MUSIC REVIEW : Japan America Symphony Opens Season

The Japan America Symphony, led by music director Heiichiro Ohyama, opened its four-concert season Sunday night with a program highlighted by a work by 79-year-old Akira Ifukube and the appearance of Masuko Ushioda in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2.

Composed in 1943, when Ifukube was less than 30, the 17-minute “Symphonic Ballad” is in two parts, the first characterized by Bartokian folk energy moderated by pastel harmonies and an appealingly cheery and industrious spirit, the second part consisting of an extended, delicate lament.

According to the program notes, the work won first prize in an “RCA Symphonic Composition Competition”; it is clear that, if naive and undemanding, the piece captures some essence of national spirit through its use of folk tunes. The performance, however, sounded unrehearsed, and suffered from both intonation and ensemble problems.

The same problems afflicted the Prokofiev concerto and detracted from some beautifully elegant playing by Ushioda, who generously displayed the talents that made her a prize winner in both the Queen Elisabeth (1963) and Tchaikovsky Competitions (1966).

Audiences familiar with the current onslaught of teen-age violin-playing sensations, sounding as if they were turned out from some (admittedly high-tech) musical factory, would have found Ushioda’s warm, insightful and very personal playing a revelation.

The best orchestral playing at the Japan America Theatre came after intermission, when Ohyama led a lithe, surging performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8 notable for beautiful woodwind playing and an unusually poetic account of the third movement Trio from hornists Edward Treuenfels and Chris van Steenbergen.