NCO teams up with Daverne and Rott in sold-out concert

By Elise A. Sulaiman

JAKARTA (JP): Classical music lovers should be proud of the Nusantara Chamber Orchestra's nearly perfect performance at Gedung Kesenian Jakarta earlier this week.

It was successful not because the tickets were sold out, but because of the performance itself.

The concert displayed excellent teamwork between the NCO and the conductor, Gary Daverne, who comes from a different background and culture. Daverne's conducting showed his personal touch and ability to create a setting that is enjoyable both for the players and the audience.

Daverne is a professional conductor with extensive overseas experience, having just concluded a series of concerts in Turkey, Portugal and in England with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In March 1996, he conducted the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in a classical outdoor extravaganza before an audience of 120,000.

Daverne, who has held the position of musical director of the Auckland Symphony Orchestra for 20 years, is well-known in television, radio, and the recording industry as a composer, arranger, and musical director.

The evening began with the concert overture Youth of Auckland composed by Daverne for Auckland's Secondary Schools Youth Orchestra, where he taught economics, accounting and music. Many of the songs and repertoires that he has composed for his students remain very popular and are regularly performed. His decision to perform Youth as an opening was suitable for the young and dynamic NCO musicians.

During the performance, some parts dragged a bit, but Daverne brought back the emotion with a perfect ending. The NCO had the talent and knowledge to play the piece but perhaps needed a little more experience and self-confidence.

In the second half, the NCO presented Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 95 by Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904). The symphony opened with an introduction marked with adagio, which led to a vigorous allegro molto. The first movement was introduced by French horns. The second theme was taken from Bohemian folk characters with a modal flavor and was quickly modified to suit the demands of the full orchestra.

Daverne successfully expressed the character of Dvorak in the symphony called From the New World, which was composed during Dvorak's three-year stay in America. There were many things in the New World which fascinated him, as he kept telling his students in New York: "These beautiful and varied melodies are product of the soil. They are American, and a composer must return to them. Only in this way can a musician express the true sentiment of the people."

And so did Daverne. Many parts of the movement from this symphony contained Native American and African American characteristics.

Cellist

The concert was closed with Cello Concerto in B minor, Op.104, composed by Dvorak with Reynard Rott, a young and talented cellist. He has a strong character in expressing Dvorak's piece.

Rott started playing the cello when he was three years old and was studying the Suzuki method by the age of seven. Currently 21 years of age, he won many regional and state competitions before enrolling at the Curtis Institute at the age of 16. Two years later, he transferred to Juilliard where he completed his Bachelor's degree in cello performance under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick last May.

Despite having the flu and a runny nose, he was able to finish the whole concerto and still enhance the performance of the NCO musicians.

In the second theme, which many consider one of the loveliest melodies ever written by Dvorak, the cellist played smoothly and beautifully. There was a similar atmosphere in the openings of the New World symphony and the Cello Concerto.

The third movement opened dramatically with a march rhythm. The melodious middle section was followed by a section where the concerto reached its enharmonic major in which the solo joined the first violin in a duet of passionate tenderness. All doubts about the nasal quality of the cello's high notes and the mumbling of the bass quickly faded away.

The NCO performance with Gary Daverne and Reynard Rott was a great combination of teamwork, youth and experience.