Word: hro
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Last Friday's concert initially seemed just another example of HRO's excellent reputation. The performance opened with a solid rendition of Danish composer Carl Nielsen's Helios Overture, Opus 17, led by assistant conductor Daniel Altman. HRO's command of dynamics is spectacular, and the various crescendos and decrescendos were subtle and nuanced, yet vivid and exciting as the orchestra swelled and faded dramatically. The violins shimmered over the rapid-fire rataplan of the brass as the overture progressed. Dancing staccato strings quickly relinquished prominence to legato passages for a fuller ensemble, until finally the hall exploded with...
...HRO transcended ordinary expectations with its performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, Op. 35. While the appearance of conductor James Yannatos met with the hearty approbation of the audience, the advent of the 1997-98 concerto competition winner produced a reaction more akin to an electric shock. The phenomenon calling himself Joseph Lin '00 strode onto the stage, sweet-faced and supremely self-possessed, and immediately filled Sanders with his charismatic stage presence. Yannatos exchanged a few words with him, then plunged into the beginning of the concerto. Lin remained imperturbable as he hoisted his violin onto his shoulder during...
...second listen to the first few minutes provided an opportunity to more fully absorb the complexities of Lin's remarkable performance. HRO lockstep accompaniment was seamless. The sheer physicality of the performance was mesmerizing. Stretching string players and puffing wind players provided little visual contrast to Lin as he leaned and swayed with his violin, and the stage seemed a kinesthetic blur of motion as the insistent, piercing violin relentlessly piled the tension higher. Huge silences punctuated the cadenza; Lin masterfully made the gaping gaps of sound as arresting and palpable as his pure high melodies or mellifluous low phrases...
...there is life after Lin, as HRO proved after intermission in its performance of Shih-Hui Chen's Moments for Orchestra. The piece was commissioned as a children's work, and the programmatic nature of the music was easy to hear. The first movement, "Two Ghosts," sounded as spooky as the name might have implied. Eerie, gentle phrasing underscored the motion of the "High Ghost" and the "Low Ghost" between the chimes and glockenspiel and the tuba and low strings. An unusually quiet orchestra exquisitely realized the dissonance. (HRO is master of the loud; exuberant finales seemed continually...
...unmerciful squeaks, created a setting of pastoral calm. Dense, lush orchestration frequently dissolved into the quickness and light of lighter sections; this is clearly recognizable as music for the ballet. Clear articulation was a hallmark of the performance of this epic yet fairylike piece, and once again, HRO strained Sanders with the strength and power of the final few chords of the piece...