
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 4, 1991                   TAG: 9103040018
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E--6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON/ SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`SCHUBERTIAD' PERFORMANCES POLISHED

The only thing missing at Saturday night's "Schubertiad" at Virginia Tech's Donaldson-Brown Auditorium was a few bottles of bubbly - that, and the small-room ambiance that is unavoidably a casualty of any recital in a large hall.

Otherwise, the evening of Franz Schubert's music by Craig Fields, Mary Louise Hallauer and members of the Audubon Quartet was one of the more delightful events of this music season in the New River Valley.

"Schubertiad" is a term that was coined by one of the composer's friends during Schubert's brief lifetime to designate an intimate evening of song and chamber music by the master.

This Schubertiad was devised to proceed chronologically through Schubert's output, and appropriately it began and ended with songs. Appropriately, because of all great composers, none is so closely and deservedly identified with the lied, or art-song.

Baritone Craig Fields, accompanied by pianist Mary Louise Hallauer, began the recital with Schubert's Op. 1, the "Erlkonig," a spooky poem from Goethe's ballad opera "Die Fischerin." The poem relates the tale of a father riding at night with his child, who three times is inveigled by the ghostly Erl-King to come to his supernatural kingdom and who is finally slain by the wraith.

Hallauer artfully invoked the restless ride and the rushing wind, and Fields, who was in fine voice the entire night, convincingly alternated among the song's three personae. He was especially effective as the spectral king, whose blandishments become more menacing with each repetition. Surprisingly, given the polish of his performance, Fields revealed backstage that this was the first time he had ever sung the "Erlkonig."

The String Trio in B flat major featured three of the four Audubons: violinist David Erlich, violist Doris Lederer and cellist Tom Shaw.

Here was the Schubert of sweetness and light in a lovely performance by three world-class players. The first half of the recital ended with Audubon violinist David Salness and pianist Hallauer performing the sunny Duo in A major, Op. 162. There was a nervous energy to Salness' interpretation that drove this light but happy work to a strong conclusion.

Fields and Hallauer returned to close the recital with six songs from Schubert's posthumously published "Schwanengesang." These were songs with more heft, even when lighthearted, than the earlier set. The eery "Der Doppelganger" is one of Schubert's greatest masterpieces with its "sprechgesang," or speech-like sections, which Fields rendered with an uncanny flatness that emphasized the poet Heine's unearthly atmosphere.

by CNB