Taipei Philharmonic Bridges Cultures and Centuries

Taiwan's Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra brought an amiable East-meets-West program to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Sunday evening, mixing fluff and familiar warhorses with an intriguing, culture-straddling new work by local composer Chien-Tai Chen.

Under the capable direction of guest conductor Yoel Levi (director emeritus of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra), the orchestra tossed off Mozart's Overture to "The Marriage of Figaro" with ease, displaying its considerable skill from the outset. But the group really came alive in the two Taiwanese folk songs that followed. Soprano Huey-Ru Tang delivered a nuanced and extremely tender account of Li Lin-Chiu's "Spring Breeze Prospect," and both she and the orchestra dug deeply into Yang San-Lung's "Awaiting Your Early Return" -- a powerful lament on the tragedy of war. Huey-Ru sang with great conviction and understanding, despite being plagued with problems in her high notes.

After a slightly lumpy, slightly frumpy rendition of Johann Strauss's well-known "Fruelingstimmen," Levi launched into Chen's piano concerto, "Far Horizon." It was a truncated version of this five-movement piece (the outer movements require a children's chorus), but pianist Brian Ganz gave a vivid reading, from the introspective opening -- with its short, questioning statements from the piano over floating waves of orchestral color -- to its jazzy, lyrical, balladlike middle section and the jaunty and wildly percussive close.

Levi saved the best for last with Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World." Superb playing from the Taipei Philharmonic and elegant direction from Levi produced a passionate, thrilling interpretation -- beautifully controlled, thunderously alive and memorable in every way.

-- Stephen Brookes