Sarah Chang Plays With The Phila. Orchestra

By Lesley Valdes, INQUIRER MUSIC CRITIC

Posted: July 10, 1995

Few players of any age show the level of comfort onstage that 14-year-old Sarah Chang displays with her fiddle, as the teenager proved again Friday night during a performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The Henri Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor was the first orchestra solo Chang performed at the Mann Music Center, attending to its spirals of melody with an ease that belies its difficulties.

It is a funny kettle of fish, this Vieuxtemps - music whose flowing elegance seems not merely a century removed from us, but even a galaxy. If a veteran listener finds it difficult to discern what this music is saying - cocktail chitchat or soulful sustenance? - whatever can the mind of an adolescent make of it?

Pure and lovely tone was Chang's answer, as she joyfully extricated its chords and counterpoint from a showy cadenza.

And at 14, tone for tone's sake is probably sufficient; leave it to the instrument's elder stateswomen to find deeper meaning in the phrases of a 19th-century Belgian. Chang's delight showed not only in the playing; it was evident in her smiling glances to Charles Dutoit, as the conductor deftly prepared his charges for an entrance or exit.

Pablo Sarasate's Fantasy on Bizet's Carmen wears its meanings on a more transparent sleeve. Chang's delivery was as operatic as her flamingo-hued ruffled dress, though the colors she chose for this showpiece were subtler, more pristine. The whispery high harmonics of the habanera elicited a hush

from the audience, whose numbers, by the way, included a clutch of Philadelphia Orchestra players whose services were not needed for that piece.

After intermission, Dutoit led a dashing account of the Sibelius Symphony No. 2 in D major, whose sculpted pauses and swollen climaxes left the audience roused and cheering.

THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA

Charles Dutoit, conducting; Sarah Chang, violin soloist. Presented at the Mann Music Center Friday. No additional performances.