It's all happening.
Andres Diaz (pictured left) and Bion Tsang proudly showing off their new cellos made by Wayne Burak. The two cellists performed together last night in the Glazunov Cello Quintet (Op. 39) at the Seattle Chamber Music Society's 30th Summer Festival. The Burak cellos more than held their own next to the 1723 "Ex-Kiesewetter" Antonio Stradivarius and 1744 Michel'Angelo Bergonzi violins played by Augustin Hadelich and Andrew Wan, respectively.
Wayne Burak Strings on Facebook...
Bion Tsang now performs exclusively on a new cello from the workbench of Wayne Burak. The Hawthorne Series cello, completed less than three months ago, is modeled after the cellos of Antonio Stradivari. Bion uses Larsen strings on the cello for the A and D (...a first for him, coming from Jargar strings) and Thomastik Spiracore Tungsten strings on the G and C. Of his new instrument, Bion says, "I feel liberated by Wayne's cello! It's so easy to play and projects everything so clearly." You can hear the cello up close on the web during the KING FM 98.1 live broadcasts of the Seattle Chamber Music Society's summer festival concerts at Benaroya Hall next month. To learn more about the affordable, fine instruments of Wayne Burak, visit his showroom online at www.wayneburakmusic.com.
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The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is going the extra mile - literally - to bring music to its audiences.
The coffee was on and clusters of patrons waited quietly with their hands folded -- a full half-hour early. Yes, this clearly was a Lutheran church, not a concert hall.
But on this night, Trinity Lutheran in downtown Stillwater had traded its ecclesiastical purpose for a date with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Conductor Roberto Abbado would lead the group through Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Prokofiev, with guest cellist Bion Tsang.
Small-town charm and informality aside, once these patrons gathered in the square sanctuary with its timbered apse and exposed-brick walls, the SPCO delivered a committed reading of the Russian masters. As Tsang speared the highest notes of Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme," the aesthetic beauty of live performance came into full relief with a pure sound, the animated personality of musicians engaged in high art and the community of a full audience.
Each venue takes on the characteristics of its distinctive neighborhood. Stillwater has a Scandinavian, small-town feel. The following night, 50 miles across town in the high-powered western suburbs, Wayzata Community Church exhaled New England elegance. A fortress of Congregationalism, the church has a tidy library, colonial furniture and parquet floors in the airy foyer. This venue, with 670 seats, sold 92 percent for four concerts last season.
David and Terri Wood have been driving the 10 minutes from their Maple Plain home ever since the Wayzata concerts began four years ago. They've been to the Ordway, but how can you beat this?
Richard Oberg and Susan Doyle are regulars, too, with seats right up front, not far from Bob and Mary Jo Newman of Greenwood. Bob appreciates being able to stretch his long legs on the aisle. Retirees Charlie and Marlys Rosengren of Plymouth pointed out that the SPCO "fits our budget a little better." Dave Wagy of Shorewood used to have season tickets for the Minnesota Orchestra, but "it was tough to get there after work on Friday nights."
As was the case in Stillwater, this is a sophisticated audience. They listen intensely, collective murmurs releasing the palpable tension when Tsang again dispatches the "Rococo." When the cellist leaves the stage, beads of sweat are visible on his forehead as he passes just a few feet from the Woods and the Newmans. The intimacy is a rare opportunity for music patrons.
By Graydon Royce
Concert Preview
Cellist Bion Tsang returns to Asia in May for an exclusive engagement with the Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company, his second appearance in “Plaza X,” an innovative presentation of modern dance, classical music and world-class figure skating. “Plaza X” is presented at 8 p.m. on May 27 – 28, 2011, at the Kwai Tsing Theatre Auditorium, Hong Kong.
Featured performers in “Plaza X” also include five-time Hong Kong Dance Awards Winner Helen Lai, three-time Olympic skater David Liu, and Tsang, who will perform selected movements from each of the six Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello (BWV 1007-1012) during the productions.
Tsang revisits the theatre with no doubt this year’s performance will leave audiences in awe. “The particular combination of dance, ice skating and music here is what creates a truly stunning and moving piece of work,” says Mr. Tsang. “I am excited to work with Helen Lai and David Liu to create a memorable performance.”
Concert Review
Among the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's artistic partners, Italian conductor Roberto Abbado is the one most fond of spending two or three weeks delving deeply into the repertoire of a particular composer. But his latest SPCO collaboration has a focus as broad as Russia is wide.
As at last week's concerts during an all-Russian fortnight, this weekend's program pairs the emotive romanticism of Peter Tchaikovsky with the sound of young Sergei Prokofiev finding his voice during the Soviet revolution. But between them came a powerful reality check, a work of such arresting urgency that one could pity Prokofiev for being entrusted with lightening the mood afterward.
The piece is Dmitri Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony in C Minor, a 1960 work that sounded intensely personal in its expression of the composer's inner torment as performed by Abbado and the SPCO strings on Thursday night at Stillwater's Trinity Lutheran Church. It was a gripping performance that brought an ear-opening dose of immediacy to a collection of works inspired by looking backward.
For the forms of earlier eras were the basis for Tchaikovsky's "Mozartiana" suite and "Variations on a Rococo Theme." In each, the composer employs the time-tested structure of delivering a melodic line in a variety of moods and styles, but that sounds somewhat academic for something as expressive and exciting as the "Rococo Variations" sounded Thursday night. It's the closest thing that Tchaikovsky wrote to a cello concerto, and soloist Bion Tsang made a tour de force of the demanding work, a singing, screaming compendium of radically shifting moods, serving sweetness and aggression in equal measure.
Speaking of mood shifts, "Mozartiana" was an ideal showcase for the SPCO's ability to turn on a dime, especially during its final movement's 10 variations, when soloists and sections of the orchestra took impressive turns in the spotlight. Prokofiev's "Classical" Symphony was similarly well executed, but its playfulness couldn't dispel the lingering shadows of the Shostakovich.
By Rob Hubbard
Read the full review... Blog... "Tsang: Tchaikovsky Tzardom"
