Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993 TAG: 9303020047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
NEW RIVER VALLEY SYMPHONY HORNS APLENTY
Burruss Hall auditorium was a hornists' nest Saturday night.The New River Valley Symphony's winter concert was a celebration of horn music, with compositions by Handel, Schumann, Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. Each work on the program featured a prominent role for that aristocrat of the brass section, the French horn.
The instrument was in the spotlight because the concert coincided with the 16th annual Southeast Horn Workshop, which ran from last Friday through Sunday. Coordinated by Virginia Tech horn professor Wallace Easter and sponsored by the Tech Department of Music, the event drew about 200 student and professional horn players to the Tech campus. (Including Buffalo Phil- harmonic horn player Lowell Shaw, whose horn-music publishing company is called The Hornists' Nest.)
The convergence of horn talent made for what probably was the highest concentration of horn players per square yard ever on the Burruss Hall stage.
The level of playing, unsurprisingly, was high. The physics of the French horn make it the most difficult to master of all the brass family, and among the most challenging instruments of the entire orchestra. But the Burruss Hall audience heard some of the finest pros in the business Saturday night.
Conductor James Glazebrook chose four movements from George Frederick Handel's "Water Music" to begin the concert. The general tone and ensemble of the string playing was very fine during this set. The wind band section of the orchestra, which is spotlighted in several places, also played musically. The student horn players experienced some difficulties, however, and the stratospherically high trumpet parts were frankly beyond the ability of the players.
The soloist during Richard Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat, Op. 11, was Lisa Boyer of Florida State University. Boyer was the winner of the horn workshop's student solo competition, and she turned in a performance that earned her two curtain calls.
Boyer displayed a full, beautiful tone and intonation that was right on the money. Furthermore, she is capable of shaping long and lovely phrases. Her performance had a few clams and less-that-perfect runs, but she clearly has the potential to be an excellent horn player.
Opening the second half of the concert was what is possibly the flashiest showpiece ever written for horn quartet and orchestra, the Konzertstuck in F for Four Horns and Orchestra, Op. 86, by Robert Schumann.
Featured soloists were, from first to fourth part: James London, associate principal horn with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Jan Paulson, a free-lance hornist from the Dallas area; Jerome Ashby, associate principal horn with the New York Philharmonic; and Jean Rife, principal horn of Boston Baroque and one of America's finest players of the natural (valveless) horn. (Rife played on two of 1992's finest recordings, Boston Baroque's recordings of Handel's "Messiah" and a set of his concerti grossi.) Peter Landgren, associate principal horn of the Baltimore Symphony, was assistant first horn for this performance.
The horn playing during the Schumann was among the best ever heard in Burruss Hall. Full of melody and drama, the Konzertstuck contains some of the most brilliant writing by the arch-Romantic composer, who revelled in the new vistas opened by the addition of valves to the old natural horn.
From thrilling hunting calls with four-part harmony to long romantic passages, the five players turned in a performance that was almost uniformly beautiful. Assistant first Peter Landgren did have noticeable difficulties with his part, which has a wickedly high tessitura from start to finish.
Saturday night's concert came to a roaring finish with the final movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1. Conductor James Glazebrook, faced with the embarrassment of riches occasioned by the horn workshop, took Mahler's already huge horn section of seven and added an extra player per stand. The resulting 14 horn players were possibly the most that Burruss Hall has ever seen on stage at one time.
The Mahler is very difficult music for any community orchestra, but Glazebrook and his players did a creditable job. Most musicologists regard Mahler's final movements as the culmination of the dramatic symphony, and this one - from its thunderous opening bars to its triumphant conclusion - ranks among Mahler's finest creations.
The New River Valley Symphony's strings, which includes both professionals and amateurs, did an excellent job, playing with verve and enthusiasm. This performance did not approach technical perfection, but the drama and heroism intended by Mahler was undeniably there, and the players got a long round of well-deserved applause.
The horn playing, needless to say, was generally good and easy to hear, and the back line of 14 hornists stood up as the movement rolled to its enormous conclusion.
\ Seth Williamson produces feature news stories and a classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.