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CHAMBER ORCHESTRA REVIEW
Dedicated Musicians, Precise Performance December 14, 2001
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By Sean Yung-Hsiang Wang
Although many conductorless chamber orchestras formed in recent years have become commercially successful, only a few are capable of giving decent performances equal to those by respectable full-size orchestras. Musicians in these conductorless ensembles face several challenges that can be mitigated with the presence of a conductor. For example, it is imperative that musicians constantly engage in active listening in order to match one another in sound and dynamics while maintaining an infallible sense of rhythm. Without a conductor it is difficult, to say the least, for a conductorless group to perform orchestral repertoire well.
Members of the New Century Chamber Orchestra proved last Friday that they are capable of meeting these challenges. The program even included two concertante pieces: Four Hymns for Tenor, Solo Viola and String Orchestra by Vaughan Williams, with renowned tenor John Aler and violist Linda Ghidossi-DeLuca as soloists, and Mozart's A-major Basset-clarinet Concerto, K.622 by Mozart, with Charles Neidich as the basset-clarinetist.
Both Aler and Ghidossi-DeLuca delivered a warm but not overly expressive sound fitting for the contemplative Four Hymns. In contrast, the playful Mozart concerto (in which the normally string-only NCCO was joined by a host of guest winds and brass) was made even more joyous, especially in the last movement, by Neidich's generally rapid tempo and sharp articulations. The conductorless orchestra did an excellent job following and adjusting to the soloists, though occasionally the accompanying voices tended to overpower the solo lines. In addition, since the musicians performed standing up, the physical presence of the string players occasionally muffled the wind and brass sounds in the Mozart.
The most challenging piece on the program was Gloria Coates' Symphony No. 1, “Music on Open Strings,” a work that requires the string instruments to be tuned to a pentatonic Chinese scale. While the notes of the piece did not pose a problem for the competent ensemble, the rhythmic indistinctness caused some musicians to count with either their mouth or upper torso. Nevertheless, with my eyes closed, I was impressed with the variety of colors the musicians were able to produce through constant fluxes of dynamics and changes of tone quality. Elgar's meditative Elegy for Strings, Op. 58, was elegantly performed. It is perhaps this ensemble's style to make a slight swell in a bowstroke, but at times it seemed that the long Elgarian lines were not fully sustained by the strings for that reason. I also found some minor precision issues, but overall the sound and phrasing were homogeneous. The musicians' uncompromising attitude toward their art was noticeable even when they were not playing. For example, it took them about 10 minutes carefully to tune their strings prior to the downbeat of the Coates symphony with its special tuning. The long pause was of course not to test the patience of the audience, but a result of the musicians' reluctance to present anything less than what they deemed satisfactory. Having heard several conductorless orchestras perform disappointingly, I found Friday's concert by the New Century Chamber Orchestra a pleasant surprise. It was also exciting to see a group of musicians so passionately involved in what they do. (Sean Yung-Hsiang Wang is currently a doctoral student in musicology at Stanford University. He also holds a master's degree in orchestral conducting from the Juilliard School and a bachelor's degree in violin from the Curtis Institute of Music.) ©2001 Sean Yung-Hsiang Wang, all rights reserved |