Yesterday afternoon at Mello Center in Watsonville we heard Conductor John Larry Granger, after twenty years of inspired service, conducting the second concert in his last season with the Santa Cruz Symphony. With concertos by Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky on the same program, it was obvious that Granger and the Santa Cruz Symphony know how to present a blockbuster event. The soloists were two locally known pianists, plus a young violinist who came to us today as the recipient of many distinguished awards.
Nikki Chooi
The first concerto on the program was Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61, and it served to remind us that we don’t hear this concerto as often as we should. It is an extraordinary work from beginning to end, and on this occasion it received an extraordinary performance by 22-year-old guest artist Nikki Chooi. He turned out to be a violinist of formidable gifts who managed to hold our attention for forty-five minutes while transporting us us on a magical journey that displayed his command of his instrument and love for the work he was performing. Sitting toward the rear of the 700-seat Mello Center, his solid, vibrant tone, always meticulously in tune (even in the highest registers and in occasional harmonics) easily filled the hall and was always commanding and full bodied. This was also a stylish performance with not a hint of gratuitous technical display, since every note, every phrase and every musical gesture served a musical purpose. This was a performance to be treasured ― mature, insightful, and masterful from beginning to end.
Aaron Miller
The second concerto of the afternoon was Mozart’s Concerto in C Minor, K.491, with soloist Aaron Miller, who first appeared with the Santa Cruz Symphony when he was twelve years old. Miller has an unusual career, for he has one foot in academia (he is on the faculty of UC Berkeley’s Center for Korean Studies), yet is involved in a wide variety of significant musical activities. His appearance as soloist today in the Mozart C Minor Concerto certainly proved that his pianistic skills and refined musicianship have not lost their edge. He served us a fleet and stylish account of this important concerto (with cadenzas by Paul Badura-Skoda) and even surprised us with some discreet, but very effective added ornaments and embellishments in the second movement. The last movement of this concerto (some of it so largely scaled with an imposing, richly textured piano part, that it at times sounded like Beethoven), brought out some powerful emotional playing by Miller and the exciting coda was thrilling.
Ending the afternoon’s concert was a performance by Chetan Tierra of that perennial favorite, Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. We have heard Tierra twice previously in the Santa Cruz area, once playing the Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto with the Santa Cruz Symphony and once at a magnificent solo recital at Cabrillo College. Performances of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto run the gamut from mellow and solid at one extreme to violent and brutal at the other. Tierra’s account on this occasion tended toward the violent and brutal, and although he convinced us that he can play octaves louder and faster than Vladimir Horowitz, some of the more musical qualities of this concerto were lost in a maelstrom of virtuosity. However, if success can be gauged by the degree of enthusiastic audience approval, then this was a very successful performance, indeed.
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