QUINTET'S EFFORT SIMPLY COMPETENT

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 10, 1993                   TAG: 9303100260
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SETH WILLIAMSON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
QUINTET'S EFFORT SIMPLY COMPETENT
The Australia Ensemble visited Roanoke College Monday night for a performance that was competent but rarely exciting. Great performances and wretched ones alike are more engaging than those in between - this five-person ensemble too infrequently rose above the level of mere proficiency. An audience of 170 heard the Roanoke Valley Chamber Music Society performance in Olin Hall.
The combination of violin, cello, flute, clarinet and piano makes for a group that can tackle a large chunk of the chamber music repertoire, from the standard piano trio to clarinet and flute trios and much of the sonata literature. It also means that the piano will likely be the common denominator of many pieces, which was the case Monday night when pianist David Bollard was onstage for four of the five selections (six, counting the encore).
Cellist Julian Smiles and flutist Geoffrey Collins joined Bollard for the first selection of the night, which was Carl Maria von Weber's Trio in G minor, Op. 63, one of only three chamber works from the composer's pen.
It was good to hear the piece in performance, given that Weber's clarinet quintet is usually his only chamber work performed very much. But it was a rhythmically flat-footed reading for too much of the time, rising to life only in the final bars of the last movement.
For Bela Bartok's "Contrasts," clarinetist Alan Vivian and violinist Dimity Hall replaced Smiles and Collins. The middle movement of this folk-influenced work had some good moments, but the central section of the final movement, in the galumphing meter of 13 beats to the bar, was unsuccessful.
For the first post-intervalwork, piano, violin and cello turned in a competent performance of Haydn's "Gypsy Rondo" piano trio, the Trio in G Major. The third-movement finale, the rondo that gives the pieces its nickname, got a sparkling performance. On most of Monday night's pieces, in fact, the best moments were usually near the end, as if the players could work up enthusiasm only when they spotted the finish line.
Flutist Geoffrey Collins showed off his fat and lovely tone during a rendition of Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita in A minor, BWV 1013 for solo flute, though the performance was generally unexciting.
The most substantial work of the evening was the great Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114 of Johannes Brahms. The finest playing of the night was heard here, with a second-movement adagio that was truly fine.
Clarinetist Alan Vivian has a lovely burnished tone in his lower register, and he responded sympathetically to the autumnal and nostalgic mood of this great work. For my money this was the only work of the evening that was consistently moving from start to finish.

Seth Williamson produces news features and a weekday afternoon classical music program on public radio station WVTF (89.1 FM) in Roanoke.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB