ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220102
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: CONCERT REVIEW
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
This much is clear: For the time being, at least, David Wiley owns Roanoke.
It's hard to see how he could have made a much better impression at his Monday night premiere with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra at the Roanoke Civic Center. Walk on air and glow in the dark, maybe?
The RSO's new music director and conductor brought down a packed house after a beautiful Verdi opera overture, a muscular and songful Tchaikovsky piano concerto and a noble reading of Johannes Brahms' great Symphony No. 1 in C Minor.
The Civic Center crowd wasn't content to wait till the pieces were finished before giving its opinion, either. Pianist Norman Krieger and Maestro Wiley got rowdy applause and bravos after a knock-'em-dead first movement of the Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Minor of Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, and it only got better from there.
If this is a foretaste of the Wiley era with the RSO, then hold on to your hat.
The customary opening "Star-Spangled Banner" began with a fanfare-like introduction titled "God Bless Our Star City," which Wiley composed for his debut. As a special bonus, the national anthem was transposed to a more congenial key for voices, which made it a more pleasant experience for the many concertgoers who sang along.
The overture to Verdi's late opera "La Forza del Destino" is one of that composer's best as an individual concert piece. It got a stylish and vigorous performance from the RSO, after which Wiley recognized principal clarinet Thomas Josenhans.
But it was the Piano Concerto No. 1 of Tchaikovsky that first achieved blockbuster critical mass Monday night. Norman Krieger is a robust and powerful pianist with a strongly lyrical bent. He visibly thrilled the audience as he pounded out the familiar block chords over the electrifying opening theme from the horns.
Krieger played just as beautifully the delicate melody that opens the second movement, in a subtle colloquy with principal flutist Carol Noe. And he stormed through the Cossack dance of the final movement, bringing the piece to a tremendous close that got what is possibly the quickest standing ovation I have seen from an RSO audience.
To end this finely balanced program, David Wiley chose what is possibly the most impressive first symphony ever written by any composer, the great Symphony No. 1 in C Minor by Johannes Brahms. It was a generous reading of noble music, full of pathos and joy, beautifully played from start to finish.
Earlier this week, Wiley said he saw the insistent rhythmic pattern at the beginning of each movement as the conceptual thread that ties together the entire symphony. Certainly, the relentless timpani strokes at the opening of the first movement, pulsing under a passionate and intense lyric, are like an outburst of some great, insupportable grief. Wiley and the RSO launched out into this great river of melody, moving confidently and creating some of the finest moments I have heard with this orchestra.
Especially memorable was the striving final movement with its magnificent hymnlike melody that first appears in the strings. This is one of the greatest "big tunes" ever written for any symphony, and the Civic Center audience was clearly moved when it first appeared - there were audible sighs all around where I was sitting. After a magnificent coda, Wiley and his players once again got an instantaneous standing ovation and raucous shouts of approval. Maestro Wiley didn't hog the glory during the extended applause, asking many individual players and then entire sections to stand for special recognition at the end of one of the most exciting concerts the RSO has ever done.
Seth Williamson produces feature news stories and a classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB