Beach
Cities Symphony Concert Reviews and Articles
Reviews of recent Beach Cities Symphony concerts published in the newspaper
Daily Breeze:
Beach Cities Symphony shines with sophistication
By Kari Sayers
Posted: 06/01/2010 06:18:54 PM PDT
A major reason Beach Cities Symphony has been able to attract public support
of its concerts for decades is that the orchestra consistently presents
extraordinary programs.
This season, concertgoers have had a chance to listen to an original
composition by maestro Barry Brisk, a youth mariachi band, and a chorus of 175
singers performing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
On Friday night, the orchestra gave its final concert of its 60th
anniversary season featuring five amazing young soloists, all winners of the
Music Teachers of California Artists of the Future competition.
The venue, as usual, was Marsee Auditorium on the El Camino College campus
near Torrance.
Although the opening Overture to Oberon by Carl Maria von Weber, with its
horn calls by the King of the Elves to his fairies, was not especially
remarkable, it was an apt introduction to the musical princesses who took
center stage to do their magic in elaborate gowns fit for a royal ball.
First out was 8-year-old pianist Megan Chang, looking cute in a billowing
snow-white satin gown, playing the first allegro movement of Mozart's Piano
Concerto No. 8 in C Major, K 246. It may not be Mozart's most demanding piano
concerto, but little Megan displayed dexterity and technical skills way beyond
her years.
Megan was followed by 13-year-old pianist Sabrina Kozak, dressed in a red
taffeta and chiffon gown, playing the first allegro movement of one of
Mozart's most difficult concertos, Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat Major, K
450. Although not yet comfortable on stage, Sabrina executed the quick
scale-like runs and chord patterns with great agility, especially in the
cadenza.
This reviewer's favorite was 16-year-old Jinyoung Choi's interpretation of
the first andante movement of Camille Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G
minor, Op. 22.
A warhorse of the piano repertoire, this piece requires more
sophistication, and Jinyoung, in a glittering emerald gown, was able to change
styles and moods between the gorgeous melancholy theme, light trills, powerful
chords and the sound and fury in the cadenza. Her teacher, Mihyang Keel, whose
daughter Esther recently graduated from The Juilliard School and soloed with
the orchestra earlier this season, has taught her well.
After intermission, it was time for the violinists, Lillian Liao and
Eleanor Dunbar, both 14.
Lillian, a student of violin teacher Elmer Su, wore a shimmering purple
gown as she played Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, Op. 219. She
started tentatively, but hit her stride in the final cadenza.
Eleanor, a student of Gail Mellert, raced to the finish line in the
vivacious finale of Tchaikovsky's popular and colorful Violin Concerto in D
Major, Op. 35. With its multiple stops, scales and flying spiccatos, it is
deemed the most technically difficult of all violin concertos and the teen
violinist, wearing a burnished red gown, set an incredibly wild pace with
which the orchestra had difficulty keeping up. A slower tempo may have worked
better.
The Bacchanale from Saint-Saens' opera "Samson and Delilah,"
concluded the concert. A perfunctory performance, it still conjured Middle
Eastern images of toned and silky belly dancers, a perfect complement to the
magic of the young performers.
Beach Cities Symphony's 61st season is scheduled to open Nov. 5, in a
concert featuring cellist Armen Ksajikian and music by Dvorak and Mozart.
Kari Sayers is a freelance writer based in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Joy of Beethoven's Ninth at El Camino
By Kari Sayers
Posted: 11/10/2009 05:22:05 PM PST
When the Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago, Leonard Bernstein celebrated by
putting together an orchestra of international musicians for a performance of
Beethoven's triumphant Ninth Symphony in D Minor, the final chorus of which
became an "Ode to Freedom."
To mark the beginning of the Beach Cities Symphony's 60th season Friday
night at the Marsee Auditorium on the El Camino College campus, maestro Barry
Brisk also decided to celebrate by serving up Beethoven's mighty Ninth.
And, truly, to provide music lovers with free, often high-quality concerts
for all these years is indeed a momentous accomplishment.
Only one current orchestra member, French horn player and symphony
president Robert Peterson, was at the first rehearsal 60 years ago.
Unfortunately, he was ill Friday, but he is expected to play at the next
concert.
For the powerful "Ode to Joy" chorus, Brisk gathered four noted
soloists in addition to 175 singers from various El Camino College choirs.
The chorus members sat obediently and unnoticed in the back throughout the
entire first three movements. One wishes the risers had been higher so the
singers could have been more visible.
The first allegro movement, with its gorgeous theme, had some great moments
with an overflow of string tremolos and echoes between sections, but in the
fast and molto vivace scherzo movement, some sections lagged despite the
maestro's stern looks and flailing baton.
Of course, this symphony is so well known that any deviation from the norm
sticks out.
Before the adagio movement, the four soloists took center stage. Especially
the two women - soprano Erin Wood and mezzo-soprano Cynthia Jansen, in
voluminous black gowns - sat immobile, like unearthly wax figures, all through
the movement. What stage presence!
Tenor Robert MacNeil and baritone Martin Schaefer, also in evening dress,
were less prominent.
While the first three movements at times sounded perfunctory, the final
recitative movement made up for any previous lack of excitement with all of
its stirring and contrasting sections.
Sometimes referred to as a symphony within a symphony in four movements, it
has a forward feeling, as if looking ahead to what is to come, with inspiring
parts for among others the cellos, basses, oboes and trumpets, as well as the
singers.
However, this was Beethoven's last symphony, finished in 1824. By then,
Beethoven was totally deaf, and he died three years later.
Thankfully, the lyrics, based on a compelling poem by Friedrich Schiller,
were sung in German with the standard English translation printed in the
program notes. Particularly noteworthy was soprano Wood with her crystal-clear
sound in the high register.
The over-70-minute-long symphony did not allow for an intermission, and the
audience - who filled most of the seats in the 1,200-seat orchestra section
(the ushers had to open up the balcony) - rewarded the performance with a
standing ovation.
The accolades were not just for the orchestra but also for Brisk, who had
the courage to program this work, demanding for orchestra and soloists.
Beach Cities Symphony's next concert is scheduled for Jan. 29 at the same
venue. It will feature pianist Esther Keel, a recent graduate of The Juilliard
School, in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and Brisk's new composition,
"Kaleidoscope," written in honor of the symphony's 60th anniversary.
Kari Sayers is a freelance writer based in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Award-winning teen musicians add zest to
symphony concert
By Kari Sayers
Posted: 05/26/2009 08:01:02 PM PDT
When an orchestra announces it will feature teenage soloists at a concert, you
can be assured the music will be showy, upbeat and entertaining.
On Friday night, Beach Cities Symphony showcased four such musicians, all
winners of the Music Teachers Association of California Artists of the Future
competition, at Marsee Auditorium on the El Camino College campus near
Torrance. It was the symphony's final concert of the season and truly the
highlight of the year.
The first young musician to take center stage was violinist Kristie Su, 16,
in a fiery rendition of Maurice Ravel's "Tzigane," a flashy concert
rhapsody for violin and orchestra.
Like a real Gypsy (Tzigane means Gypsy), Su played the devilish piece with
abandon. Relishing the contrasts, she plucked the strings with zest and tossed
off the wild phrases with great flourish, often with a mischievous grin.
Nathan Ben-Yehuda, a ninth-grader at Malibu Independent School, followed
with the first movement of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in
A minor. It's a veritable song of Norway - you can practically feel the
mountain air, hear the purling streams and see the little troll children
frolicking in the spring snow melt.
An accomplished ballet dancer in addition to being a pianist, Ben-Yehuda
attacked the cascading opening chords with elegance and drama, using his hands
and long arms to finish off phrases with grace and style.
Pianist Katherine Daly, 16, a sophomore at Palos Verdes Peninsula High
School and a student of Edwin Deveny and Charlotte Deveny, a former member of
the Lawrence Welk band, selected the first movement of Beethoven's Piano
Concerto No. 4 in G major.
Daly began rather timidly in the introspective and contemplative solo
opening. A cool and calm performer, she displayed no antics so common in other
musicians who often cover up a lack in technical skills with extraneous body
language. Instead, Daly let the fingers do the talking with incredibly clean
trills and running scales, as her slender hands fluttered up and down the
keyboard of the Steinway piano. It all seemed so effortless, although she
could have displayed a little more emotion in this beautiful piece.
Last out was pianist Jason Griffin, 15, performing the first movement of
Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major. An eighth-grader at
Ridgecrest Intermediate School in Rancho Palos Verdes, Griffin captured the
audience's attention with his bright and playful performance in this tuneful
allegro movement structured around the English sea chantey "What Shall We
Do with a Drunken Sailor?"
While the orchestra, under the baton of maestro Barry Brisk, at times had
difficulty keeping up with the soloists, it also had a chance to shine in the
energetic overture to the opera "La forza del destino" ("The
Force of Destiny") by Giuseppe Verdi that opens with three distinct
chords by the brass. The overture foreshadows the gloom and doom in the opera,
and Brisk let the lyrical melody, sung later in the opera by the ill-fated
soprano, build to a rousing ending.
Kari Sayers is a freelance writer based in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Posted: 01/28/2009
Soprano Erin Wood wowed the audience at El Camino College's Marsee
Auditorium Friday night, with her strong and sonorous voice, as she performed
as part of the Beach Cities Symphony's second concert of its 59th season.
In a voluminous black gown with lots of glitter, this consummate operatic
diva sang with great emotion Gustav Mahler's "Songs of the
Wayfarer," a series of four heartbreaking lieder inspired by an unhappy
love affair, with lyrics also written by the composer.
Singing in German, the soloist has the wide range required for these songs,
a range that often dips into the basement of the soprano register. This is
especially true at the end, when the hapless lover finally goes to sleep under
a linden tree after wandering the fields and comparing his unrequited love to
a knife piercing his heart.
But Wood, a South Bay resident who has been a regular at the Opera of
Chicago and the San Francisco and Los Angeles Opera houses, made the
precipitous transitions seem effortless.
The orchestra was in good form under the baton of maestro Barry Brisk,
opening the concert with "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" by
impressionistic composer Claude Debussy.
Debussy's most famous piece, it was inspired by a poem by Stephane Mallarme,
and the music depicts a succession of scenes in which the mythical creature,
half-goat and half-man, amorously pursues a couple of lovely nymphs without
success. The tone poem ebbs and flows with the gorgeous theme echoed in
different orchestrations.
The opening flute solo by guest flutist Joanne Lazzaro was especially
memorable, as were the woodwinds playing against the harp, soft horns, and
plucked and buzzing strings.
Brisk approached the beautiful work with delicacy, focusing on the lyrical
nature of the piece, and the orchestra responded well. In this piece we
definitely do not want to hear just a succession of notes, even if they're
flawlessly played.
"Fanfare for Winds, Brass and Percussion" - a new composition by
Romanian native Gregore Nica, now a Torrance resident and violinist with the
orchestra since 1992 - followed after intermission.
Contemporary in style, with chromatics and dissonant sounds, it is in line
with 20th-century music, not a favorite of this reviewer. But the piece
delivered what the title indicated. It is, indeed, a two-minute fanfare for
winds, brass and percussion.
For the concert's concluding number, Brisk chose Symphony in D minor by
Belgian composer Cesar Franck. First performed in 1889, the three-movement
symphony is not heard often enough. The gorgeous themes are simple, almost
childlike, consisting of only a few notes, but the effect is striking, from
brooding moods to bombastic outbursts and melancholy dances.
Brisk conducted with passion in his characteristic angular style and kept
the players busy, especially in the frenzied and frenetic finale.
Beach Cities Symphony's next concert is scheduled for March 20 at the same
venue, featuring pianist Sylvia Ho in Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1, as well as
music by Beethoven and Carl Nielsen. Admission is free.
Kari Sayers is a freelance writer based in Rancho Palos Verdes.
For
reviews of recent Beach Cities Symphony concerts published in the newspaper
Daily Breeze:
[click
here] for a review of the January 2007 concert "Beach
Cities Symphony rises to rapture with virtuoso Cani!".
[click
here] for a review of the May 2006 concert "Review of Ian Counts' Rachmaninoff Concerto Performance with the Beach Cities Symphony".
[click
here] for a review of the January 2005 concert "Violinist
steals show at Beach Cities Symphony".
[click
here] for a Daily Breeze article in November 2004: "They're
very different violinists with a common love -- making music".
[click
here] for a review of the October 2004 concert "Soloists
Carry Beach Cities Symphony's Mahler".
[click
here] for a Daily
Breeze article in
October 2004: "Young
artists signal bright musical future".
Young
Audience Reviews
Review
of Concert on Friday, March 25, 2005 – Soloist Sebastien Koch
Review
by Kevin Jung*
I was sitting in the dimmed
auditorium, waiting for the soloist performance to start.
It wasn’t long before the stage lights turned on and dazzling light
flooded the stage. Maestro Barry
Brisk and 1st violinist Rebecca Rutkowski
walked out onto the stage and the audience burst into applause.
Now, the only one left to come out was the soloist, Sebastien Koch.
My mind raced back to the time of my own performance with the Beach
Cities Symphony Orchestra, nearly five years ago. What was I doing moments before coming onstage?
I remember being more nervous than I had ever been in my entire life.
My hands were cold, my legs were shaking, and I couldn’t even remember
the first few measures of my piece! I
had a sick feeling in my stomach, and I couldn’t wait for the performance to
just be over.
Before Sebastien Koch came out, I
wondered what he must have been going through, backstage.
Was he going through the same things I went through?
Was he sweating? Practicing?
Nervous? Tense?
Excited?
My answer came when Mr. Koch stepped
out into the blinding stage lights and walked over to the piano.
His posture was upright but still relaxed. He walked with confidence.
He was here to perform, and he was prepared and ready.
I knew then that he did not go through the same things I went through
backstage. I knew his performance
would be wonderful even before he began.
The piece, Saint-Saëns’ Concerto
No. 5 for Piano and Orchestra, was an absolute treat.
Saint-Saëns toured quite a bit, which also meant that he traveled
quite a bit as well. This piano
concerto is sometimes named the “Egyptian” concerto, because the inspiration
for this piece came from Saint-Saëns second trip to Luxor, Egypt in 1896. When
Saint-Saëns first performed this piece in Paris in June 1986, he had already
been performing for 50 years. It
was proof that his skills were just as fine tuned as they were when he first
started. This piece is one that
showcases a pianists technical and artistic ability, both of which Koch
displayed.
In the first movement of the
concerto, Koch effortlessly swept through the fast passages.
The first movement seemed structured and neat, as if it was the beginning
of a Classical style piece.
Once the second movement began, the
color of the music changed, and Koch's demeanor instantly changed, and he
became increasingly focused. The
orchestra did a beautiful job with the second movement, and the soloist and
orchestra combined into one beautiful sound.
The second movement had such an exotic sound, and by closing my eyes I
was transported into distant lands in the Far East.
In the Molto Allegro, the final
movement of the Saint-Saëns piano concerto, Koch continued adding intensity to
his playing, up until an exciting finish, a dazzling display of virtuosity. Koch’s performance was not simply one with just content,
and merely delivering the notes, but one that showed depth and understanding of
what the composer intended.
It was a wonderful performance, with
the orchestra doing an excellent job as usual, a top-notch piano soloist, and a
rare performance piece. I
wouldn’t have wanted to spend my Friday night any other way.
*The
author of this review is currently a Junior at University of California
San Diego majoring in Computer Science. Kevin was a winner of the MTAC Artists of the
Future contest and performed with the BCSO in May 1999.
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