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Review: Yo-Yo Ma, VSO: Haydn, Dvorak, May 17th

  • 18-05-2004 4:05pm
    #1
    cerebus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 447 ✭✭


    My wife and I managed to escape from the house for a few hours yesterday evening to see Yo-Yo Ma, supported by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

    This had caught our eye way back in September when the VSO published their program for the 2004 season. We press-ganged a friend into baby-sitting for us (thanks Mary!) and left our 7 month old in her capable hands.

    The VSO perform in a wonderful old building in downtown Vancouver. We arrived while the orchestra was finishing its warm-up, and took our seats just as the 1st violin took the stage.

    Bramwell Tovey, the VSO principal conductor, appeared and led the orchestra through Dvorak's Carnival overture - nothing like a bit of spirited Romantic music to get the blood pounding. After some quick orchestral re-jigging, Yo-Yo Ma bounded on stage to perform two pieces - one Classical (Haydn) and one Romantic (Dvorak).

    Haydn's Cello Concerto in C Major was first. This was very good - though my wife (a cellist) found he took a bit too many liberties with the first and second movements. She's a stickler for keeping classical music classical :) We both found the last movement wonderful - I guess he was much more constrained by the music. One thing that was very cool was that he played the regular cello parts as well - very impressive.

    The audience responded well to the Haydn - but I have to confess I was reserving judgement until I heard the Dvorak. Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B Minor is one of my favourite pieces, so I was pretty stoked about it. It turned out to be fantastic - the best performance of Dvorak's concerto I have been privileged to see. Ma was amazingly expressive with his instrument, almost caressing the cello at times.

    The crowd went wild after he finished - multiple curtain calls, and the bonus of Ma playing two solo encores. The first piece was amazing, but was something I did not recognize. We thought it sounded like a folk piece, and given Yo-Yo Ma's interests and field of study it could well have been. After many more curtain calls he gave us more of what we wanted, with a short Bach cello piece. He finished with a wave of his hand as he left the stage.

    Anyway, we enjoyed it - if you get the chance, I'd recommend that you go see him. Truly amazing. My wife ruefully remarked as we left the concert hall that seeing somebody like that always makes her realize what a hacker she has always been :)


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