
finest. I took the train in.
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