Music Reviews : Daniel Hege Leads YMF Debut Orchestra

Given the current vacuum in music education and overwhelming dominance of television and amplified music, one can’t help but wonder about the future of classical music in this country.

But one thing we do know; there is still plenty of competent young talent out there streaming into our orchestras. The Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra keeps on proving that year after year--and did again at Royce Hall Sunday afternoon.

Daniel Hege, now listed in his bio as conductor of the YMF orchestra, continues to display a thorough sense of command, a natural, flowing stick technique, and a good grasp of symphonic structure. What we don’t see yet is a distinct personality with distinct ideas of his own, but that doesn’t materialize overnight.

One direction Hege should take is to continue to freshen his repertory, a stimulus from which even a training orchestra should benefit. In that spirit, he opened an otherwise ultraconservative program with Ingolf Dahl’s “Quodlibet on American Folk Tunes and Folk Dances,” a bright, lusty, neo-classical overture that wears its tricky syncopations and academic bent very lightly. The young orchestra knocked out this procession of fiddle tunes with the exuberance it demands--and one’s only regret was that it was over in a flash.

No one should be surprised anymore by child prodigies who apparently can be taught to play anything that is put in front of them. Even so, it was startling to see tiny, poker-faced Tamaki Kawakubo handle the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the ease and authority of a touring veteran virtuoso. Nothing flustered her, every note and multiple stop was hit right on the button, the lyrical stretches arched convincingly, if with a bit too much steel in her tone. Astutely backed by Hege and company, it was an amazing performance.

In the Brahms Symphony No. 2, Hege and the YMF orchestra gave a perfectly acceptable performance--all balances in place (even the brasses), attacks just sharp enough, tempos right down the middle of the road, the playing polished and precise. Yet while the YMF obviously accomplished its training mission, this overplayed symphony needs more than just an efficient, polished rendition in the real concert world.