Young Church,
CSO musicians combine talents for glorious gala
By Barbara Zuck
Dispatch Senior Critic
Wednesday,
April 12, 2000
Not since the
days of Judy Garland's youth, perhaps, has so much fuss been made
about a child singer. But Charlotte Church, the 14-year- old soprano
from Cardiff, Wales, demonstrated quite convincingly last night just
what the fuss is all about.
Making her
Midwestern debut as the star of Columbus Symphony Orchestra's annual
gala event, the Welsh wunderkind thoroughly charmed the sold-out
Ohio Theatre crowd with her special combination of pure tone,
natural musicality, rock 'em-sock 'em high notes and amusing
between-tune chats.
Obviously
pleased with the crowd's response, and quite possibly with how well
the whole concert had gone, Church was taking requests for her
second encore when deadline fever struck.
As galas have
transpired for the orchestra, this one proved most uniformly
successful, Pavarotti's fabulous tenor notwithstanding.
For one reason,
the event took place in the orchestra's home. For another, the
orchestra's music director, Alessandro Siciliani, was on the podium.
The maestro set a tone, not only of musical excellence, but of
good-humored spontaneity in several exchanges with the young star
and members of the orchestra. Finally, individual symphony players
were able to show their stuff as well, and, last night, the solo
playing was unusually exciting.
The program,
two hours without pause, mingled orchestral selections with songs
featuring the talented youngster from the British Isles. After
wonderfully played renditions of the Preludes to Acts I and III from
Lohengrin, and a rather gratuitous introductory video, Church came
onstage with a bag of teddy bears.
Not to be
outdone, members of the orchestra pulled out teddy bears of their
own -- all with angel wings, in honor of the Voice of an Angel.
The soprano
then delivered her signature tune -- Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu
-- in the style that made her famous: natural, confident and
expressive.
Perhaps the
concert's most delightful surprise, however, came quite by chance in
the hands of concertmaster Charles Wetherbee. Regular symphony-goers
are well-acquainted with the abilities of this artist. Yet last
night these talents were accentuated by the loan of a Stradivarius
from the widow of former Columbus resident David Rubinoff.
Darlene
Rubinoff, who now lives in Houston, returned yesterday to allow
Wetherbee to play her late husband's stringed treasure at last
night's concert, which included Wetherbee soloing in one of
Rubinoff's compositions, Danse Russe.
If you want to
win the Kentucky Derby, you have to have the horse. Wetherbee,
playing the fiddle for the first time publicly, was transformed into
the consummate virtuoso.
Another
electric moment was the orchestra's masterful reading of Rossini's
Overture to William Tell.
Even the work's
fame from the old days of television failed to engender laughter;
people seemed too spellbound to chuckle.
Other
selections by Church included: an arrangement of Rossini's La
Pastorella, her only up-tempo piece; two folk songs, Danny Boy and
She Moved Through the Fair; the Bach- Gounod setting of the Ave
Maria; Orff's In Trutina from Carmina Burana; Plaisir d'amour; and
Dvorak's Songs My Mother Taught Me.
Church may only
be 14 but her voice is not small. Though it was impossible to tell
exactly what volume was hers and what was enhanced by the
microphone, one thing is certain: She hits the high notes dead on.
In fact, her
voice seems to be developing nicely before our very ears. It is a
more mature sound than evidenced in even her most recent recording.
Of course, her
career is barely 3 years old. That Church is already a world
commodity is not only due to her undeniable talent, it is due to the
power of marketing and the speed of communications today.
Such a
phenomenon wasn't possible even 20 years ago.
Church has
conquered the globe in an amazingly short time. What's next for her?
It will be
interesting to see what happens as her voice and her career unfold.
