The HSO has been on a three week hiatus- make that lay-off- this past January. The City in it’s infinite wisdom rented the Concert Hall out to the “Narcissus Festival Queen Pageant” and the “All Star Comedy Jam”; translation- they held the hall dates for some Broadway show or whatever that failed to materialize after all. Hall availability is a terrible problem for our little band and we really need more concert venues in this town. For example, next December, our annual sellout Beethoven’s 9th, has been bounced in favor of a circus. Go figure. Circus at a concert hall. Yeah!

Speaking of holiday concerts, since my last blog entry the annual whirl of Nutcracker, Holiday Pops, New Years Eve and the aforementioned Beethoven’s 9th (a New Year tradition in Japan, therefore here too) has come and gone. I always enjoy this routine somewhat, the Nutcracker has a challenging bassoon part, the Beethoven has an extremely strenuous bassoon part, and the familiar repetition is comforting in it’s own peculiar way.

This year, before we were laid off, there was time for one rather unique concert.
Some of you may remember the events of February 9th, 2001, when a US Navy submarine, Greenville, collided with a Japanese fishing and High School training vessel, Ehime Maru. Evidently Greeneville was hosting a "Distinguished Visitor" cruise for several civilian guests, and was conducting an Emergency Main Ballast Tank Blow, a dramatic maneuver that brings the boat to the surface so rapidly her bow rises high out of the water. (Two of the civilian guests were at the submarine’s controls during this maneuver.) Greeneville’s rapidly-rising stern struck Ehime Maru, and Greeneville’s rudder sliced through Ehime Maru’s engine room. Ehime Maru sank in less than ten minutes. Nine crewmembers of Ehime Maru drowned, including four high-school students.

Needless to say, this event caused quite a stir locally here in Hawaii, as these dramatic events took place within sight of Diamond Head, our famous landmark.

To commemorate the fifth anniversary of the incident, a special concert was planned. This is how the HSO website describes the concert:

Tribute and Remembrance
Naoto Otomo, conductor
Reiko Kimura, koto
Seizan Sakata, shakuhachi
Roppongi Japanese Men's Chorus

The Honolulu Symphony presents a special tribute concert to the victims of the Ehime Maru with the world premiere of Donald Reid Womack's work for shakuhachi, koto and orchestra, and the North American premiere of celebrated Japanese composer Shigeaki Saegusa's Cantata Tengai. Womack's lyrical and moving work features two expressive Japanese instruments: the harp-like koto and the shakuhachi, a traditional bamboo flute. Japan's Roppongi Men's Choir and the men of the Honolulu Symphony Chorus join the orchestra for Saegusa's spirited Cantata Tengai. Revered conductor Naoto Otomo leads us in this stirring opportunity to nurture our awareness of Japanese music and culture here in Hawaii.

The Program:
Mozart--Overture to Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
Womack--Koto / Shakuhachi Concerto
Saegusa--Cantata Tengai

For more information, here’s a link to the symphony press release-

https://secure.honolulusymphony.com/press/2005/12122005.php


(back to my blog now)

The ‘Womack’ who wrote the Concerto (entitled ‘After’) is Don Womack, a local composer who teaches at the University of Hawaii. We’ve played a number of his pieces in years past. At the first rehearsal of this concert series, we started with his piece, which begins with 9 enormous blows of the bass drum and more percussion instruments than you can shake a stick at. (Hmm.... bad metaphor.) Immediately I began getting an equally enormous headache, and promptly made a roadmap in my part outlining where the earplugs needed to be inserted and removed. The Womack seemed formulaic and tedious, and the Saegusa, another piece written for the occasion, seemed saccharine and faux-Hollywood. I started to dread the coming week. What was worse was that the hardest piece on the program was the incongruously juxtaposed Magic Flute Overture. I never was able to figure out the connection with the other two pieces except that it is short. Maybe that was sufficient reason, whatever. I just work here! I told my son, home from the holidays, not to bother to go to the concert and hunkered down for a long week of misery.

Fortunately, I’m now (in retrospect) able to report that the program grew on me, the Mozart kind of made sense (it IS short), the Womack (which was pretty long) somehow transformed from tedious to transcendent, and the Saegusa became charming and -- well, Japanese. What a nice change, playing new music, some of it written just for us! The chorus, small but enthused, despite a few intonation problems, managed to pull out quite a performance. Best of all, there was a pretty big audience (including my son), and judging from the comments that I heard, they really enjoyed the music. So much for the axiomatic knee-**** assumption that audiences hate new music.

So, even an old duffer like me can soften up even after a lousy first impression. To top it all off, the family went to a Tower of Power concert after the Sunday matinee of the symphony. You ought to be having fun! And so I did.

Since then I’ve been on a trip to Maryland for family business, and have just returned for Opera season. More on that in future blogs. First, I’ve gotta finish my taxes.