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February 5, 2006
Inside the Arts
Dave Nicholson
How does the Virginia Symphony stack up to other orchestras?
Late last month, I got a chance to find out when the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hampton Roads' resident orchestra played the Ferguson Center for the Arts on different occasions. Both concerts had Mozart on the program, and though they played in different halls in the Christopher Newport University arts complex, the acoustical effect wasn't all that different.
The Royal Philharmonic was led by famed conductor Charles Dutoit and featured soloist Joan Kwuon in Mozart's Fifth Violin Concerto, plus the "Karelia" Suite by Sibelius and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.
In the other corner, Scott Yoo, a 34-year-old, up-and-coming conductor, presented the Virginia Symphony in an all-Mozart program made up of Symphonies 17 and 40 and the Piano Concerto No. 21 performed by Stewart Goodyear.
The two concerts proved to be a wonderful lesson in conducting styles and the different factors that go into assessing a performance. No concert performance can get everything perfectly right, but I still prefer live performances over a CD of the same music.
And though the Royal Phil gave a polished, elegant reading of Mozart's music, my vote goes to the Virginia Symphony for giving a more energetic, thrilling ride. At times, I felt I was hurtling along a cobblestone street in one of those 18th-century carriages Mozart used to ride in.
Both orchestras have a mixture of young and old players, so I can't say that one was stodgy and the other youthful in its interpretation. Perhaps it's partly a difference between how Europeans and Americans approach the same music.
Swiss-born Dutoit is a very reserved conductor who uses minimal gestures to guide his players. He barely acknowledged the audience, and he came off as detached, almost haughty. The Mozart performance sounded lackluster, almost too refined - all the notes were in the right places but the work didn't sing.
Yoo and the Virginia Symphony players, on the other hand, took a completely different tack. Yoo was totally connected to every aspect of the music: cueing every player for his or her entrance, swooping or stretching his arms to regulate tempos, and crouching down or leaping up to emphasize the dynamics in the piece. He took time to speak to the audience about the music, which made me listen more intently.
Yoo also wasn't afraid to put some muscle in his Mozart. Instead of holding back and delivering a silk-stocking rendition, he had the players put more power into their playing of the work.
In fairness to Dutoit, he's an excellent conductor who did an amazing job on the Beethoven symphony. There was a beautiful arc to the entire piece so that every movement seemed to tie together seamlessly. And the Virginia Symphony players had a few more pitch problems than the Royal Phil players.
It's true that so many things go into a live performance that you have to weigh each experience differently. But after these two events, I came away thinking that the Virginia Symphony can go head to head with the big boys anytime.
David Nicholson can be reached at 247-4794 or by e-mail at dnicholson@dailypress.com.
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The Virginia Symphony Orchestra with a complement of 79 professional musicians under the direction of Grammy-nominated Music Director JoAnn Falletta performs 140 concerts annually, reaching 200,000 concert goers every season in venues throughout the region. Our education and outreach programs reach 53,000 students and adult learners every year. The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is the cultural cornerstone of the performing arts in Hampton Roads.
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