By Nancy Plum Princeton University Orchestra introduced a Richardson Auditorium audience to an unusual instrument and rarely-heard performing style this past weekend. Friday night’s concert (which was repeated Saturday night) presented only two works, but both were guaranteed to stretch listeners’ ears. Soo Yeon Lyuh, currently completing her Ph. D. in composition at Princeton, is a master of the haegeum, a traditional Korean stringed instrument. With only two strings over a hollow wooden soundbox and bowed like a vertical fiddle, the haegeum is capable of producing a wide range of emotional effects and shadings. Lyuh brought her expertise on this instrument and its music to Princeton this past weekend to perform with the Princeton University Orchestra in her own Celestial Dream for Haegeum and Orchestra. Lyuh received her first doctoral degree in Korean music from Seoul National University in South Korea and has dedicated her performing career to exploring Korean folk music and creating “music that comforts and gives hope to everyone whose hearts have been wounded by the pandemic and war.” The one-movement Celestial Dream, inspired by a piano concerto of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, was scored to reflect war and disaster, as well as promising hope. Conducted by University graduate student Hannah Ishizaki (a successful composer and sound artist in her own right), the University Orchestra achieved a lush and well-blended sound to set off Lyuh’s imaginative and adept performance as haegeum soloist. Lyuh brought the haegeum to life with long bow strokes, pressing on the strings to change notes and eliciting shimmer and drama manipulating the bow at varied angles. She played expressively against rich orchestration including xylophone, harp and punctuating brass. A particularly unusual effect was heard when Lyuh drew the bow across the strings in a circular motion, and animated cadenza-like passages linked this very contemporary work to the traditional concerto form. Throughout, Ishizaki conducted with clear and graceful gestures, smoothly changing tempi and bringing the work to a cinematic close. Gustav Mahler also extended the boundaries of music, bridging the lush 19th-century Romantic and lean 20th-century compositional styles. Divided into five movements grouped into three parts, Symphony No. 5 was, as conductor Michael Pratt described, “quite a mountain to climb” for both performers and listeners. The University Orchestra’s performance opened strikingly with Mahler’s signature trumpet fanfare. The ensemble instantly grew to a full sound, maintaining a somber mood throughout the first movement. Mahler’s score required a number of performance techniques from instrumentalists, ranging from wailing winds to the wide range of colors from a sextet of horns. With an army of brass, the music became quite majestic in the second movement, complemented by rich sectional cello lines. The third movement “Scherzo” belonged to principal hornist Ian Kim, who moved to the front of the stage to present the solo lines as if part of a concerto. Kim’s lyrical solo passages emerged seamlessly from the texture, with clean quick notes in passages well answered by the rest of the horns. Pratt conducted the movement in a quick triple tempo, and the Orchestra found an Austrian Ländler feeling in more refined sections. An especially elegant section paired a solo string quartet with solo horn Kim and solo oboe Abigail Kim. The familiar fourth movement “Adagietto” for strings and harp revealed a delicate melody from the violins as Pratt drew out the grace and elegance of the music. Harpists Patrick Chen and Lucy Harper added precision and soothing color over the subtle orchestral palette. Pratt sustained an unhurried flow to the spirited closing movement, as playful violins conversed with solo winds. Joyous horns led the way as the Orchestra successfully scaled the Mahler musical mountain and concluded the concert in celebratory fashion.
https://www.towntopics.com/2025/11/26/princeton-university-orchestra-pairs-titanic-mahler-symphony-with-concerto-for-korean-instrument/
Princeton University Orchestra Pairs Titanic Mahler Symphony with Concerto for Korean Instrument
