Margo Kline: Shanghai Symphony Brings Rainbow of Musical Colors

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By Margo Kline, Noozhawk Contributor

The orchestra and soloists command the stage in CAMA's opener at The Granada

The Shanghai Symphony Orchestra brought a wealth of musical colors to The Granada on Friday night, in the opening presentation of the Community Arts and Music Association’s 2009-10 season.

The Granada proved an ideal venue for the orchestra’s sumptuous sound, both in western and eastern musical selections. The musicians, the instruments and the concert preparation were all superlative.

The first half of the program was Russian, Modest Mussorgsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff, western music wholly embraced by the Chinese performers. The second half was given over to contemporary Chinese composer Qigang Chen’s Iris Devoilee (“iris unveiled”), a nine-part orchestral concerto that featured the full symphony, plus Chinese instruments and two sopranos.

Long Yu conducted the massive orchestra, and the young and purposeful Yuja Wang, 22, was the soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. Wang, lovely and graceful, was in no way delicate in her approach to this mighty concerto. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic and the Academy of St. Martin’s in the Fields, among many other orchestras, and gave a powerful reading of this powerful work.

The orchestra itself also was commanding. The cello and double bass sections were immense, giving string passages unusual depth and strength. All of the sections were fine, but these low strings seemed especially noteworthy.

The evening began with Mussorgsky’s Prelude to the opera Khovanshchina, known as “Dawn on the Moscow River.” The composer’s other opera, Boris Godunov, is more familiar, but many of the Khovanshchina melodies, including this one, are harmonically and thematically lovely. Mussorgsky was one of The Five, the aggregation of Russian composers that also included Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui, Alexander Borodin and, blessedly, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Rimsky-Korsakov was a blessing because he managed to pull together Mussorgsky’s disorganized musical legacy after the latter died at age 42, mainly from the effects of alcoholism.

After intermission came Iris Devoilee, Chen’s tender piece exploring nine aspects of femininity. The composer is Chinese but resides in France; this work premiered in Paris in 2002 to considerable acclaim. Its theme is based on the ancient Greek evocation of Iris as the rainbow, containing all the hues and moods of women.

Along with the full orchestra, five splendidly gowned women came on stage. Three played traditional Chinese instruments: Jia Li on the pipa, Nan Wang on the erhu and Xin Sun playing the guzhen, an elongated instrument that is the ancestor of the Japanese koto. In addition, two sopranos took part: Xiaoduo Chen in a western-style gown singing a western-style vocal line, and Meng Meng in more traditional (and covered-up) dress, singing in the style of Chinese opera.

It’s no wonder the Paris audience embraced Iris Devoilee; it is charmingly Impressionistic in its explanation of the female psyche. The parts are labeled “Ingenious,” “Chaste,” “Libertine,” “Sensitive,” “Tender,” “Jealous,” “Melancholic,” “Hysterical” and “Voluptuous.” Meng’s Chinese opera stylings made a delightful contrast to Xiaoduo Chen’s fluid western type of vocals.

— Margo Kline covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.

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