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Violinist Lee shows killer finish with Waco Symphony Orchestra
PHOTOS
Always leave ‘em wanting more, goes the show business adage, and 16-year-old violinist Shannon Lee did precisely that at Thursday night’s Waco Symphony Orchestra concert at Waco Hall.
Lee, having played a remarkable Beethoven Violin Concerto with a rock-solid WSO, then took it up a notch with an encore announced from the stage - help me here, audience members; I couldn’t hear her say the piece - that displayed a virtuosity and personality yet unrevealed in the Beethoven.
The encore, which came after a second curtain call and triggered a standing ovation plus two more curtain calls, showcased the Plano resident’s skill in playing double stops (with a touch of string plucking thrown in for good measure) in its first section, followed by cooly furious runs and arpeggios. Lee played with an emotional restraint through the first two movements of the Beethoven, but began to relax by the third and final movement, her physical ease continuing in the encore.
It was a good night for the WSO as well, playing tightly and with balance under the baton of Music Director Stephen Heyde, the orchestra’s well-performed Beethoven a continuance of the compact, blended sound heard in Schumann’s Fourth Symphony in the concert’s first half.
Dressed in a white satin gown with navy backing, her dark hair pulled back in a pony tail, Lee performed the Beethoven with a command of dynamics and range. The young violinist seemed to relish the work’s more melodic lines, in particular the concerto’s second movement, and cadenzas near the close of the first and third movements seemed to reveal her youth and voice.
The first had a double stop passage with musical lines in different directions, a run requiring exceptional focus and one where her tonal control weakened a bit into a line with a sharp edge rather than rounded tone. The second, flashier cadenza showed Lee’s smarts and musical will as she employed her technique to mold lines into a musical direction rather than simply show off virtuosity. Her encore, incidentally, underlined the best in both cadenzas.
The WSO was in fine form as well Thursday night, opening with a bright and playful “Slalom” by Carter Pann that nimbly captured the exhilaration - and speed - of a downhill ski run. Framed by a familiar phrase that opens Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, “Slalom” joyfully combined swirling, scurrying strings, a driving rhythm and scraping, shussing percussion.
The orchestra followed that with a tight, compact performance of the Schumann symphony, which featured a fine balance between sections and a unity normally heard in smaller ensembles.
The evening’s concert was projected on large video screens flanking the orchestra and a closer vantage point for the camera enabled a better view of the players for most of the audience.
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Comments
By AnAverageGuy
September 26, 2008 1:48 PM | Link to this
Yes, it was a nice evening except for the video projection (and the boringly long Schumann piece). The video was incredibly distracting and amazingly poor in quality. Poor lights. Poor composition. Poor camera angles. Poorly directed (but there wasn’t muchto work with).
By Carl Hoover
September 26, 2008 3:37 PM | Link to this
I’m curious: How far back were your seats? I’m usually midway on the main floor, which is close enough to watch the action onstage with the video in the corner of your eye. I assumed that my closeness determined the quality of the video I saw (much the same way that sitting next to your TV screen is a different experience than watching it from across a room), but maybe not.
That said, you’re looking at a pot of money to do the video up right like television does: additional lighting, multiple cameras, access to shoot players deeper within the orchestra (either with an onstage cameraman or from a balcony perch), planning sessions with the video producer and music director on where the musical action is at any given moment (e.g., soloists or sections) in order to cue your cameramen, etc. It can be done, but for a price.