University of Virginia Library

MUSIC

Orchestra Presents Engaging Performances

By MARK MITTLEMAN

The Central Virginia
Symphony Orchestra presented
an unusually interesting
program of cantatas and
instrumental works by Johann
Sebastian Bach Saturday night
in Cabell Hall. The principal
attraction of the program,
however, was the conducting
debut of Charlottesville's most
controversial musical figure,
Teri Noel Towe.

Conditions for Mr. Towe's
debut could scarcely have been
less auspicious. Less than a
week before the performance
the chorus cancelled its
appearance, so that its parts
had to be redistributed among
the soloists and string players.
And the rather optimistically
named Central Virginia
Symphony is, of course, a
largely amateur
organization which labors
under the further handicap of
perpetually inadequate
rehearsal time.

Its intonation and sound,
then, inevitably suffer badly;
nor do its players have the
secure technique necessary to
execute Baroque
ornamentation with precision.
There were missed entries,
muddied passages in which the
strings became separated, and
at one point forty-eight bars
into the Chorale of the Cantata
No. 51, "Jauchzet Gott in Allen
Landen", the concertmaster
simply lost his place and Mr.
Towe wisely stopped the
musicians and began the
movement again.

With all this said, the
performances themselves were
quite engaging. Whether Mr.
Towe is technically a
competent conductor must still
be considered an open
question. He has quite a large
beat, but it may well have been
more confusing than helpful to
some of the inexperienced
players, and he probably
should have given more explicit
cues to the individual sections.
But musically his
interpretations were quite
sophisticated and
demonstrated a fine ear for
keeping the voices of Bach's
polyphony in articulate
balance. The instrumental and
vocal soloists were excellent.

Trumpeter Kenneth
Moulton displayed a fine
technique and tone, blended to
excellent effect with the voice

of soprano Emma Jefferson
Porter in the Cantata No. 51
Best of the singers, however,
was bass Donald Woodman
(who can be heard again in a
different repertoire this Friday
and Saturday in the Libel
Show). His voice is quite large
and unforced throughout its
range, and his German diction
and expressive coloration,
particularly in recitative
passages such as those in the
Cantata No. 7. "Christ unser
Herr zum Jordan kam", were
outstanding.

Mr. Towe's most persuasive
interpretations were of the two
instrumental works, the
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
and the Ouverture No. 1 in C
Major. The first movement of
the Concerto was taken at
quite an astonishingly fast
pace. To the conductor's
credit, he made no
interpretative concessions for
the convenience of the players.
He managed to obtain both a
strong rhythmic emphasis,
without the metronomic effect
that had marred the Munich
Chamber Orchestra's
performance of the same work
here in February, and an
interesting subtlety of contrast