The opening performance of this year’s Christmas Pops concert by the Dallas Symphony, with principal pops conductor Marvin Hamlisch on the podium at Meyerson Symphony Center, started off pretty much as expected on Thursday night. This sort of easy-listening, family-friendly event has become part of what a symphony orchestra does in a modern American city. Though I’m personally more of a fan of the so-called “classical” repertoire, and would probably choose an evening of Schoenberg over a program of familiar carols, I’m always at least a little impressed to see, in person, the man who created the scores for The Way We Were, Sophie’s Choice, A Chorus Line, and The Sting—any single one of which would have guaranteed him a place in the American popular canon—standing there, conducting old faves and cracking jokes.
Hamlisch has the habit, as do many pops conductors, of introducing young talent in concerts like this, holiday or otherwise. When, shortly after intermission, he announced that we were about to experience a moment we would never forget, I took it for harmless, good-natured hyperbole.
I’m always a little crabby about child virtuosos. All too often, they’re truly gifted persons who should be at home getting an education to prepare for a long-term career instead of staying up late for the entertainment and amazement of adults, who in turn are often more eager to be amazed than uplifted. (Franz Liszt, himself a victim of child stardom, once referred to child prodigies as “trained monkeys.”)
Except in this case. Resmini produced a beautiful, wonderfully varied and smoothly modulated tone quality. Although the two nineteenth-century confections she performed (by Godard and Faure) are not overwhelmingly demanding, she exhibited that quality of the great performer that overlays the aura of a musical masterpiece, even on tidbits such as these. She’s obviously well coached in interpretation, but one gets the feeling that it comes as much from inside as from a teacher.
I hope that Resmini’s parents and teachers resist any urge to push her into the spotlight too often. With her immense talent, she should have the opportunity to perform with professional orchestras occasionally, but a careful shepherding and shaping of her natural talent and obvious genius out of the spotlight is even more important right now.
Though the concert wasn’t entirely turned over to youngsters, vibraphonist Austin Allen and violinist Julian Nguyen, both 18, and both students at nearby Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, presented their own amazing and delightfully innovative rendition of the traditional tune “Greensleeves,” another highlight in a totally pleasant evening of favorites ranging from the jazzy jollity of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” to the traditional lyricism of Schubert’s Ave Maria.
Video: Emma Resmini performs at TEXxPhoenixville:
