It was refreshing to see and hear top-notch young talent perform at the Vancouver Symphony concert on Saturday (January 21) at Skyview Concert Hall. The event featured the gold medal winners of the orchestra’s 28th annual competition, which has a nationwide reach. Bassoonist Preston Atkins, violinist Jinan Laurentia Woo, and pianist Anwen Deng demonstrated tremendous technical prowess and emotional artistry, accompanied by the orchestra under its music director, Salvador Brotons.
A stellar panel of judges decided on the winners of the competition, which was held in October. The adjudicators consisted of former artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest and clarinetist David Shifrin, Grammy-award winning cellist Zuill Bailey, the artistic director of the Kaufman Music Center International Piano Competition and pianist Dr. Igal Kesselman, music director and conductor of Symphony Tacoma Sarah Ioannides, and VSO associate concertmaster Dr. Stephen Shepherd.
Preston Atkins, a 17-year-old from Iowa who is in his first year at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, launched the concert with an outstanding performance of the “Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra in F Major” by Carl Maria von Weber. With a calm command of his instrument, Atkins made Weber’s concerto sing with an elegant tone. He executed terrific runs with perfectly placed intonation and an extra bit of polish on the highest notes. His marvelous breath control him to deliver even the trickiest passages with great sensitivity, including an operatic cadenza in the second movement.
The next stunning soloist was Jinan Laurentia Woo, a 15-year-old phenom from New Jersey, who is studying in the pre-college division of the Juilliard School in New York City. Woo excelled with mesmerizing playing of the first movement of Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto. Showing impeccable technique and a superb ear, Woo fashioned a lovely melodic line from the outset and then turned on the afterburners to nail an assortment of very challenging passages, whether creating droplets of sound or soaring into the highest notes. She fearlessly dug into the cadenzas with panache and thrilled the audience with the wild, final measures
Closing out the first half of the concert was Anwen Deng, a 13-year-old pianist from Pennsylvania who is also enrolled at Julliard. Deng delivered a superb performance of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto. She excelled with all aspects of the piece, delivering graceful melodies with terrific dynamics. She could slow down the pace and lull listeners into a placid imaginary landscape and then suddenly spring into action and take concertgoers to an exciting destination. She generated the most florid passages flawlessly, shaped phrases with direction, and absolutely conveyed the beauty of Schumann’s music.
All three soloists drew enthusiastic cheers from the audience, and they came to center stage as a group to receive flowers and a standing ovation.
After intermission, the orchestra expressed Brahms Symphony No. 4 with full-throated zeal. Led by Brotons, who conducted the piece impressively from memory, the musicians expertly delved into the smooth yet thick textures of Brahms. The horns provided jolts of burnished sound. Graceful woodwinds danced with pizzicatos from the strings in the second movement. Phrase were exchanged with a bit of tugging between sections of the orchestra in the third movement. Principal flutist Rachel Rencher’s melancholic solo highlighted the fourth movement – along with the trio of trombones and the dramatic timing that led to a strong and satisfying ending.
There were some bobbled sounds here and there, but the musicians, urged on by Brotons emotive gestures, did not hold anything back, and that made the Brahms vivid and memorable. Kudos all around.
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