Teenage pianist's performance earns kudos

Teenage pianist's performance earns kudos
               
Montgomery Advertiser (AL)
May 1, 2004



   With eyes closed, no one would have imagined that the music coming from the piano on the Davis Theatre stage was played by a teenager. The maturity displayed by 16-year-old Naomi Kudo belied her age in both musical understanding and technical proficiency.


   As this year's winner of the Blount Young Artists Competition, Kudo was soloist for Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto in the Montgomery Symphony's final subscription concert of the season. On Monday she played the entire Tchaikovsky concerto, not just a single movement, and did so masterfully. In the biggest moments she drew sonority from the piano that carried easily over the full orchestra and played with dazzling technique. Her playing equaled that of much more established performers. More important, the musicianship she brought to this mammoth work was evident in carefully arched phrases, sensitive to the melodic content without sentimentality. With such powerhouse playing, the Monday night audience could not resist applauding when the first movement ended. Kudo then continued into the second movement, finding the right balance between the delicate, melodic main theme contrasting with the playful, capricious middle theme. The movement ended quietly, followed by the fiery, brilliant final movement. With virtually no pause after the final chord, the audience burst into an enthusiastic and extended standing ovation, richly deserved for this impressive young pianist.


   Under music director Thomas Hinds' conducting, the remainder of the program gave the orchestra a showcase of its own with music featuring contrasting and colorful pieces. Andre Caplet's arrangement of Debussy's "Clair de lune" was familiar and gentle, yet purists might have been indifferent to this transcription of a work written for piano. Not rhythm-less, but sounding nearly so, it created a different color and effect in sustained strings and wind instruments that are not the properties of the piano. The result was pleasant but anemic and weak.


   A relatively new piece by Toru Takemitsu called "Star-Isle," which followed, gave the orchestra a chance to explore massed sounds beginning with augmented brass balanced against other sections. If "Clair de lune" suggested absence of strict rhythm, "Star-Isle" literally avoided it. Devoid of a recognizable beat and melody, its musical language communicated a different message with close harmony and free flowing phases - and clearly the Montgomery Symphony felt and conveyed that message convincingly. Stretching the ear and mind, it was a welcome addition to the program and played well.


   Five sections of Tchaikovsky's music for "Sleeping Beauty" completed the program. This stirring, alternately lilting and dramatic music showed the orchestra's varied colors to great advantage, especially woodwinds, harp, and percussion. Nicely played, this was music to linger in mind long after the concert and to conclude the subscription season very effectively.