THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510150074
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music review
SOURCE: BY PAUL SAYEGH, SPECIAL TO THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
The Hampton Arts Commission has had an enviable record in bringing some of the world's most respected musicians and ensembles to this area. On Friday evening, it upheld this reputation when it presented the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra under its music director, Iona Brown, at Hampton University's Ogden Hall.
The internationally known conductor and violinist put together a fascinating program. In it, a first half - consisting of several shorter, less formally structured pieces - was balanced by a longer, more abstract second half.
This diversity of music and compositional style allowed the orchestra to display its impressive virtuosity and musicianship. The group, which has been directed by Brown since 1981, boasts a rich yet cool string tone that never lapses into stridency or becomes overbearing. This full sound allows details to sound clearly yet stay in balance with the ensemble. An assessment of the orchestra's winds is more difficult to make as they were heard in only two works, but as with the strings, the quality of sound was excellent.
Norwegian music was featured in the opening ``Study on a Norwegian Hymn'' by the contemporary composer Magnar Am, and ``Two Elegiac Melodies'' by Edvard Grieg. The Am piece was intermittently successful in evoking an open, expansive feeling, in a style that was reminiscent of Bartok. The Grieg pieces were performed in an intense, yet controlled manner that was very moving.
Brown was featured in Ralph Vaughan Williams' ``The Lark Ascending'' for violin and orchestra. This gentle, pastoral work is among the English composer's loveliest, and Brown's execution of the rhapsodic, high-lying and exposed solo part was impeccable.
Igor Stravinsky's ``Concerto in D,'' one of his later Neo-Classical compositions, often can sound mechanical and expressionless. Here again, the orchestra's ability to phrase and to adjust its sound resulted in a delightful performance which was by turns muscular, graceful and humorous.
Mozart's ``Symphony No. 29'' concluded the evening in an elegant and swift reading (perhaps too swift in the slightly rushed Minuet and Trio). The orchestra's articulation in the finale was thrilling, while the slow movement was expressive without being overdone.
The audience's warm reception was rewarded with two brief encores, by Grieg and Benjamin Britten. by CNB