"Glorious Transformations" precisely describes this evening of glorious music brought to the acoustically-outstanding auditorium in Placer High School by Auburn’s renowned symphony orchestra, conducted by that giant among conductors, Peter Jaffe.  Only a highly skilled group of musicians, such as the Auburn Symphony Orchestra, could interpret and perform so beautifully the three difficult works selected for this very special evening of music, coming as it does one week before Easter. 

With but a word or two, Maestro Jaffe raised his hands and brought forth Beethoven’s "Overture to Egmont" to full and resounding life, performing the first piece of the evening to carry the audience on a journey through death and then to spiritual victory.  The "Overture to Egmont" (a man fighting for liberty from an invading army) is very powerful and triumphant. 

After that first piece there was a collective taking-in of a deep breath, as is expected after listening to one of Beethoven’s expressive works.  The audience settled and Maestro Jaffe greeted his approving audience warmly.  Speaking of the solo artist who would perform next, Maestro Jaffe said he first heard the now-famous violinist, Yosuke Kawasaki, when he was 13 years old.  Now anticipating a grown man in the full flower of his capabilities, the audience waited.  Mr. Kawasaki, wearing a black suit and black collarless jersey shirt, walked to center stage and placed his iPad on his music stand.  Conductor Jaffe couldn’t resist bringing the audience’s attention to the iPad as he laid his finger on it and looked out grinning and said something to the effect of:  modern technology, an iPad!  Mr. Kawasaki just smiled.  I must say with the 200-mile-per-hour speed at which Mr. Kawasaki’s left-hand fingers traveled up and down the strings on the fingerboard of his violin, he never once looked at or touched the iPad, until the conclusion when he picked it up and walked off-stage.  But enough of new technology and on to the the work at hand — "Violin Concert in D minor, op. 47," by Sibelius. 

Mr. Kawasaki, through his violin, lived the music, hearing it in his brain, delivering it through his electrical-spark technique.  The high registers he achieved were incredible.  He would sweep from low notes to the highest possible so smoothly, and then linger in the exquisite highs.  The dynamics from the orchestra were perfect, always just under the soloist, which wasn’t easy, given how softly the soloist played in places. 

The Auburn audience, always very astute and self-controlled during the silent spaces when the music moves from one movement to the next, was uncontrolled and exuberant last night.  The Allegro moderato completed: they burst into applause.  Maestro Jaffe, didn’t hold up his hands, but smiled and allowed the thunderous applause to rain down on Mr. Kawasaki.  His performance was truly amazing.

After the second movement, Adagio di molto, the same thing happened. Again the audience interrupted with a standing ovation.  The tension created by the incredible musicianship of this mature, yet young, violinist was too much to contain.  Again, Maestro Jaffe, allowed the grateful audience to express its emotion.

Needless to say, when Yosuke Kawasaki, lowered his violin at the end of the very exciting Allegro ma non troppo, the standing ovation was insistent and prolonged.  There were whistles and shouts among the clapping.  When Mr. Kawasaki left the stage, shoes stamping the floor and more whistles and clapping, brought him back three times, smiling and bowing his thanks for the audience’s appreciation. 

Although I describe in detail the audience’s behavior on hearing this incredible musician, I do not in any way wish to neglect the actual music we listened to, the Sibelius "Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 47."  So beautiful, so moving, so sensitive is this concerto, that one is transfixed when it is being performed so expertly, as it was last night.  What an honor to have been there and heard Mr. Kawasaki at his height play such beautiful music. 

Thank goodness the Intermission followed.  People needed to shake off the thrill, the exquisiteness.  And so they milled around the lobby and picked up colorful 5X7 advertisements for the upcoming Auburn Symphony Annual Gala, April 3, 4-8 PM, at the Blue Goose in Loomis.   Refreshed and ready for the next journey, the audience returned to their seats.

The final piece of the evening was Richard Strauss’s (not to be confused with Johann Strauss, the “Waltz King”) "Death and Transfiguration."  Composer Richard Strauss, 26 years old when he created it, wrote to a friend that the tone poem was about an artist who was dying, who wasn’t able to achieve his ideal artistic creation while living, but achieves it in an afterlife.  For Christians who are about to celebrate Easter, this can be a meaningful, moving piece of music.  Moreover, for anyone who believes in heaven, this work could be an expression of what dying and going to heaven could be.  For non-believers, Strauss’s “Death and Transfiguration,” an exciting, frightening, and exquisitely beautiful piece of music, can embody those periods in life when we strive to achieve something very significant, only to have life or circumstances crush the effort, and yet somehow we persist and break through, achieving the sought-after goal. 

This concert was, indeed, one of glorious transformations!  Thanks to the composers, Beethoven, Sibelius, and R. Strauss, to Yosuke Kawasaki, to Maestro Jaffe, and to all the talented musicians in the Auburn Symphony Orchestra.