By Sebastian Spreng, Visual Artist and Classical Music Writer Once a year, the fellows of the New World Symphony orchestra dare to be soloists. They choose a piece and compete for the chance to play a starring role at a special concert. This year, the outcome was once again outstanding: excellent from every angle, from programming to interpretation. No one missed pampered stars or stale repertoire selections. Why would you when, instead, you witnessed a balanced combination that sparkled with novelty, interest, quality and diversity? The eclectic program featured three valuable, infrequently performed works from the first half of the 20^th century and one from the classical time. In the introductory video, cellist Julia Yang described her selection “like a nutritious, light, fresh and spicy salad.” That description could be applied to the entire evening, one of the best of the season.

And film could well have been the unexpected common thread of a concert admirably conducted by Alasdair Neale, who was remarkable fair, honest, versatile, attentive and generous with his young instrumentalists, giving each the greatest possible opportunity to show off. André Jolivet’s atmospheric Concerto for Flute and Strings (1949) immediately brought to mind the films noirs of its time (notably Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows, with Jeanne Moreau, which boasted its own brilliant score by Miles Davis) and the mystery of black and white cinematography. The archaic sound favored by the composer was a good fit for Masha Popova, who navigated the emotional journey, alternating the melancholic pastoral fantasy of the largo with the anguish of urban frenzy. Similar contrasts followed in Karol Szymanowski’s Second Violin Concerto, a hellish piece, dense and demanding of extreme virtuosity from both soloist and orchestra, as well as a monumental work that summarizes the music of the Europe that was and the Europe that was to come. Composed in 1933 – the date says it all – Szymanoeski dedicated the work to a dying friend, violinist Pawel Kochánski, who premiered it and passed away soon after. It was no coincidence that in this “bridge” composition Kochánski’s death is used as symbol of the historical moment, because Szymanowski combined currents and composers into highly personal products. The concerto evokes folkloric tunes, Bartók, Stravinsky, Wagner and Ravel, the end-of-an-era flavor of Korngold and the nostalgia of Chopin, all as if emerging from the ominous shadows of Fritz Lang or, even better, Orson Welles. Having only one movement, more than 20 minutes long, the composition calls for a first-class soloist who can hold his/her own vis à vis the orchestra. Julia Noone fit the bill. The bearer of refreshing youth, physical beauty, virtuosity and unwavering expressiveness, especially evident in the evocative central cadenza, her performance was the high point of the concert.

Undaunted by the brilliance that preceded her, Julia Yang shone in Haydn’s First Cello Concerto, the best-known piece in the program and a welcome respite from the 20^th-century angst of the first half of the evening. This time the music brought to mind gallant images from Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon thanks to Yang’s skilled and self-assured handling of a treacherous work that demands impeccable tuning. She provided the musical lyricism and other condiments this elegant “salad” requires. The finale featured the overpowering romanticism of a very young Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto, less famous but just as complex as the second and third, and reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, Brahms and, of course, Grieg. A perfect framework for any of the great films of Hollywood’s Golden Age, it found a vigorous performer in Yu “Dean” Zang, who displayed irreproachable technique as well as phenomenal energy and clarity in the andante.

For this listener, it was almost like a cinematic evening, brought to life by four young artists who have nothing to envy their admired older colleagues and constitute an eye-opening sample of the virtuosos hiding in America’s Orchestral Academy. Bravo!