If music be the food of love…
Midori plays on
by Christopher Key
For those of you who may think the sensational Japanese violinist Midori has anything in common with a certain melon liqueur, think again. The violinist packs considerably more punch, if you’ll excuse the expression. The diminutive dynamo brought down the house at today’s Whatcom Symphony Orchestra season opener and she’ll be a tough act to follow.
As a musician, I was never in any danger of being invited to a master class. Imagine my delight when the WSO offered me the opportunity to attend Midori’s session Saturday afternoon with some extraordinarily talented young musicians. It was a rare glimpse of a superstar in something other than a concert setting. She proved to be both very personable and an enormously gifted teacher. There are three young violinists who will never forget that day.
Our wonderful local orchestra led off the first concert of the year, as is traditional, with the National Anthem. WSO audiences being somewhat more musically attuned than sports fans, the crowd participation was gratifying. There were actually quite a few voices that could handle the horrendous range and those who couldn’t had the sense to drop out and lip sync for a while.
Gioacchino Rossini’s Overture to The Barber of Seville always brings a big smile to my face and not just because it was used frequently in the TV cartoons I watched as a kid. The WSO opened with it today and I was grinning like a fool. Maestro Roger Briggs led the orchestra through it with galloping gusto and great good humor. It provided a delicious contrast to the serious stuff about to go down.
Benjamin Britten’s Concerto for Violin, Op. 15, brilliantly depicts the turmoil leading up to World War II. It is so dauntingly difficult that few musicians attempt it until they are at least in their mid- to late-twenties. Midori is of the generation that believes musicianship and performance art are not mutually exclusive. Her body language and expressive face captured the audience as much as her stunning technique. She tore at her Guarneri, determined to wrest every possible nuance of tone of which the violin is capable. The audience simply levitated at the end and brought Midori back for three well-deserved bows.
Photo countesy Whatcom Symphony Orchestra.
Following an abbreviated intermission, the audience was treated to an onstage interview conducted by Northwest Public Radio. Midori chairs the string department at the University of Southern California and runs a handful of non-profits that help bring classical music to underserved populations in addition to her international concert schedule. So the big question involved what she did in her spare time. It should probably come as no surprise that she spends her off-hours thinking up new projects for herself. Midori makes most over-achievers look lame.
Johannes Brahms spent much of his early career trying to emerge from the shadow of one Ludwig van Beethoven. By the time he got to his fourth, and final, symphony, Brahms was basking in the sun of his hard-won self-confidence. The WSO concluded the opening concert with Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98. Brahms’ self-confidence is manifest in the first movement, which almost sounds like it starts in the middle. The first, third and fourth movements all conclude with passages that sound like the end of a symphony. Most of the rather sophisticated WSO audience was hip enough to wait until the fourth before applauding. The orchestra earned that applause with a sparkling performance that featured outstanding work from the strings.
If this opening performance was any indication, WSO’s season should be a rouser. The next performance, on Saturday, November 19, at 7:30 p.m., stars the Mount Baker Theatre’s Mighty Wurlitzer (Mighty Wurlitzer is always capitalized). Saint-Saëns stirring Organ Symphony will be the centerpiece.
It’s gratifying to see the Mount Baker Theatre packed once again for the WSO after a couple shaky economic years. That means you need to get your tickets soon for future concerts. Call the MBT Box Office at (360) 734-6080 or order online at www.mountbakertheatre.com. For a complete season schedule, see www.whatcomsymphony.com.
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