THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 8, 1994 TAG: 9412080022
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MARK MOBLEY, MUSIC CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
YOU KNOW the sound, the Mantovani sound. It is the best part of all symphonies. It is the slow and quiet tune played by shiny violins while drums and trumpets sleep.
It is lush. It is extravagantly lazy. It has no pulse to speak of and is the easiest of easy listening.
It is the Antirock. And it is coming back.
The Mantovani Orchestra, an ensemble performing in the style established by its late founder, appears Saturday at Willett Hall. Veteran British conductor and BBC producer Barry Knight will lead a holiday program ranging from the ``Hallelujah'' Chorus to ``Auld Lang Syne.''
There is perhaps no better way to celebrate the season of falling snow than with the famous ``cascading strings.''
Forty years ago, as Bill Haley rocketed up the charts, Annunzio Paolo Mantovani sold a million copies of ``Charmaine.'' It was a somnolent waltz with violins layered in a diaphanous fabric. More hits followed, and by the late '50s, Mantovani had his own television show with a 46-piece orchestra and such guests as Connie Francis, Vic Damone and the Boscoe Holder West Indian Dancers.
Mantovani toured extensively - he performed at the Norfolk Arena in 1963 - and sold more than 35 million records before his death in 1980. Three years later, his family and a former Mantovani bassoonist founded an orchestra that has since toured the world.
In the 1989-'90 season, Virginia Symphony violinist Bill Fearnside took a leave of absence and went on a 17-week international tour with the Mantovani Orchestra.
``He had his own style of music,'' said Fearnside, 32. ``There are people who get so insulted if you mention elevator music or Muzak. When I got into the group and started playing, I got a great appreciation for his music.''
Mantovani was no mere entertainer. He was born in 1905, the son of a concertmaster at Milan's famed La Scala opera house, and developed into a fine violinist in his own right. When he founded his orchestra he used three violin sections instead of the usual two.
``His famous thing is the `cascading strings,' '' Fearnside said. ``It's total Romantic music. It's nothing like the easy-listening stuff you hear. Where Muzak will take a popular tune and just do it, Mantovani will make it a colorful piece and explore all the harmonies in the piece. It really is beautiful.''
``He produced music that is always melodic,'' conductor Knight said. ``He encouraged the classics. He always thought of himself as a kind of steppingstone to the classics.''
The dapper Mantovani also carried his standard of elegance over to his concert productions. ``We tuned backstage, and would walk out together from the wings and all sit down together,'' Fearnside said. ``Sometimes we would get to a certain point where the stings were highlighted and we would stand up.
``There were colored lights. All of a sudden `Mood Indigo' would be blue and a tango would be dark red. It makes it a show. It's not just a boring, black-and-white concert.''
The show is tinted red and green for Christmas, and Knight adds commentary. ``It's a happy evening; it's a bit of fun,'' he said.
Mantovani fans far and wide respond enthusiastically. Fearnside said the orchestra was mobbed in Japan. ``Over here, you walk out and people say, `That was nice. Thank you for the concert.' As an orchestra musician you're not used to walking out a stage door and having a crowd of people waving pens and wanting to get their photographs taken with you.
``In Florida it was almost like Japan. Their families had it on the stereo when they were growing up. Now they're retired. All the concerts were sold out.
``Our bus broke down on the way to a concert in New England. A lady down the street invited the whole orchestra up to her house to have tea while the bus was being fixed. It's amazing how people pull together.''
Both Fearnside and Knight said the orchestra is a close-knit group.
When it's over, Fearnside said, ``you feel like you're leaving your best friends behind you and you're never going to see them again. Now every time they come into town, I want to go to the concert. I would never have said that before.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
FILE PHOTO
Celebrate the season of falling snow with the famous ``cascading
strings'' of the Mantovani Orchestra.
by CNB