THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 13, 1995 TAG: 9505130249
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music Review
SOURCE: By MARK MOBLEY, MUSIC CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The Virginia Symphony is closing its 75th anniversary season with a demonstration of its health. Gustav Mahler's sprawling, challenging Fifth Symphony got a rousing performance at Chrysler Hall Friday night, on a program with works by Poulenc and local composer Adolphus Hailstork.
In recent years, the orchestra has seemed to alternate between impressive growth and drift. Though music director JoAnn Falletta established a new performance standard, programming has sometimes been timid and bland. The audience has not always been supportive and the orchestra's main venue is a sorry excuse for a concert hall.
But as Friday's concert demonstrated, in terms of artistic integrity, consistency and raw talent - the only criteria that matter - the Virginia Symphony is the state's leading performing arts organization. With few seeming to notice, the orchestra has laid the groundwork for regional and perhaps national recognition.
This is not to say the ensemble and its leader are fully formed. There were uncomfortable moments in the Mahler. Falletta did not have the elusive drama of the first movement worked out. Her relaxed approach diminished the contrast between the underlying funeral march and the idyllic passages. She had a better handle on the shrieking, yearning second movement and the famously still Adagietto for strings and harp. The fifth and final movement had an enormous but controlled ending.
Certain members of the orchestra rose to the occasion. Stephen Carlson's crucial trumpet solos were full and big. Timpanist John Lindberg played with articulation and force.
The Mahler Fifth is too large for the orchestra's mid-sized string section, but Falletta and concertmaster Vahn Armstrong had the players dig in. They nailed the runs in the first and second movements and the fourth movement glowed. They were shaky at the opening of the scherzo.
The concert opened with a gift from Hailstork, a Norfolk State University professor whose works have been performed by the orchestra. ``Lachrymosa: 1919'' is a slow movement for strings with offstage clarinets and bassoons. It is a somber meditation on the year before the Virginia Symphony was founded, when troops were returning from World War I and some African-American soldiers were lynched. Its musical style is between Vaughan Williams and Barber.
Sisters Mona Golabek and Renee Golabek Kaye were soloists in Poulenc's witty Concerto for Two Pianos. They were more convincing in dreamy passages than the energetic ones. The soloists, orchestra and conductor did not have the mix of precision and detachment to make the piece truly moving and funny. The pianos were not in tune. ILLUSTRATION: REVIEW
The Virginia Symphony Friday at Chrysler Hall, Norfolk.
The program will be repeated tonight at 8 at Chrysler Hall.
Between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. today, all tickets will be sold for
$7.50.
For more information call 623-2310.
by CNB