From Lalo to Larry David

Not many Lansing Symphony Orchestra concert previews include a juicy, behind-the-scenes (yet musically relevant) anecdote from the filming of Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Only this one, in fact.

But duty requires that we first pay respect to the resplendent music on Friday’s (April 4) Spanish-themed program — and to the first Lansing-area appearance of virtuoso guest violinist Chee-Yun.

Friday’s lovingly curated feast of Spanish rhythms, colors and moods, with rainbow washes of French impressionism, features Maurice Ravel’s famous “Boléro” and the violin pyrotechnics of Édouard Lalo’s “Symphonie Espagnole,” or “Spanish Symphony.”

“It has an incredible range of colors and dynamics,” Chee-Yun said of the Lalo piece. “It’s very dramatic and stormy.”

The word “symphony” in the title betokens a total experience, not a star vehicle.

“It’s not a violin concerto,” she said. “Every player is invested in it, and I love playing it.”

Courtesy photo Chee-Yun snapped a pic with Rosie O’Donnell and Larry David after making a guest appearance on David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” in which she played herself.

Chee-Yun’s musical life started with a love of stormy and dramatic music. Growing up in South Korea, she would put on the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto and improvise melodramatic scenarios with the music churning in the background.

She got kicked off the piano bench (figuratively) by an older sibling who was also a child prodigy. Another sister was playing the violin but hated to practice. Chee-Yun coolly noted the tears in her eyes and made a deal with her to take up the violin in her stead, thereby freeing her sister to become a ballerina, which is what she really wanted.

After immigrating to the United States at age 13, Chee-Yun studied with Dorothy DeLay, a legendary teacher at New York City’s Juilliard School whose students included Itzhak Perlman, Nigel Kennedy, Sarah Chang and many other violin greats.

Following the inexorable momentum of music love, her tastes (and repertoire) expanded from Tchaikovsky to Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn and especially Sibelius, a composer she championed in tandem with longtime San Francisco Symphony maestro Michael Tilson Thomas.

With each step in her musical path, another door opened. As a freshman at Juilliard, she joined a contemporary music ensemble and was fascinated by the bleak and challenging music of Polish modernist Krzysztof Penderecki. “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima,” Penderecki’s signature experimental work, was a tough nut to crack. The score uses a unique symbolic notation and calls for each of the 52 string players to play a separate part.

Chee-Yun was so taken with Penderecki’s rumbling, shrieking music that she took a train to New Haven, Connecticut, where the Polish master was in residence at Yale University, to introduce herself and play for him.

Penderecki was so impressed that he handpicked her to kick off the 1998 Krzysztof Penderecki Festival in Kraków, Poland, where she played his Second Violin Concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic.
“After that, he brought me everywhere in Europe and America to play his Second Violin Concerto,” she said. “It was a great experience.” A searing and unforgettable recording is available on the Naxos label.

Chee-Yun now lives in Brooklyn, New York, and maintains a vigorous touring schedule, making sure to mix plenty of chamber concerts with her orchestral gigs.

“From playing chamber music, I learned a lot about playing concertos and working with the musicians of the orchestra,” she said. “Making chamber music makes you so much more fun, and you also earn their respect a whole lot more. You have these moments when you turn around, and they really listen. I love it when that happens.”

She experienced a different kind of spontaneity in a memorable guest appearance in season seven, episode five of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Denise Handicap.”

“I’m such a fan of Larry David,” she said. “And I played myself, which was easy.”

The scene called for her to serenade guests at a private concert and maintain her cool as David and two pursuing women in wheelchairs disrupted the swanky soiree.

The five-minute scene took all day to film. There was no script, so Chee-Yun had to draw upon her childhood improvising-in-the-kitchen-to-Tchaikovsky skills.

“We shot it five ways,” she said. “In one take, I acknowledge Larry David. In others, I ignore him.” In the take used, she gives David a delicious side eye without missing a note.

She also pointed out that for music lovers, the episode has a fun little nugget — and it’s not the scene she’s in.

Talking with David off camera, she was delighted to learn that he’s a fan of classical music and picks out the pieces used in the show. His favorite piece, he told her, is the second movement of Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major.

“Watch the show with that in mind,” she said. “In the scene at the café where he’s got earphones on, the tune he’s whistling is the first theme of the second movement of Schubert’s B-flat trio. I was floored when I watched that episode.”