ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 22, 1996 TAG: 9601220086
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
ROANOKE SYMPHONY concert-goers last November may have noted the flamboyant style of guest conductor Stephen Stein. He led the orchestra through Mozart and Dvorak with, a reviewer wrote the next morning, what appeared to be "an idiosyncratic way of communicating his cues to the players."
And Stein hadn't even brought on the magicians, dancers and lasers that, The Wall Street Journal reports, the young conductor in residence for the Houston Symphony uses to liven up his shows.
Departed RSO conductor Victoria Bond, besides breaking stereotypes for orchestra directors, had ushered in a style that relied on marketing as well as musicality to cultivate popular appeal.
But Bond modeling Furs by Don is small time next to Stein's "Maestro of Menswear" fashion splash in the Houston Chronicle, featuring the young conductor in his tailor-made tuxedos. And her toe-tapping, hair-swinging exuberance seems downright staid next to the showmanship of, say, Albany Symphony Orchestra conductor David Alan Miller, known to leap onstage dressed as Superman.
When he's really bad, Miller wears a sleeveless T-shirt and black leather vest to accentuate his biceps as he leads an orchestra subset known as the Dogs of Desire through works of Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen.
Roll over, Beethoven. A new generation of young classical musicians is putting product out there for the people - all the people - in hopes of filling concert halls in an era when government grants are shrinking and corporate sponsors are attaching strings to such support they are still willing to give.
Purists blanch and worry that art is being sacrificed for entertainment. But Keith Lockhart, new conductor of the Boston Pops, says the pop spin is about letting the audience have fun. Lockhart has been known to take the stage on roller blades, or riding an elephant, or dressed as Batman or Dracula.
As the Roanoke Symphony continues its season-long tryouts for the conductor's job, it adds an air of expectant mystery just to contemplate the possibility of such hijinks. But, frankly, we're not counting on anything wild and crazy.
The symphony audience here still seems to think art is entertainment, and it's been well nigh impossible to find an elephant in town since poor old Frump-Frump died more than 25 years ago.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB