Erhu master makes it look so easy
Saturday, March 12th, 2005
By Holly Harris

DESPITE the fact that the only bona fide passenger on the WSO's musical train ride through the Orient was an erhu, Thursday night's Musically Speaking concert offered an East-meets-West hybrid program that sparked the imagination while providing a new look at a very old instrument.

Personable hosts Sylvia Kuzyk and T. Patrick Carrabré guided the audience  through the evening, which featured erhu virtuoso George Gao as well as dynamic guest conductor Daniel Lipton.

The erhu is an ancient stringed instrument that is held upright on the performer's knee. Also known as a Chinese fiddle, sound is produced by the player's scraping a long horsehair bow between a pair of vertical strings.

After giving the audience a crash course in the intricacies on Chinese inflection, including a practice session on pronouncing erhu (say are-who), the Toronto-based Gao proceeded to wow the audience with Anlun Huang's Four Ancient Scores from Dunhuang (1999). Living up to his reputation as a master, the soloist played with obvious pleasure in a performance that made it look so easy. Based on 1,700-year-old melodies, Huang's delicately textured work neatly balanced the gentle sound of the fiddle with modern orchestral sonorities.

But just when we were lulled into thinking that this elegant instrument could only sing with its sweet, fluid voice, Gao proved that the erhu is no pushover, with a jaw-dropping encore that stopped the show.  

A hallmark of maestro Lipton's style appeared to be his sense of pacing, and many pieces, such as a robust interpretation of Russian composer Borodin's Polovtsian Dances from the opera Prince Igor, only seemed to grow fuller and more thunderous as the work progressed.

The only sag in the program, although debatable, was the extended demonstration of themes from Smetana's Vltava (The Moldau) that slowed down the concert. That, or even the speaking part of Musically Speaking, probably wasn't necessary.

Khachaturian's catchy Sabre Dance played us out into the night, ending our trip -- albeit westernized -- through the Far East with a flashy finale.

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