Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 11, 1994 TAG: 9410110147
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A respectable performance Monday night of Jean Sibelius' great Second Symphony in the second half rescued an evening that got off to a slow - and I mean slow - start with the Paganini Violin Concerto No.1.
"Paganini on life support."
OK, maybe that's overdoing it, but guest soloist Tomohiro Okumura and conductor Bond put together one of the slowest and lowest-energy performances of this showpiece I have heard.
The 24-year-old fiddler, first-prize winner in the 1993 Naumberg Foundation Violin Competition, walked onto the Roanoke Civic Center stage with technique to spare.
But from beginning to end, his performance refused to catch fire.
Maybe it was because the RSO played at such a plodding tempo. Maybe it was because Okumura couldn't get excited about playing in Roanoke - maybe the soloist was just having a bad night.
But the flash, the pizazz, the bombast and the heart-on-the-sleeve lyricism of Niccolo Paganini's concerto just wasn't there.
Okumura gave glimpses every now and then of an artist who has seemingly limitless resources - especially in the barn-burner cadenza that ends the first movement - but the dominant impression was lethargy.
Okumura was called back twice to the stage and got a respectable round of applause.
Somewhat better was "Thinking Like a Mountain" by Bond, which got its world premiere Monday night.
Explore Park executive director Rupert Cutler read the words of naturalist Aldo Leopold to a setting composed by Bond.
She made a good choice of text and cut it in the right places. The music was Victoria Bond in her most popular, direct and accessible idiom. It's easy to imagine this piece getting a decent run of performances in the next few years.
But the final impression of this work is that of film music for a Western.
Reminiscent now of Virgil Thomson, now of Aaron Copland in his "Prairie Period," now of Alfred Newman, the music was not especially memorable.
Cutler did a good job of the narration in his pleasant light-tenor speaking voice.
It was Sibelius to the rescue in the second half of the concert.
Bond and her players turned in a pretty good performance of the Symphony No.2 by the Finnish composer, a landmark of 20th-century symphonic literature.
From the surging violin figure at the beginning to the soaring finale, this piece sounded like it had got the most work and attention in rehearsal. Especially pleasing were the lush low strings and the mellow brass.
In fact, it almost sounded like a different orchestra after the intermission break.
The Sibelius Second got the most enthusiastic applause of the evening; a few patrons stood to show their appreciation.
Seth Williamson produces feature news stories and a weekday classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.
by CNB