Arts^Entertainment
Conductor hopes to reach out to audiences
By Steven Sparling
Staff Reporter_
Yong-yan Hu, the Lincoln Orchestra’s new
music director and conductor, has a philosophy
about the importance of his job.
“The conductor has a very dangerous pro
fession,” he said. “You never know ... this
might be a child’s first time (at a concert).
Hopefully the child will like it, but you might
just turn the child off, and they’ll never come
back.”
Even worse, though, are people who never
give the orchestra a chance, he said.
Introducing people to the beauty of the
music is one of Hu’s greatest concerns. It is
something he addresses with each concert.
Hu’s next opportunity to win fans will be
Tuesday at 8 p.m., when the Lincoln Orchestra
performs “Real Life—Read Music” at the Lied
Center for Performing Arts.
The concert, which features violinist Dylana
Jenson, is another opportunity to instill the
cultural importance of orchestra music in a
younger audience, Hu said.
The concert also gives the new conductor a
chance to get to know the members of the
orchestra better, which will make the music
itself better.
“It’s not like cooking, you can’t just throw it
together,” Hu said. “The music-making, we
need to work on.”
Hu, who is still learning to speak English,
said he didn’t feel communication was a prob
lem.
“Any professional conductor says ‘ 1,2,3,4,
where you end, loud and soft, fast or slow’ —
that’s it,” Hu said.
Hu attended Yale and Julliard and remains
principal conductor of the Beijing Philharmon
ic Orchestra in China.
Hu also rocks.
He produced several successful rock albums
with rock stars in China. The second album he
produced sold more than 2 million copies.
He is also into jazz.
“Jazz is always fascinating tome, because of
their way of making music,” Hu said.
“I never see jazz musicians when they are
making music having such intensity,” he said.
“Their presence is always so enjoyed, so re
laxed.”
Hu began playing the violin at age 5. He said
no specific musician had inspired him, but his
family and culture did.
Hu’s own training has given him own theo
ries about learning music.
“First, you need time to train yourself. It’s
not a fast-food service — you cannot drive
through — and so the training process is music
as language,” he said.
Studying music, like a foreign language,
means starting with the basics.
“You have to know the vocabulary first,” Hu
said.
Hu said he enjoyed life in Nebraska and was
amazed at the quality of the orchestra’s venue,
the Lied Center.
- i(
Any professional conductor
says ‘1, 2, 3, 4, where you
end, loud and soft, fast or
slow’ — that’s it. .
— Hu
Lincoln Orchestra conductor
-ft —
For tonight’s concert, Hu once again delves
into the music he was forbidden to touch in
China. The music is diverse in both origin and
subject matter. One piece was written by a
contemporary native-American, he said.
Hu said another selection, by Shostakovich,
was an amazing piece from an amazing time.
“It’s more than a story, it’s a piece of histo
ry,” he said.
That history will be retold at the concert.
Ticket prices are $24, $22, and $19. Student
tickets are half-price.
^ Courtesy of New Line Cinema
Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) confers with Sergeant “ Buster” Kilrain (Kevin Conway) in the Civil War
epic Gettysburg, presented by Ted Turner and New Line Cinema.
Fine acting rescues lengthy ‘Gettysburg’
FllLM
“Gettysburg”
Ted Turner’s reputation in Hol
lywood is one of a nefarious bil
lionaire — the man who aims to
take classic black-and-white films
and turn them into technicolor im
itationsofthemselves, and the man
who aims to make all that is Holly
wood his.
His latest business venture,
“Gettysburg,” Turner’s version —
and vision — of what happened at
the Civil War’s most famous bat
tle, may change his reputation. It is
a picture about honor and courage,
history and independence.
On July 1, 1863, more than
150,000 soldiers merged in the most
decisive battle of the Civil War.
When it was over three days later,
nearly a third of that number lay
dead or wounded in the battlefields
outside the small town of
Gettysburg, Penn.
Based on Michael Shaara’s
Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The
Killer Angels,” “Gettysburg” fol
lows the events that preceded and
filled those fateful days.
Starring Tom Berenger, Jeff
Daniels. Martin Sheen and a cast of
thousands, “Gettysburg” is a mov
ie to admire simply for its scope.
Director Ronald Maxwell spent 15
years trying to get the film made,
and his concern and enthusiasm for
the project arc painstakingly evi
oeni.
But “Gettysburg” suffers from
an incurable case of melodrama.
Too many scenes, particularly those
with Daniels (as Col. Joshua Cham
berlain) and Kevin Conway (Sgt.
Buster Kilrain) seem like forced
moments of emotional sensitivity,
moral posturing on a not-yet blood
ied battlefield.
The facial hair isn’t too con
vincing either.
Initially created as a madc-for
TV movie, “Gettysburg” can’t
shake the TV feel, precisely be
cause of these too-melodramatic
moments. The length — clocking
in at four hours, 17 minutes, in spite
of the 10-minute intermission —
also would better suit the small
screen.
Despite this problem, the turn
does have some undeniable posi
tive qualities. The acting, for in
stance
Daniels gives one of his best
performances to date, as the noble,
eloquent Chamberlain, command
er of a detachment of Union forces.
A young university professor,
Chamberlain was perhaps better
suited for a classroom than a battle
field, but his courage and ideology
made him an ideal leader. Daniels
gives Chamberlain the depth to
convey all of this.
Other performances arc also
quite good. Bercnger, as Confeder
ate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet and
Sheen as the beloved Gen. Robert
- it
It is a picture about
honor and courage,
history and indepen
dence.
-ff —
E. Lee, both did fine jobs. Other
notables include the late Richard
Jordan as Brigadier General Lewis
A. Armistead and Stephen Lang as
Major General George E. Pickett.
Pickett’s Charge—where aline
of some 15,000 Confederate men
marched into a downpour of Union
gunfire—resulted in a catastroph
ic loss for the Confederacy. Lang’s
last moments on screen, as Pickett
faces this loss, arc shattering.
This movie must receive three
reels. It would be unfair to give a
film with such fine acting that en
compasses something of such mag
nitude any less, regardless of what
it may have achieved in quality.
— Anne Steyer
Dark elf
journeys
home to
stop drow
o oikIs*
“Starless Night”
R. A. Salvatore
TSR Inc.
R. A. Salvatore continues his tales
of the dark elf Drizzt Do’Urdcn in
“Starless Night,” the sequel to “The
Legacy.”
In this, the eighth novel involving
Drizzt and his companions, the drow
ventures into the underdark, returning
tohiscityoforigin, Mcnzobcrranzan.
In “The Legacy,” the evil, dark
elves of this city assaulted Mithral
Hall, the residence of the dwarven
king and friend of Drizzt, Brucnor
Battlchammer. In this attack, another
of Drizzt’s friends, Wulfgar, was
killed.
Now, in “Starless Night,” Drizzt
vows to keep his other friends from
harm and journeys to Menzoberranzan
to try to stop the evil drow, or sacrifice
himself to save his friends.
Drizzt has been away from the
underdark and his home city for many
yearsand has difficulty reassimilaling
into this treacherous world.
Salvatore introduces new allies and
enemies for the benevolent dark elf,
and reintroduces some of Drizzt’s old
foes.
The creator of the drow society,
Salvatore delves deeper into this com
plex and very evil community. The
conflicts and twisted politics between
the houses of Menzoberranzan reach
new heights in this novel.
The relationships between Drizzt
and his friends, severely strained by
the death of Wulfgar, heal themselves
in various ways in this book. Salvatore
even hints at the beginnings of an
affinity between Drizzt and his fe
male, human friend, Catti-brie.
Altht ugh Salvatore will probably
not win scores of literary awards, he is
one of the best storytellers working
for TSR. He has an innate ability to
create very believable characters that
readers can relate to and adventures
they can enjoy.
—Joel Strauch