Metamorphosen Audience Yoophoric

You've seen the signs on campus for Metamorphosen--"Music Will Transform You." Last Friday, the new string orchestra founded by Scott Yoo '93 gave its first performance at the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall. While most of the participants kept their regular shapes, they were treated to an evening of sometimes extraordinary music.

Metamorphosen claims twentyeight talented young performers, some of whom made formidable musical reputations at Harvard. They plan to present a variety of works culled from this century and those past in a semi-educational format. Most of the audience on Friday were the familiar and faithful from the musical world; it's unlikely that "classical" music gained many new initiates.

Still, the program offered something educational even to the well-rounded listener. Metamorphosen played Grieg's Holberg Suite, Haydn's C. Major Violin Concerto with ChoLiang Lin, Ellen Zwilich's Prologue and Variations and Frank Martin's Petite Symphonie Concertante.

The outset of the Holberg Suite, its Praludium, quickly gave the measure of the orchestra's expertise. While each section exhibited perfect tuning and coordination, the melodic lines that passed between sections sometimes made awkward transitions. Metamorphosen also showed a tremendous dynamic range, impressive for a group of its size. All but the cellists played standing as Yoo, seeming to relish every moment, alternated between playing and conducting.

The suite's Sarabande brought forth the orchestra's best feature: identically and tastefully fashioned articulations in shared phrases. Only a few times could one discern differences between bow attacks in the sections; these could well have been residual from the players' solo careers.

In the fourth movement, an Air, Grieg mixes his lyricism with the staid and screne qualities reminiscent of Corelli's Concerti Grossi. Unfortunately, the viola section began to lose their intonation as they brought forth the Air's long lines. The quickly paced Rigaudon brought the group back into synch, though, and allowed Yoo to show off his own virtuosity as solo violinist.

The Haydn transformed Yoo completely into conductor, but without a podium or baton. Lin, Yoo and most of the players stood on equal ground as Professor of Mathematics Noam D. Elkies accompanied on harpsichord.

Lin played along modestly in the tuttis as a soloist from the Classical era would. His entrances were marked by exceptionally clear double-stops, and his performance was technically close to perfect. Though his tone lacked some of the strength of the century's great violinists, Lin added just the right amount of time and accentuation to his playing. His level of expressiveness, while it sometimes falls short in concerti by late Romantics like Sibelius and Saint-Saens, matches the temper of Classical works precisely.

The second movement of the concerto highlighted the orchestra's skills, as they played pizzacati remarkably in unison for close to the entire Adagio. Lin's treatment of the cadenza appeared to mention Schumann's Fourth Symphony, though it might have come unconsciously. He and Yoo then led the orchestra jovially through the Presto. The Haydn, though not the flashiest work written for violin and orchestra, benefited immensely from Lin's thoughtful and decorous performance.

After intermission, Yoo prefaced the Zwilich by a brief and humorous lecture, citing passages with the aid of the orchestra. The 1984 work rang a bit shallow, however; its influences carefully trace the development of music in the first half of this century and extinguish any hope of originality.

Stravinsky's rhythms are followed by Bartok's harmonizations, then augmented by Shostakovich's wide intervals and sweeping string lines. Yoo's conducting was geared more towards entrances than anything else; what it lacked in expressiveness was gathered up by enthusiasm.

The Martin, from 1944-45, launched the audience on a much more fulfilling journey. Its orchestration demands two separate string orchestras, harp, harpsichord and--completing the progression--piano. Currier House tutor and renowned local soloist Randall Hodgkinson joined the orchestra on piano along with the exquisite harp of Elizabeth Remy '95.

The Petite Symphonie Concertante brought a whole palette of new ideas to the concert, some of which were discussed by Yoo in another short talk. The first movement accomplishes constant building and ebbing by gradually increasing the interaction of the two orchestras. Here, Yoo's leadership became a little more refined. This change was especially appropriate for the second movement, in which the three solo instruments trade off as accompanists to each other. The strings' playing was fluid and measured, but the solo instruments appeared to miss a few entrances.

The third movement's inspired deliria produced a triumphant finale to the concert. Remy's sonorous runs drew the most attention, as the piano and harpsichord (despite electronic amplification) were lost in the fray. The strings showed no signs of fatigue, ripping happily into the last bars.

Though their audience was small for Jordan Hall, Yoo and his group had much to celebrate. Rumors of record contracts and forthcoming wind sections circulated before the concert; some will doubtlessly come true. All in all, the evening marked an auspicious beginning for Metamorphosen's inaugural season.