East, West merge beautifully during music festival

REVIEW /

Uniting composers, performers, musical instruments and musical styles from Europe, the United States and China, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra brought some of Western music’s boldest Eastern-inspired scores — and a recent work by an American-trained Chinese composer — to the Ohio Theatre on Friday as part of its “East Meets West” Festival.

Music Director Rossen Milanov led the orchestra in a powerful performance of Bartok’s “Miraculous Mandarin Suite,” accompanied by video art by Tim McLoraine. Bartok’s phenomenal score is rarely performed with the pantomime action that it was composed to accompany. As such, McLoraine’s video art, which gives a nod in brilliant color and bold forms to the pantomime’s shady characters and brutal storyline, represents an ingenious use of technology to reconnect Bartok’s score with some element of its original theatrical context.

“The Grand Canal,” by Chinese native Zhou Tian, unites its inspiration in the story of the construction of the grand canal that runs from Beijing to Hangzhou — with decidedly Western-influenced music performed by Western orchestra and traditional Chinese instrumental and vocal soloists.

The first movement, “The Opening,” has all the energy and expansiveness of a Hollywood film score — the sound world the work returns to again and again. Erhu (Chinese two-string violin) soloist Guowei Wang opened the second movement, “Beginning of a Dream,” with a lovely solo, later accompanied by the orchestra. With piercing, expressive sound, kunqu (traditional Chinese opera) vocalist Qin Yi declaimed a text about lost love in the bleakness of autumn.

Ruan (Chinese lute) soloist Sun Li opened the fifth movement, “Rhythm,” with a spirited solo set to a funky beat. In the final movement, “The Grand Canal,” the orchestra reprised music from earlier movements with conviction and flair, which the audience rewarded with a standing ovation.

Wonderful solos in the woodwinds decorated the second movement, “The Story of the Kalendar Prince,” though the tempo throughout seemed a bit stodgy and the ensemble could have been crisper.

In the finale, “Festival at Baghdad,” the orchestra took full advantage of RimskyKorsakov’s bold dynamics and quicksilver tempos, was spectacular at the movement’s climax and, despite some tuning issues, brought the denouement to a restful close. The evening’s second standing ovation brought Milanov back to the podium to lead the orchestra in Rimsky’s lilliputian masterpiece, the “Flight of the Bumblebee,” as an encore from “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.”