Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9410190019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As in the group's inaugural appearance last year, Camphouse is taking advantage of the professional caliber of his musicians to showcase repertoire rarely heard in these parts because of its difficulty.
This year's program, heard by this reviewer Sunday afternoon in Tech's Squires Recital Salon, will be repeated tonight at 8 in Preston Hall at Radford University.
In a concert that ranged from Mozart to Vaughan Williams, the New River Chamber Winds' performance was marked by clarity, verve and beauty of tone. Camphouse, whose national reputation in the field of wind music has been growing in recent years, conducted without a score except for a single piece. He chose to direct without a baton as well.
On the other hand, the director chose what sounded like markedly slow tempi, which deprived some pieces of the brightness they deserved. And, in a few instances, what looked like idiosyncratic conducting technique failed to communicate necessary cues to his players.
The "Suite Francaise" of Francis Poulenc dates from 1935 and is a masterpiece of 20th-century wind literature. Inspired by 16th-century courtly dances, the piece features astringent French harmonies and gorgeous wind sonorities. With Radford University's Caryl Conger supplying the harpsichord continuo part, this was the finest live performance of this piece I've ever heard. It's beyond the capabilities of most student performers, and it was a pleasure to hear it done with such spirit by local performers.
Anton Webern's "Concerto for Nine Instruments," Op. 24, is a cerebral 12-tone work that gives the listener more to think about than to feel. Indeed, the players seemed to have less relish for this work than the Poulenc, and Camphouse's leisurely tempi in the "somewhat lively" and "very quick" movements didn't help. It was the least interesting piece of the program and the only piece for which Camphouse resorted to a score.
The brief "Scherzo alla marcia" is the second movement of the Symphony No.8 in D minor of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Three of the four movements of this late work are scored either mainly or exclusively for different families of the orchestra, and this oddly humorous section is for winds alone.
Camphouse got a rich and lovely wind sound from his players on this piece, which has not been heard in live performance in this area for at least two decades. In the rustic-sounding trio, the trumpets played more legato and with fuller note value than I've ever heard either live or in recording.
The "Serenade for Flute and Clarinet" of Swiss composer Willy Burkhard featured flutist David Jacobsen and clarinetist David Widder, two of Virginia's wind-instrument stars. Widder knows the piece intimately, having studied with Burkhard's daughter and son-in-law. It is intensely chromatic, with frequent minor seconds bumping into each other. To hear either Widder's or Jacobsen's gorgeous tone is always a sensual experience, and both delivered on this little-known piece.
The final work was Mozart's most substantial piece of "light" music, his Serenade No.12 in C minor, K. 388. Written in the somber key of C minor, it's hard to see how this work could have functioned as dinner or party music, but it got a fine performance from the New River Chamber Winds. The mirror-canon for the double reeds in the trio of the third movement and the masterful variations in the final movement were high points. The Mozart earned much applause and several curtain calls for Mark Camphouse.
Some seats remain for tonight's performance in Radford University's Preston Hall.
by CNB