Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 27, 1993 TAG: 9304270192
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKBSURG LENGTH: Medium
That's what a Burruss Hall auditorium crowd heard Saturday night when Mulzet performed George Gershwin's Concerto in F with the New River Valley Symphony Orchestra.
The Virginia Tech doctoral candidate in mathematics turned in a bluesy and technically accomplished account of the jazz-classical masterpiece that most music majors might have envied. In fact, the doubly gifted 25-year-old could have a music career waiting for him if the allure of fluid dynamics ever diminishes.
If only the rest of the orchestra had played as well as Mulzet did!
It was a rocky night for the NRVSO, which didn't really hit its stride until the evening's final piece, "The Pines of Rome" by Ottorino Respighi. Their accompaniment of the pianist was mostly adequate, but there were enough rough spots to detract from Mulzet's energy and freshness.
Mulzet had a serious case of the blues in the second movement, which communicated itself to the players well. The middle section of the second movement featured his best playing of the night, with a nimble right hand.
And the driving vigor of his final movement, leading up to the grand restatement of the big melody from the first movement, caught the essence of Gershwin.
If I could criticize one thing about Mulzet's playing Saturday night, it was that his dynamic and tonal palette was too constricted. The Gershwin could have used more dynamic contrast, but Mulzet never strayed far from a medium-loud level from start to finish.
And - if it's not too curmudgeonly to say of someone who already is probably the best piano-playing math doctoral candidate in the country - his performance would have benefited from a freer, looser and jazzier interpretation.
Mulzet got a lot of well-earned applause and was summoned back for two curtain calls.
Orchestra music director James Glazebrook chose Emmanuel Chabrier's "Espana Rhapsody" to begin Saturday night's concert.
One of the most popular orchestra bon-bons of the past century, the piece suffered from a rhythmically clunky performance in the difficult syncopated beginning section.
In particular, there seemed to be disagreement among the violins, both first and second, as to where certain off-the-beat accents should be placed.
Glazebrook established a respectably brisk tempo and conducted the triple-time piece in one, but the orchestra simply did not sound as if it were playing together much of the time.
Matters improved during the Gershwin, but not by much. The second movement, which featured lame solo work from horns and trumpets plus a noticeably out-of-tune oboe, was representative of the whole.
It was a different story during the second half's Respighi "Pines of Rome." The middle panel of Respighi's Roman triptych, "The Pines" got a convincing, and at moments beautiful, performance from the orchestra.
Though derided by some as a composer of "movie music," Respighi was one of the century's great orchestral colorists, and Saturday night's performance was full of lush color.
It struck me as a bad sign that the dotted rhythms and triplets of the opening horn calls had been re-written and simplified (although, given the wickedly difficult part and the current horn section, discretion was possibly the better part of valor).
But there was much to enjoy in this performance, including the striking transition from the rambunctious "Pines of the Villa Borghese" to the hushed "Pines Near a Catacomb."
Glazebrook and his players built to a thundering climax during the second movement, and just as dramatically faded back to pianissimo.
The third movement - "Pines of the Janiculum" - is one of the most evocative nocturnes of the 20th century, and featured much good solo work, including a fine clarinet solo from Tohnya DeLong and gorgeous rhapsodic piano work from Mary Louise Hallauer. As Respighi specified, the movement faded into a dream with the recorded sound of a nightingale.
It was the final "Pines of the Appian Way" that was Saturday night's showstopper. To the ominous marching tread of bass drum and timpani, Janice Norvell played a ravishingly beautiful oriental sounding passage on cor anglais.
Glazebrook handled the long crescendo in this movement masterfully, carefully cranking up the intensity but always leaving energy in reserve until the apocalyptic final bars - at which time it wouldn't have been surprising to see a regiment of Roman legionaries come marching out of the percussion section.
The concert may have gotten off to a rocky start, but it ended in a blaze of glory that earned a satisfied round of applause.
Seth Williamson produces news features and a weekday afternoon classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke
by CNB