Dance and Music Reviews : Cellist Hai-Ye Ni at Ambassador

At 18, cellist Hai-Ye Ni already has an intimidating string of competition victories behind her, almost one per year since 1986 (the latest being the 1990 Naumburg Foundation International Cello Competition). Given all of the pressure that she has overcome, nothing should faze this Shanghai-born string player now--not even her difficult program Monday night at Ambassador Auditorium.

Ni sits impassively at her instrument, grimacing in total concentration not unlike her master-class instructor, Yo-Yo Ma. Her tone is not voluptuous; it has a sandy, gruff edge seemingly reflecting her gritty determination. Yet she has extraordinary control over the softest dynamic levels, and she understands the meaning of the designation, “sonata for cello and piano,” deferring to her skilled if subdued accompanist Timothy Bach at the right times.

What we don’t hear yet is the ability to move and involve the listener much beyond the point of admiring her technical accomplishments. While Ni could attack Locatelli’s Sonata in D with real gusto, she missed the humor of the witty asides of the concluding Minuetto. She and Bach knocked out a straight-forward, rather poker-faced account of Beethoven’s Sonata in D Opus 102, No. 2, one that needed more expression and drive.

Alone, Ni did make an impressive, at times vehemently intense, showing in Britten’s Suite for Solo Cello, Opus 72, a virtual encyclopedia of cello technique written with the stupendous capabilities of Mstislav Rostropovich in mind. With her accompanist back at the keyboard, Ni then offered three brief pieces for cello and piano by Nadia Boulanger, by turns watery, folk-like and rambunctious.

Finally, in Tchaikovsky’s Pezzo capriccioso (as well as the encore), Ni could produce something resembling a full-bodied, lyrical tone quality, along with the inevitably precise moto perpetuo fireworks at the close of the Tchaikovsky.