CONCERT REVIEW: Adrian Bryttan conducts New Jersey Youth Symphony (06/27/99)

CONCERT REVIEW: Adrian Bryttan conducts New Jersey Youth Symphony

by Halyna Kolessa

NEW YORK - Artistry in music must be nurtured from childhood, and every talented young musician must be directed through many years of appropriate and systematic work to prepare for the complex world of classical music. This process requires of educators not only skill and an extensive background, but the ability to inspire each young individual.

The Ukrainian American conductor Adrian Bryttan possesses a unique gift: he has the ability to inspire young musicians and to guide them to a high artistic and professional level. Thus, he has been entrusted to direct the orchestras at the Manhattan School of Music and the New Jersey Youth Symphony. Under his leadership as music director for the past three years, the NJYS has performed numerous complex and substantial works by such composers as Shostakovich and Gunther Schuller, as well as the score by Carl Davis to the silent film "Flesh and the Devil" starring Greta Garbo, which attracted the attention of the New York Times and other media and TV features, contributing to the innovative reputation of its conductor.

The most recent such project was the NJYS 20th anniversary concert at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center on Sunday, May 16.

The program featured the world premiere of "VIVO for orchestra" by Ludmila Ulehla, celebrated American composer of Czech background (and former chairperson of the American Society of Composers), as well as masterworks of a more standard repertoire. Beginning with energetic timpani figures, the exuberant and colorful "VIVO," which was commissioned for this occasion, combined a joyful energy with honed craftsmanship and attractive flights of lyricism.

Ms. Ulehla stated that with this piece she meant to provide technical challenges for all members of the orchestra. The performers brought out all the wit and mood changes in this virtuoso display piece, which was recognized as such by the audience when the composer rose to meet its applause.

By inviting cellist Maria Kitsopoulos, a former member of the NJYS and current member of the New York Philharmonic, to appear as soloist, Maestro Bryttan challenged his young performers with Vivaldi's Cello Concerto in F Major. The expressive and beautiful playing of the soloist was met by the stylish spiccato of the strings and the precision ensemble performance of all the players. Ms. Kitsopoulos projected a warm centered tone and crisp Baroque style, and clearly enjoyed the music-making.

The major work of the concert program - "Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes" by Benjamin Britten - is one of the most well-recognized masterpieces of the 20th century. It is not only one of the composer's most complex works, but also one of the most unique and original compositions of this century. These four tone poems comprise a magnificent series of evocations of the North Sea coastline in its various moods.

The first interlude, "Dawn," which combines violins with flutes, begins with a rhapsodic and difficult high melodic line, suggesting an endless sea swell with shorter patterns of quick clarinets and broad, threatening brass and percussion, all drifting off into an unresolved mist.

The second interlude "Sunday Morning," begins with overlapping French horns, representing church bells to introduce the cheerful, syncopated theme for winds and strings. In this performance, all the technical passages were directed at musical expressivity.

After a moment of calm, the third interlude, "Moonlight," with its mysterious and hypnotic pulsations, gives way to the "Storm," the dramatic final interlude with its fiery tempo as the fury of the sea is unleashed in powerful climaxes from the full orchestra.

This challenging series of four tone poems was performed with appropriate nuance and fire, and earned the most enthusiastic applause of the concert program.

The concluding "Second Waltz Suite" from Act III of "Der Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss transported listeners into the delightful world of the Viennese waltz with its long, soaring melodies and brilliant orchestration, which was lighthearted and sentimental at times.

Maestro Bryttan led his 90 young musicians in an exuberant and sensitively nuanced performance that clearly transmitted this joy and excitement to an appreciative audience.

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