South Florida Classical Review

Cellist Leland Ko exhibited sterling artistry in his concert at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center Friday evening. Presented by Rise Kern Cultural Productions, the program, entitled “Volksgeist,” featured works by various composers inspired and influenced by the folk music of their home countries.

Through the whole evening, Ko, 26, displayed profound integrity. He spoke to the audience before each work with a disarming charisma, which belied his deep comprehension of the repertoire, all played from memory. At times intensely passionate, he funneled this vigor into compellingly perceptive performances through his absolute command of the instrument.

In a number of works on the concert’s first half, Ko was accompanied by pianist Nadia Azzi. She provided masterful support, complementing but never overwhelming the cello.

The concert opened with the Five Pieces in Folk Style, Op. 102, by Robert Schumann. Though his facial expressions in this were occasionally over the top, Ko managed to find a world of pathos in the melodic simplicity of these vignettes.

Ko brought marvelous elegance to the Seven Tunes Heard in China by Bright Sheng, a composer widely known for his integration of traditional Chinese music with techniques from Western Classical music. During the Cultural Revolution, Sheng was sent to the Qinghai province, where he came into close contact with the local folk music.

Sheng uses the cello in various movements to recall various Chinese instruments, particularly the spike fiddles of the huqin family. In each movement Ko displayed a remarkable variety of expression, accompanying the acrobatic demands of the score with captivating theatrical characterizations. A particular gem was the fourth movement, “The Drunken Fisherman.” Setting down his bow, Ko deftly and precisely handled the plucked notes in a mesmerizing play of pizzicati, glissandi, and harmonics, faithfully imitating the intricate sounds of the Chinese guzheng. 

The elegance of the Sheng work was sharply contrasted by the Rhapsody No. 1, Sz. 88, by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Considered one of the fathers of music ethnographers, Bartók embarked on a number of trips throughout Central Europe in the years preceding World War I, accompanied by his compatriot Zoltán Kodály. The two documented an immense amount of Magyar folk music, as well as music of Romania and Slovakia, which were under Hungarian rule at the time.

In this ferocious work, Ko showed his rough side, matching the work’s rugged intensity with a typically Hungarian sardonicism. Accompanied by Azzi—who showed herself a gifted musician and skilled collaborator—the two dominated the thorny textures, entirely at home in the crude mix of dense contrapuntal textures with invigorating dance rhythms.

The first half was capped off by a cheeky rendition of the Danse Rustique, Op. 20, no. 5 by British cellist-composer William Henry Squire. While this work was made popular through the Suzuki Cello Book, Ko used it to showcase his wonderful imagination, with a result that was downright fun.

Ko opened the second half by amiably discussing scordatura before plunging into new, darker territory with the epic half-hour long Solo Cello Sonata in B minor, of Zoltán Kodály. This sonata formed the perfect complement to the first half, synthesizing the sweeping lyricism of Schumann, the pentatonic harmonies and imaginative cello writing of Sheng, and the Central European vernacular of Bartók.

A mammoth work, this austere unaccompanied sonata of Kodály’s allowed Ko to demonstrate his command of the instrument. The sprawling second movement was particularly evocative, as Ko conjured up a bewildering variety of sounds. Though the work places massive demands upon the performer, Ko never played with superficial flashiness. His playing was impassioned but firmly focused.

Ko wrapped up the evening with a notably fresh encore of the familiar Prelude from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007. His performance featured a number of delightful surprises, but also revealed a more mature artistry, a deep consideration of this Baroque staple unburdened by traditional clichés. 

One eagerly awaits Leland Ko’s next visit to South Florida.

The Aventura Arts & Cultural Center continues with pianist Ilya Itin in a recital presented by the Miami International Piano Festival March 23. miamipianofest.com

Posted in Performances

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