The Korean Wave 2006 - Korean Cultural Service

The New York Times, saturday, july 15, 2006
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Precision and Spirit
in a fiery pairing
By VIVIEN SCHWEITZER
So, belatedly, there was music under the stars on
Thursday evening, as the New York Philharmonic
performed in Cunningham Park, Queens. There
had been no stars and thus no music the night before,
when torrential rain forced the cancellation of the
Philharmonic’s concert of the same program on the Great
Lawn of Central Park, an event that will not be made up
(though the Philharmonic is to play a second program in
Central Park on Tuesday).
Sharing the stage in this program were the first two dynamic
women in the Philharmonic’s all-female parks lineup this
summer: Jennifer Koh, the violinist, and Xian Zhang, the
orchestra’s associate conductor. (On Tuesday Marin Alsop
conducts, and Leila Josefowicz is the violin soloist.)
Ms. Zhang opened the program on this calm and breezy
evening with a jubilant, polished rendition of Tchaikovsky’s
“Festival Coronation March” and was joined by Ms. Koh
in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major (Op. 35).
Ms. Koh, a young graduate of the Curtis Institute of
Music in Philadelphia, has excited new-music circles recently
with her performances of contemporary works.
Here she built on her equally strong track record in repertory
staples with the concerto that won her a silver medal
at the 1994 Tchaikovsky violin competition in Moscow.
Ms. Zhang, in her white jacket, and Ms. Koh, in a floorlength
strapless pink gown, made a visibly arresting duo,
poised and elegant. But where Ms. Zhang’s gestures were
precise and controlled, Ms. Koh was more the flamboyant
free spirit. Her fiery, rhapsodic playing was well balanced
against Ms. Zhang’s firm control and steady pulse.
Like all war horses, the Tchaikovsky concerto needs
imagination and flair to revive it, and Ms. Koh provided
both, from a leisurely, warmly lyrical first movement to a
feisty and volatile finale.
Having conducted previous concerts in the parks, at the
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and at Avery
Fisher Hall, Ms. Zhang has had ample experience with
problematic acoustics. For the most part, she rose ably to
the challenge of performing with amplification in a vast
open space, although a few textures and phrase endings
were muffled, perhaps inevitably, or swallowed by a low
hum of multilingual chatter from the picnickers. (A police
estimate put the crowd at 13,000.)
But Ms. Zhang was really conquered only by the loud
whirring of a helicopter, which flew over the stage at an
inopportune moment, during the concerto’s quiet, poignant
Canzonetta. It was in this movement that Ms.
Koh, once she could be heard again, particularly shone.
Her rich, burnished tone was so powerful that a listener
could almost imagine it soaring above the crowded lawn,
unaided by a microphone.
The Philharmonic was acutely attuned to Ms. Zhang
after intermission as well, in a decisive performance of
Dvorak’s vivacious Eighth Symphony. Ms. Zhang evoked
both the sunny, pastoral lyricism of the Czech folk tunes
and the work’s darker, stormier hues, coaxing warm, singing
lines from the strings in the richly melodic and beautifully
phrased opening and fine woodwind and brass
playing throughout. The rousing conclusion touched off
an enthusiastic ovation. How could it not?
The program will be repeated tonight at Heckscher State Park in
East Islip, N.Y., and on Monday night at Van Cortlandt Park in
the Bronx; newyorkphilharmonic.org.
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Copyright © 2006 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission.