THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 30, 1995 TAG: 9509300279
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music Review
SOURCE: BY PAUL SAYEGH
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Two rather different versions of Romeo and Juliet opened and closed the Virginia Symphony's concert under JoAnn Falletta on Friday night at Chrysler Hall. In between, violist Paul Neubauer gave the East Coast premiere of his own performing edition of Bela Bartok's infrequently heard Viola Concerto.
Like some other famous works (Puccini's opera, ``Turandot,'' and Mozart's Requiem come to mind), Bartok's Viola Concerto was unfinished at the time of his death in 1945. Sketches included a worked-out solo part, but orchestration was missing, and there was even some question as to how the composer intended to put the piece together. Bartok's friend Tibor Serly was left with the unenviable task of editing the score into a version that could be performed.
Neubauer has gone back to the original sketches to produce a score he feels is much closer to Bartok's original intentions.
Neubauer gave a masterful performance of a difficult and uneven piece. The New York Philharmonic's former first violist was totally in command of the concerto's leaps and jumps between registers, as well as its lyric moments.
Particularly memorable was the tender melody at the opening of the slow movement. Neubauer's musical phrasing helped hold together the long opening section, and in the concerto's finale, he and the orchestra did their best with a rather abrupt conclusion.
For an encore, Neubauer performed a piece of his own, titled ``The Norfolk Improvisation.``
Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, the opening selection, found the orchestra and Falletta not quite in agreement in some of the more heated sections. Her interpretation was restrained.
The concert's high point was the orchestral music from Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette, a much subtler setting than the Tchaikovsky.
In the Love Scene and the Queen Mab Scherzo, there was some lovely string and wind playing, with the Scherzo especially delicate. In the concluding Ball Scene, Sherie Lake Aguirre's oboe solo was flawless.
Throughout, Falletta brought out the many striking and novel aspects of Berlioz's orchestration and had the musicians playing confidently. ILLUSTRATION: SYMPHONY REVIEW
The Virginia Symphony with violist Paul Neubauer. Conducted by
JoAnn Falletta.
At Chrysler Hall, Friday.
The concert will be repeated at 8 tonight at Chrysler Hall. Paul
Neubauer will perform with Apollo at ODU's Chandler Recital Hall at
8 p.m. Monday.
by CNB