Youth Orchestra Triumphs - July 2002
Youth Orchestra of Americas makes a triumphant debut - July 26, 2002
Posted: 2002-08-26 13:55:00
Friday, July 26, 2002 - The Boston Globe
By Richard Dyer
The Youth Orchestra of the Americas made a rousing debut in Jordan Hall last night after more than two years of planning and three weeks of rehearsal. One-hundred-and-twenty mu-sicians from 20 countries were chosen for the project,' which is backed by heavy artistic and cor-porate hitters such as Placido Do-mingo, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonard Slatkin and Benjamin Zander, as well as the Deutsche Brank and the Strategic Investment Group.
Over the next three weeks the orchestra will perform in 11 cities and seven countries in North, Central, and South America under five conductors and with three soloists, including Ma. That's a lot of national anthems; last night's concert opened with our own, led by Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
Let those who despair of the young and mourn the state of the world ponder last nights concert, in which these musicians, aged 12 to 25, played Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto and Mahler's First Symphony with such involvement, spirit, and heat. The number of women onstage suggests that stereotypes are being broken in other countries, too; one trombonist is a woman from Costa Rica.
The program opened with John Deak's "Voices Rising," which was written for this group and this tour. Deak, a member of the New York Philharmonic, sought themes from 15 young composers from 11 countries. He didn't weave them into a seamless tapestry or assemble a tasteful collage. Instead, he let the themes be themselves, clash and come into conflict, work toward resolution. The piece doses with a warm cello melody by a 12-year-old Mexican ; girl, Christina Figuera, which I evolves into a celebratory fanfare. Piece and performance were compelling.
Soloist in the Beethoven Con-certo was 17-year-old Horacio La-vandera from Argentina, a baby-faced young man with killer chops and flying hair who enjoys the pa-tronage of Martha Argerich and Maurizio Pollini, and who has already won a prestigious international competition.
The Fourth is perhaps not the ideal vehicle for a young pianist, and there were points when Lavandera seemed preoccupied with details of phrasing and articulation at the expense of naturalness and immediacy; he could sound fussy. But he can also play very well and very musically, and an encore, Ginastera's "Danza del Gaucho Matrero" offered a stupendous demonstration of rhythmic strength and subtlety, and play of color across the surface and through the depth of the music. Zander and the orchestra support-ed him well.
The group has been totally immersed in the Mahler First - they even bussed out to Tanglewood last weekend to hear Kurt Masur conduct it with the New York Phil-harmonic and stood around back-stage applauding the players as they emerged; Masur graciously spoke encouragingly to them. Zander's well-known approach is very different from Masur's, but logical, strong, intense, and full of violent contrast. The orchestra responded to Zander and his views with real passion. The difficult opening attack was even cleaner than the Philharmonic's. Not every subsequent technical challenge was met with comparable success, but it was thrilling to watch, hear, and feel this level of talent and commitment. The young, diverse audience went crazy for players and performance; the orchestra went crazy for Zander; Zander went crazy for the orchestra, signaling every soloist and section to rise. While the Youth Orchestra of the Americas played, there seemed less reason to worry about the world.
Believe it or not, there were two encores after the Mahler - Femandez's samba "Batuque" and the "Mambo" from Bernstein's "West Side Story."
The American conductor, Christopher Wilkens, will be con-ducting a number of the tour concerts; at intermission he remarked that he had never seen an orchestra that could dance like this one. After these sizzling encores, it was easy to believe him.
