Review: Portland Youth Philharmonic opens season brilliantly

Published: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 1:59 PM     Updated: Sunday, November 15, 2009, 2:08 PM

Tim LaBarge/Special to The OregonianKai Talim, 16, takes a bow after performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Portland Youth Philharmonic during a dress rehearsal at George Fox University. The Portland Youth Philharmonic is a substantially new orchestra every season, as younger members fill chairs vacated by seniors who moved on at the end of the previous school year. It's part of the appeal of following PYP, as audiences get to listen to the ensemble coalesce over the course of four major concerts between November and May, but it also means that season-opening performances can sometimes be rough around the edges.

Sometimes, but not always. Saturday night's concert at Schnitzer Hall, the opening of the orchestra's 86th season, was brilliant and musically mature even by PYP's high standards.

The program was ambitious, as they tend to be; the need to cultivate and showcase all sections of the orchestra generally demands big works rich in instrumental color. Inspiration fom Shakespeare provided the unifying theme, with Giuseppe Verdi's ballet music from "Otello," a fanfare from Claude Debussy's incidental music to "Le Roi Lear," two interludes from Ernest Bloch's rarely performed opera "Macbeth" and selections from Sergei Prokofiev's  ballet "Romeo and Juliet."

Conductor David Hattner, beginning his second season as PYP's music director, led with clear gestures, well-defined dynamic contours and a consistent sense of momentum, reveling in the sensuousness of the Verdi, the sumptuousness of the Bloch and the sharp rhythms and bright textures of the Prokofiev. But he never stole the focus from his players, with whom he clearly has a great rapport.

A few minor blemishes aside, all sections shone. The strings showed not only secure intonation but also widely varied tone and deft fingerwork in some devilishly difficult passages. The brass was solid, with especially unified, fine tone from the trumpets; I've heard at least one professional orchestra with a less cohesive French horn section. The winds were delightfully well blended, and their principals uniformly keen musicians who rose to the occasion at every solo turn. Percussion was tight, and the harps (who normally fight to be heard) were lovely in the lightly scored Debussy.

The one non-Bard-related piece on the program was Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, with soloist Kai Talim, winner of the orchestra's 2009-10 piano concerto competition. It was slow out of the gate -- the Allegro moderato seemed moderate in the extreme -- but with a fine touch and a light foot on the pedal, Talim and the orchestra made a convincing case for their gracious reading, emphasizing classical clarity and gentleness over tempestuousness and heroism. Balance was especially good, with Talim's most delicate moments answered by captivating pianissimos from the strings. 

Before the concert, Hattner gave a tribute to Marylou Speaker Churchill, who died Tuesday at age 64; she was a former PYP concertmaster, and later principal second violinist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and mentor to Hattner's predecessor on the podium, Mei-Ann Chen. It was a sad moment, but also, like the concert itself, a reminder of the high caliber of musicians who have long been a part of this exceptional orchestra.

-- James McQuillen