University of Virginia Library

MUSIC

High Quality In Concert

By TERI TOWE

The University and
Community Orchestra gave its
spring concert in Cabell Hall
Auditorium on Sunday evening
– two weeks ahead of schedule
because of the University's
recent, almost snap, decision to
begin a much needed
renovation and repainting of
the auditorium.

The quality of the
interpretations offered was so
high that the loss of two
weeks' worth of rehearsals was
indeed to be regretted, for I am
sure that in those rehearsals,
John Solie, the conductor of
the orchestra, could have
eradicated the roughness and
ensemble difficulties in the
string section, particularly
during the Beethoven Pastorale
Symphony that closed the
program.

"Battlehorse"

Solie opened the concert
with a real "battlehorse,"
Rimskii-Korsakoff's Russian
Easter Overture; the
performance was highlighted
by the customary magnificent
brass playing which we have
come to expect from the
orchestra. I do wish, however,
that Mrs. Niedershuh, the
concert mistress, could be
prodded into playing her
occasional solos in tune.

The next offering was the
intriguing Dialogues for
Orchestra, by faculty member,
M. Donald MacInnis, a work
requiring precision of timing
and intonation. On the whole,
the performance served the
composition well.

Third-year student Philip
Schwartz appeared as the
soloist in Gabriel Faure's Elegy
for Cello and Orchestra, Op.
24. Schwartz's tone is clean
and finely focussed, and his
interpretation apt.
through out. He was
unfortunately, often
overpowered by the sound of
the orchestra.

Beethoven

The reading of the
Beethoven; Symphony No. 6 in
F. Op. 68 was pleasing and
reflective, with rather relaxed
tempo that were more the
product of John Solie's view of
the work than of the technical
insecurities that were the result
of the loss of rehearsal time.

Since this is my last review
of a University and
Community Orchestra concert,
I will once again remind my
readers of the general high
quality of these concerts, and,
for the last time, complain
about the inexcusable and
annoying lack of manners on
the part of many in the
audience who seem to be
acting under the delusion that
amateur musicians who play
for the sheer joy of it are
entitled to less courtesy than
professionals who are paid for
their efforts.