March 26 & 27, 2009 10:30 am & 8:00 pm
Whitney Hall, KCA, Louisville
Gao Hong, pipa
Liadov – Kikimora
Tan Dun – Concerto for Pipa [1999]
Sibelius – Symphony no. 2
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After problematic start, Gao Hong played the pipa with panache
by Andrew Adler
The Courier-Journal
March 27, 2009
What do you think of when you mate the word 'concerto' with 'orchestra'?
Probably plenty of violins, pianos and the occasional flute or clarinet? But a pipa concerto? No, that counts as a definite anomaly. Yet, under the fingers of a master player, the Chinese pear-shaped lute can become an object of genuine wonder. Certainly it was Thursday morning at the Kentucky Center, where Gao Hong appeared as soloist in Tan Dun's Concerto for Pipa and String Orchestra.
Gao, who is among the two or three most celebrated pipa musicians now active, is a virtuoso in every sense of the term. With her fingers fluttering at warp-speed, she made the pipa's four strings sound forth in an astonishing range of timbres. Whether snapped against the body of her instrument or plucked in the most nuanced manner, those strings could not be denied their expressive due.
She also demonstrated considerable poise, even under difficult circumstances. Tan's concerto opens with an ear-and-eye-opening foot stomping by the orchestra players, who then launch into a series of slashing, almost violent down-bows. During all this, the soloist waits patiently [or maybe, impatiently] to enter with an appropriate flourish.
Unfortunately, a few moments after Gao came in, one of her strings came loose from a peg ['that Kentucky weather ...' she quipped to the Whitney Hall audience]. She had to take a few minutes to retighten and retune her pipa, after which the performance began from page one.
From here, the account was splendidly managed. Not every phrase of Tan's concerto is successful — more than once, the twangy East-West meeting of aesthetics suggested nothing so much as a hoedown. But coaxing superlative detail from her instrument, melded with a winning interpretive personality, Gao was a luscious wonder. Associate conductor Jason Weinberger, substituting for guest conductor Joana Carniero [who injured an arm earlier this month], had the challenge of learning a score markedly outside the standard repertoire. He led the orchestra with what appeared to be great confidence, and the orchestra responded with highly disciplined musicianship.
Elsewhere, Weinberger conducted a shimmering account of Anatol Liadov's concise fantasy-piece Kikimora, winding up with a vigorous, lushly textured view of Sibelius's Symphony No. 2. In a score where big tunes can easily emerge as overheated rhetoric, this performance was marked by sustained, muscular authority.
Note: All reviews are edited for length and spelling.