DATE: Friday, February 28, 1997             TAG: 9702280063

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: MUSIC REVIEW 

SOURCE: BY PAUL SAYEGH, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK 

                                            LENGTH:   47 lines

MOVIE MUSIC DELIGHTS SYMPHONY AUDIENCE

ENCOURAGED by their success with last fall's presentation of ``Alexander Nevsky,'' the Virginia Symphony paid a return visit to Hollywood on Wednesday in their ``Music at the Movies'' program at Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater. Music Director JoAnn Falletta led the orchestra in music written for the movies, as well as music adopted by the movies.

In the latter category were pieces by Wagner, Rossini, Pachelbel, and Ravel, but the titles could as easily have read ``Ten,'' ``Apocalypse Now,'' and ``Ordinary People,'' so close is the association of these classical works to their films.

Falletta and the orchestra were in relaxed form for the Rossini ``Thieving Magpie'' Overture. Crisp percussion work paved the way for an engaging and smiling treatment of the main theme, though the slow tempo did reduce some of Rossini's customary brilliance. Wagner's ``Ride of the Valkyries'' sounded aggressive and war-like, even if a larger string sound would have balanced some of the brassier moments.

The Pachelbel ``Canon'' received a sensitive and flowing performance from the strings. And the first half of Ravel's ``Bolero'' featured some distinguished solo work by the orchestra's principal players.

Falletta focused on the current `Movie King' John Williams in the second half. His theme from ``Schindler's List'' was the artistic highpoint of the concert. Vahn Armstrong's violin solo was both touching and restrained, and the purity of his tone was notable. A medley from ``Star Wars'' featured some of Willliams' best known music, in a rousing performance.

Two other medleys, ``Hooray for Hollywood'' and ``The Lion King,'' made up the second half. They were enjoyable, especially the first with its bits and pieces of familiar film sounds, such as the 20th Century-Fox fanfare. But they were also rather thin in their musical substance, as medleys often are, and no amount of energy from Falletta and the orchestra could disguise that fact.

One hopes the Virginia Symphony will continue to explore film music, both in its Pops and its Masterworks series. The amount of great music that has been written for films is staggering, and its exclusion from our concert halls hard to explain. Judging from Wednesday's ovation, there is a large and receptive audience for this type of programming. ILLUSTRATION: MUSIC REVIEW

Virginia Symphony Pops at Virginia Beach Pavilion Theater Wednesday

evening.

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