Is 16-year-old Korean cellist Han-Na Chang just another extraordinary
prodigy from Asia? No, not "just."

She is outside the confines of "ordinary" in the sense, for example,
that one expects the music of Haydn "ordinarily" to sound like Haydn.

When Chang made her San Francisco Symphony debut tonight, she tore fiercely
into what was advertised as the Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1, startling the
audience with the volume and savage sounds of a climactic passage from the
"Rite of Spring" (a work not by Haydn).

She then switched into a barely audible, Chopinesque passage.  The first
movement cadenza was Beethoven as performed by Kennedy.  The second cadenza
--- silencing the full hall -- came across as a romantic whisper.

Herbert Blomstedt, one of the most faithful (and often "too ordinary")
interpreters of the classics, watched the *show* developing supposedly
under his baton with amazement.

Today, in the age of Extreme Sports, we have come to Extreme Haydn from
Seoul.  One wonders if these developments are particularly advantageous
for sports or music and their fans.

The 16-year-old (who looks 10 or 30, depending on her swiftly changing
moods) appears impassive or she is consumed with Nadja-ish grimaces.  Her
technique is astonishing, especially when considering that she frequently
holds her bowing arm above the shoulder; that too is extra-ordinary, but
it works.  What's missing -- and considering her age, may yet come -- is
respect for the music.

And yet the obvious raw talent, the ability, the excitement (whether
misplaced or not) explain her credentials: debut at 12 with Sinopoli
and the Dresden Staatskapelle on tour in Korea; featured at 13 at the
season-opening gala in Boston, appearing in Dresden, London, Philadelphia,
Cleveland and elsewhere, getting an EMI CD of her own.  In the past two
years, she has conquered most of the known world.  Can Haydn be far behind?

Janos Gereben/SF
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