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Kresge Auditorium (Saturday, 16th March, 1996) Excerpted from the Tech (Volume 116 Number 13)
MIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Five days before the official first day of spring, one of the last stops on our MIT "Winterreise" in music is a Kresge concert by the MIT Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Epstein. Joining the orchestra were student soloists Elaine Chew G in Richard Strauss' Burleske in D minor for Piano and Orchestra and Euree Y. Kim '96 in Jacques Ibert's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra. The rest of the program consisted of Ludwig van Beethoven's Egmont Overture and Bela Bartok and the urgency of Beethoven's music seem well suited to their sound world. ... The Strauss Burleske was definitely the biggest reason I wanted to attend this concert. I would be surprised if most readers had previously heard of the "Strauss piano concerto." The is a piano showpiece in every way - almost monstrously so. One of the most beguiling parts to hear is the chromatic bravura passage that traverses nearly the entire keyboard of a modern grand piano. From this pianist's point of view, playing the Burleske is a feat that pushes the limits of human ability, even though examples of technically or intellectually more challenging music exist. (For a truly superhuman account of this piece, check out the 1992 New Year's Eve Concert in Berlin.) The Burleske seems to hold little terror for Chew's pianism. Though the phrasing was somewhat boxy, Chew exhibited an appropriate musical flair that never boiled over into mannerism. She was effective in Strauss' most finger-breaking bravura passages, as well as his best (or worst) made-for-the-movies schmaltz. A slightly harrowing moment occurred at the second clarinet/piano exchange in the middle of the piece, where the orchestra sounded one bar behind its soloist. But conductor Epstein and Chew were able to get things back in order before the cadenza, which incidentally seemed to hint at a Tristan reference. |
