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The Hartford Courant
12:57 PM EST, December 3, 2010
The Hartford Symphony Orchestra concluded the public phase of its search for a new music director as Carolyn Kuan took the podium to lead the Hartford Symphony at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts Thursday.
Kuan showed us three very different sounds during the course of the evening.
The program opened with the fifth movement of the suite for orchestra by Samuel Barber called “Medea.” This was a tasty choice. It was the first time the HSO has performed this particular work, and it was a treat to hear it live. Kuan conducted from memory and moved the music with elegance through its complex emotional transformations.
Local pianist Alexander Beyer joined the orchestra as soloist in the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. Beyer is a sensation. He is 17, a junior at Fairfield Warde High School, but already has begun to distinguish himself on the national scene.
Beyer has a formidable technique. He projected powerful sound and played with commendable accuracy. But even more exciting was his ability to listen deeply into the orchestra, to interact with the diverse orchestral soloists of the Tchaikovsky concerto, and to shape passages with clever ideas about phrasing and articulation. Beyer has technical fluency and great musical instincts. He was greeted with a thunderous standing ovation that lasted through three calls.
After intermission we heard the Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor. Though the smaller Mozart orchestra took some getting used to after the huge sound of the first half of the program, this was a creative choice.
There is no place to hide in the music of Mozart. A conductor also needs to play a different kind of role in preparing and presenting this kind of repertoire. Kuan rose to the challenge and gave us Mozart that sounded engaged and confident; just what was needed in a work where anxiety seems hidden everywhere.
Kuan again conducted from memory, and though the work is extremely familiar, it is still adventurous to conduct an orchestra from memory when one is still getting to know the ensemble. This method allowed her unbroken contact with the musicians.
Kuan led a dramatic reading that was full of energy. This score revealed that she is a situational conductor. Her interests and gestures changed significantly during musical repeats, and the orchestra brought forward differing shades and angles of sound. Kuan has ideas.
The second movement showed that she can develop and maintain dance energy in the orchestra. She conducted the third movement quickly, and the imitative writing sizzled. She emphasized the sunnier moments in this music of deep concern, and there were several passages that spoke with wonderful sensitivity.
Kuan was born in Taiwan and came to the United States when she was 14 to attend high school in Northfield Mount Hermon in Western Massachusetts. After that she attended Smith College.
She has worked with an impressive list of organizations that include the Seattle Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and New York City Ballet, and she has been a part of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in New York since 2003. She has also worked outside the U.S. with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán.
On Thursday, Kuan showed an ability to lead three diverse musical styles. She has intensity, humor and insight. She created a powerful impression and established herself as a serious contender in the search for the HSO’s next music director.
Carolyn Kuan again leads the HSO tonight at 7:30, Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. A pre-concert talk begins an hour before each performance. Alexander Beyer is the featured pianist. The program includes: Barber Selection from “Mede,” Ballet Suite, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. Tickets are $33.50 to $68.50, $13.50 for students, $23.50 for those younger than 40 (limited availability, Saturday only). Information: 860-244-2999 or http://www.hartfordsymphony.org.