Child prodigies play the symphony, stun the audience

Chrissy Williams

It’s always fun to see a child prodigy. The San Fernando Valley Symphony opened their current season with three of them to bring something special to the show – and maybe even also to balance out a mostly elderly audience.

On the evening of Sept. 27, conductor James Domine showed passion and joy as he led the orchestra through selected compositions, but it was the soloists who were the headliners of the evening.

Jacqueline Pabst, 16; Jamie Kim, 15; and Bruce Tiu, 12, all won their respective age divisions in the recent Music Teacher’s Association of California (MTAC) concerto competition. They received cash awards along with the opportunity to play their competition pieces with the accompaniment of the SFVS orchestra.

Violinist Jacqueline Pabst and cellist Jamie Kim were both remarkably accomplished on their instruments. But it was tiny Bruce Tiu, in a tuxedo with red trim, who stole the show.

In an interview, he admitted in a small, sheepish voice that he was feeling more nervous than anything else prior to the performance.

“I always get nervous,” Bruce said.

He had no reason to be.

Bruce’s small hands masterfully and quickly moved over the ivory piano keys. His fingers found the places they needed to be to perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor flawlessly. For more than 10 minutes he continued, right on time, drawing the audience in with the sweet sound of his song.

The audience sat on the edge of their seats. When he finished, many of them stood up in ovation, making him the only soloist to receive such a response from a crowd who didn’t know Bruce had just turned 12 the day before. Had they known, the entire Performing Arts Hall may have stood to applaud.

While it was the sound of Bruce’s music that captured the attention of the audience, it was the sight of Jamie with her cello that captivated the crowd. As she walked onstage, a man several rows behind me murmered, “That cello is bigger than she is…”

That was probably why it was so entertaining to watch her perform. Her long, black hair covered half of her face as she leaned into the long, deep strokes of her bow. The notes she struck were almost haunting, yet her visage and the music it was making were together mesmerizing.

By rapidly moving her left hand back and forth, she added vibrato to just about every sustained note. This probably would have gotten annoying had anyone else been playing, but it was not because she put so much of herself into every vibration. She finished each section with a swooshing flick of her bow across her cello, and when she swished her final flick, I almost wished to watch her play for just a few more minutes.

Jacqueline was the first soloist to take the stage and her song was the shortest. She mentioned in an interview that she also played in a rock band called “The Limetree Warehouse,” and that she was playing a show with them after the symphony. After hearing her perform Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor with the orchestra, I would probably prefer to hear her play with The Limetree (even though they have no music posted on MySpace). This isn’t to say her presentation of Bruch was anything less than exemplary – it really was. The melody just didn’t appeal to me nearly as much as those of the other soloists.

Intermission occurred after the precocious performances, and when the audience returned the orchestra performed the two movements of Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8 in B Minor.

Before beginning, conductor Domine told a story about a dream he once had. He was walking outside in sort of a haze, and ran into a huge rock. He stopped, unable to pass, and backed up so he could look up and see how tall the rock wall was. When he did this, he realized that he had bumped into a monolithic Franz Schubert’s big toe.

Domine said like other masterminds of this kind, “Never in his lifetime was (Schubert) recognized as the giant that he was.”

“He is a genius,” Domine explained, “speaking to us through his music, and we just sit back, listen and witness it.”

I sat back and listened, but wasn’t sure if I witnessed the genius. Maybe I need to learn more about classical music to know what to listen for. It was a pretty piece, but didn’t especially stand out to me from other fine classical compositions. The first movement was in a minor scale and moved me more than the second. The second, which was mostly major, was necessary to provide a feeling of happiness and well-being to the audience at the conclusion of the composition and the evening.

The audience dismissed after thunderous applause. All the geriatrics slowly shuffled out to their cars, and so did I. Based on my review and experience of the opening night of the SFVS 2008 to ’09 season, I will return for future performances to hear classical music formed right in front of me. It is composed out of so many different instruments into a consonant, cohesive entity. Like the soloists, it continues to balance out the mainly older audience. There is no reason the younger generation should not appreciate this type of music. It is a magnificent experience, whatever your age may be.