October 30, 1996
Prince George Symphony: Burnt By The Sun

Oooh, am I a big Russian
fan. I was in heaven on
Sunday, when I attended a
concert of all-Russian music
by the Prince George
Symphony. The highlight
was violinist Erika Raum’s
magnificent interpretation of
Tchaikovsky’s Third Violin
Concerto.

Never having attended a
concert in Vanier Hall
before, I was a little skeptical
upon approaching Prince
George Secondary School.
High school auditoriums are
. not known for their acoustic
excellence, but I needn’t
have worried. The hall itself
is paneled in warm-coloured
wood, and at least where I
was sitting the sound was
fairly good.

The concert opened with
Mussorgsky’ s
Khovantschina Prelude,
taken from his
underperformed, but
beautiful, opera. This proved
to be a difficult piece to start
with, as its hushed, sustained
qualities require great
control; the strings had some
difficulty with ensemble and

tuning, but they recovered »

fairly quickly.

Prokofiev’s Summer’s Day
followed, and it was a perfect
example of the kind of work
which has _ garnered
Prokofiev the love-him-or-
hate-him reputation referred
to in the program. It’s an
idiom that is now so much a
part of our concept of
“classical” music that
cartoon and film soundtracks
would be lost without it.
Composers like Prokofiev
were the creators of this type
of programmatic music,
which attempt to evoke
particular scenes and events.
Now that it has been
appropriated by popular
culture, it is difficult not to
hear it as trite.

Despite its sweetness-and-
light flavour, though, the
work was well-performed,
despite a couple of tuning
problems in the strings. The
final movement, “?,” is lush,
in the best Russian tradition,
and was gorgeously played,
with special consideration
going to the cello section.

Liadov’s Russian
Folksongs (?) were
unfamiliar to me, and as is
often the case with the
unknown, turned out to be
exceptionally beautiful. The
orchestration is superb
throughout, and_ the
Symphony did their best |

work here, expressive even +

when they were playing !
pizzicato. Only in the last '
movement was there any hint
of trouble, when the
orchestra nearly got out of
sync, but conductor Paul
Andreas Mahr pulled it back
quickly.

The second half was
reserved for Tchaikovsky.
Erika Raum rendered an
exquisite Violin Concerto in
D, Op.35, and received a
well-deserved standing
ovation for it. Her solo work
was stunning; there was no
grandstanding, just
exceptionally fine playing.
The orchestra played very
well, too, despite a few
mishaps where they fell into
the trap of listening to the.
soloist instead of watching
the conductor. The audience
was the worst offender,
launching into thunderous
applause after the first
movement, and refusing to
quiet down until a couple of
people told thém in no

uncertain words that the y}
concerto was not over yet. ¥
got the hint, §

and left no ro ond bbl webh th! J

The performers.

7 x

ty Geant soR5n F
second and third movements |:

for the same mistake to
happen twice. Raum truly

Over The Edge

shone in the second
movement, one of those great
passionate and tragic pieces
of Russian music, where tone
and phrasing become more
important than hitting the
notes.

“Burnt By The Sun” gave
Sunday’s audience a very
good taste of the wonders of
late Romantic Russian
music; the repertoire was

well-chosen and , for the

most part, very well

Sunday, October 20, 1996
by Lauren Bacon

performed. Raum deserves
kudos for her stellar
performance. Next time,
though, can we get rid of the

Tom

Stéadman

for Mayor

13.

cheesy red/yellow/orange
light show behind the
orchestra?

eee

VOTE NOVEMBER 16, 1996

http://www.steadman.pg.bc.ca or phone 562-6961

Paid by the committee to elect Tom Steadman Mayor

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