Minoru Miki

CONCERT REVIEW

Star Builletin : March 13, 2005

Fusion of East and West delights the senses By E. Douglas Bomberger Special to the Star-Bulletin

After six weeks in the opera pit, the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra emerged into the bright light of center stage with a concert featuring one of its perennial strengths -- the fusion of East and West. The featured work was Minoru Miki's "Pipa Concerto" with soloist Yang Jing. The venerable Japanese composer Miki, 75 this year, was commissioned by the Nagano Olympic Arts Program to write a composition in 1997; this piece was written expressly for Jing, who has performed it widely since then. Originally written for an orchestra of Asian instruments, it has been transcribed for Western orchestra. The pipa is a Chinese lute with a pear-shaped body, fretted fingerboard and an impressive range of sound. In the hands of Jing, the instrument takes on an expressive life that is almost beyond verbal description. First and foremost, she plays with authority, making every move seem both effortless and inevitable. She uses graceful stylized motions of the arms and body to enhance the sounds of the instrument, which, combined with her striking yellow gown and red earrings, create a stunning visual picture. But more impressive are the sounds she elicits from this guitar-like instrument. From impossibly rapid tremolos to subtle bending of pitches, chiming chords, and ghostly knocking sounds, the variety of timbres on Friday night was kaleidoscopic. Miki's concerto showcases her talents admirably. The orchestral part supports the soloist effectively, vacillating between imitations of Asian instruments and a dissonant, modernistic idiom. The cadenzas in the first and third movements allow ample scope for the soloist's speed, expressivity, and dramatic flair. The "Pipa Concerto" was framed by two Mendelssohn works that illustrate the composer's tenuous negotiation of the space between classicism and romanticism. The opening work, "Fingal's Cave," is an evocative travelogue that portends later developments in descriptive orchestral music. The "Scotch" Symphony, op. 56, which closed the concert, is in a classical form but with more freedom and unpredictability. Both works resulted from a trip that the German composer made to Scotland at the age of twenty. Guest conductor Alastair Willis led the orchestra with balletic grace. He floated, soared, stomped and sliced the air with a dramatic flair that matched Yang Jing's in visual impact. He was able to draw some exceptionally lovely sounds out of the orchestra, along with some thrilling crescendos. The orchestra seemed a bit rusty on Friday, as reflected in shaky entrances and some intonation problems among the woodwinds in the scherzo of the Mendelssohn symphony, but overall the concert was a pleasure. The audience was especially receptive, roaring its approval of the "Pipa Concerto" and the conducting of maestro Willis. E. Douglas Bomberger is a professor of music at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.