DATE: Monday, November 3, 1997              TAG: 9711030247

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: MUSIC REVIEW 

SOURCE: BY PAUL SAYEGH, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   48 lines

VIRGINIA SYMPHONY SHINES WITH MESTER DURING QUIET MOMENTS

Guest conductor Jorge Mester led the Virginia Symphony through a program of a familiar 19th century repertoire on Saturday evening at Chrysler Hall. Mester, the music director of the Pasadena Symphony and the former head of the Aspen Music Festival, has had a long and distinguished career as conductor and educator.

His brisk, no-nonsense approach was immediately apparent in the concert's opener, the ``Beatrice and Benedict Overture'' by Hector Berlioz.

This is not easy music, with its quirky rhythms and melodies, but Mester had the orchestra playing with precision. In the quieter, more lyrical sections, the orchestra's tone was lovely, but as the music grew louder, the sound thickened, and dynamic variation was limited. Still, Mester shaped the piece well.

Similar virtues and vices were to be heard in the closing work, the ``New World Symphony'' by Antonin Dvorak. Again, the orchestra played with finesse and refinement in the slow movement, and Mester set fast, forward-moving tempos. Phil Koch's English horn solo in the ``Goin' Home'' melody was expressive, despite the conductor's pressing ahead.

Whether because of conductor, orchestra or the hall's shallow acoustics, climaxes were brass-heavy and coarse. Surely Dvorak did not intend the timpani rolls in the introduction to call so much attention to themselves, or for playing so loud it could probably be heard back in the Old World.

The result was an exciting performance, but one that also tended to be concerned with the sound of the notes rather than the meaning behind them. As climax piled on climax, Dvorak took on a hectoring quality, not an aspect one usually associates with this composer.

It was left to Anton Nel, the evening's soloist, to supply poetry. A last-minute substitute for Norman Krieger, Nel gave a masterful performance of Robert Schumann's ``Piano Concerto.'' He easily dealt with the obstacles Schumann placed in the soloist's way, yet never did so in a self-serving manner. In numerous passages, his playing perfectly captured the fanciful and imaginative spirit of the music.

Nel successfully challenged the orchestra to refine its tone to match his. One player who consistently shone, particularly in solo passages and in her dialogues with Nel's piano, was clarinetist Patti Carlson. ILLUSTRATION: REVIEW

The Virginia Symphony with Jorge Mester and Anton Nel, Saturday

evening at Norfolk's Chrysler Hall

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