THE ADVOCATE
Louisiana Sinfonietta concert review for March 19, 2013
BY JOHN WIRT
Advocate music critic
March 26, 2013
Comments Much of Sunday afternoon’s Louisiana Sinfonietta concert consisted of music composed by current and former members of the LSU music community.
The Sinfonietta’s next-to-last concert in its 30th season, conducted by Music Director Dinos Constantinides, cast classical selections by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Pietro Nardini, plus a Baroque piece by Georg Philipp Telemann, alongside compositions by LSU graduate students Joshua Carver and Harold Mims and LSU graduates Mikel LeDee and Ronaldo Cadeu.
The program’s major pieces also included Constantinides’ 1990 composition “Transformations for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra.”
It’s possible that “Transformations” marks what will be last appearance with the Sinfonietta of soloist Robert DiLutis. A former professor of clarinet at LSU, DiLutis recently was appointed to the faculty of the University of Maryland.
If “Transformations” was indeed a farewell performance by DiLutis, he expertly navigated the dark musical terrain that Constantinides conjures in the work.
The gloomy first movement of “Transformations,” “Castles in the Air,” includes a macabre dance that suits the clarinet well. Although the tempo rises in the second movement, “Recollections,” and there’s a mood of danger, it’s still clearly part of the composer’s design.
Following “Tender Conversation,” the third and most esoteric “Transformations” movement, DiLutis’s clarinet lept and hopped through the energetic but still dark “On the Playground,” which concludes the piece with one of Constantinides’ characteristic flourishes.
Another LSU-linked musician, violinist Stefka Madere, moved from the ensemble to be soloist for Nardini’s Concerto for Violin in E minor.
Nardini, a now obscure Italian musician of the 18th century, led orchestras in Stuttgart and Florence. He was best known as a violinist, albeit more for his tone than his digital skill.
The Sinfonietta’s performance of his Concerto for Violinin E minor revealed he wasn’t a bad composer. Madere’s bright violin tone, however, contrasted with historical accounts of Nardini’s sweet, presumably warm tone.
Michael Gurt, LSU’s Paula G. Manship distinguished professor of piano and a frequent Sinfonietta guest soloist, joined the ensemble for Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D major. Gurt has proven a reliable staple of Sinfonietta concerts through the years, and Sunday’s performance was no exception. He articulated the music’s trilled melodies, downward plunges and brisk ascents with his usual precision.
The afternoon’s third soloist, Shanna Drescher, another LSU graduate, performed Ledet’s short, impressionist “Piece for Flute and Strings” and Mozart’s pastoral “Andante for Flute and Orchestra.”
As bleak and sometimes dissonant as Cadeu’s “Doze Cores (Twelve Colors for Strings)” was, its greatest disappointment may have been that the composer, an excellent guitarist who’d previously performed at Sinfonietta concerts, did not include a part for himself — or any other guitarist — in the piece.
Louisiana Sinfonietta concert review for March 19, 2013
BY JOHN WIRT
Advocate music critic
March 26, 2013
Comments Much of Sunday afternoon’s Louisiana Sinfonietta concert consisted of music composed by current and former members of the LSU music community.
The Sinfonietta’s next-to-last concert in its 30th season, conducted by Music Director Dinos Constantinides, cast classical selections by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Pietro Nardini, plus a Baroque piece by Georg Philipp Telemann, alongside compositions by LSU graduate students Joshua Carver and Harold Mims and LSU graduates Mikel LeDee and Ronaldo Cadeu.
The program’s major pieces also included Constantinides’ 1990 composition “Transformations for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra.”
It’s possible that “Transformations” marks what will be last appearance with the Sinfonietta of soloist Robert DiLutis. A former professor of clarinet at LSU, DiLutis recently was appointed to the faculty of the University of Maryland.
If “Transformations” was indeed a farewell performance by DiLutis, he expertly navigated the dark musical terrain that Constantinides conjures in the work.
The gloomy first movement of “Transformations,” “Castles in the Air,” includes a macabre dance that suits the clarinet well. Although the tempo rises in the second movement, “Recollections,” and there’s a mood of danger, it’s still clearly part of the composer’s design.
Following “Tender Conversation,” the third and most esoteric “Transformations” movement, DiLutis’s clarinet lept and hopped through the energetic but still dark “On the Playground,” which concludes the piece with one of Constantinides’ characteristic flourishes.
Another LSU-linked musician, violinist Stefka Madere, moved from the ensemble to be soloist for Nardini’s Concerto for Violin in E minor.
Nardini, a now obscure Italian musician of the 18th century, led orchestras in Stuttgart and Florence. He was best known as a violinist, albeit more for his tone than his digital skill.
The Sinfonietta’s performance of his Concerto for Violinin E minor revealed he wasn’t a bad composer. Madere’s bright violin tone, however, contrasted with historical accounts of Nardini’s sweet, presumably warm tone.
Michael Gurt, LSU’s Paula G. Manship distinguished professor of piano and a frequent Sinfonietta guest soloist, joined the ensemble for Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D major. Gurt has proven a reliable staple of Sinfonietta concerts through the years, and Sunday’s performance was no exception. He articulated the music’s trilled melodies, downward plunges and brisk ascents with his usual precision.
The afternoon’s third soloist, Shanna Drescher, another LSU graduate, performed Ledet’s short, impressionist “Piece for Flute and Strings” and Mozart’s pastoral “Andante for Flute and Orchestra.”
As bleak and sometimes dissonant as Cadeu’s “Doze Cores (Twelve Colors for Strings)” was, its greatest disappointment may have been that the composer, an excellent guitarist who’d previously performed at Sinfonietta concerts, did not include a part for himself — or any other guitarist — in the piece.
Review: BRSO Warms Audience with Mozart - by Robin Miller
March 11, 2014
Mozart has a way of warming a concert hall, even with the threat of snow looming over Baton Rouge.
And the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s full program of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s compositions on Thursday made many in the audience forget about the dropping temperatures outside the Baton Rouge River Center Theatre for the Performing Arts.
The concert was the fourth in the orchestra’s Investar Masterworks Series and featured its principal clarinetist Robert DiLutis as soloist in Mozart’s “Concerto for Clarinet, K.622, A minor,” along with an ensemble of its wind section in the “Suite from Gran Partita, Serenade No. 10.”
“The last time Maestro Timothy Muffitt did an all-Mozart concert, we had similar weather,” said Alan Hopper, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra president. “I asked him to have his next all-Mozart concert in August, when we’d really need weather like this.”
That brought laughter from the audience, which was instantly captivated on the orchestra’s first note of “The Abduction from Seraglio Overture.” It’s important to note that the orchestra performed this program without its lower brass section, which allowed for the springtime lightness in the selections.
There’s a sense of triumph in “Sengalio.” Mozart composed it after moving to Vienna in 1761 after leaving his position with the Archbishop of Salzburg. It was his first composition as a freelance artist, and it proved to be a success.
And more than 250 years later, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra captured that triumph in a perfect blend of strings and woodwinds.
It set the stage for the hypnotic smoothness of DiLutis’ solo, which had many audience members on their feet during the applause.
One of the evening’s most pleasant surprises was the wind ensemble. A lone bass player was the only string player during the seven-part “Suite from Gran Partita.” Even conductor and music director Muffitt wasn’t on stage.
The orchestra pit was raised for this piece, placing the ensemble closer to the audience for a more intimate chamber concert experience.
The suite’s movements were short and light, and the ensemble’s blend and balance led the audience on a sweet musical journey into Mozart’s magic, adding to the warmth of the evening.
Which may be why some people seemed surprised when ushers warned them that it was cold outside upon leaving the theater.
March 11, 2014
Mozart has a way of warming a concert hall, even with the threat of snow looming over Baton Rouge.
And the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra’s full program of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s compositions on Thursday made many in the audience forget about the dropping temperatures outside the Baton Rouge River Center Theatre for the Performing Arts.
The concert was the fourth in the orchestra’s Investar Masterworks Series and featured its principal clarinetist Robert DiLutis as soloist in Mozart’s “Concerto for Clarinet, K.622, A minor,” along with an ensemble of its wind section in the “Suite from Gran Partita, Serenade No. 10.”
“The last time Maestro Timothy Muffitt did an all-Mozart concert, we had similar weather,” said Alan Hopper, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra president. “I asked him to have his next all-Mozart concert in August, when we’d really need weather like this.”
That brought laughter from the audience, which was instantly captivated on the orchestra’s first note of “The Abduction from Seraglio Overture.” It’s important to note that the orchestra performed this program without its lower brass section, which allowed for the springtime lightness in the selections.
There’s a sense of triumph in “Sengalio.” Mozart composed it after moving to Vienna in 1761 after leaving his position with the Archbishop of Salzburg. It was his first composition as a freelance artist, and it proved to be a success.
And more than 250 years later, the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra captured that triumph in a perfect blend of strings and woodwinds.
It set the stage for the hypnotic smoothness of DiLutis’ solo, which had many audience members on their feet during the applause.
One of the evening’s most pleasant surprises was the wind ensemble. A lone bass player was the only string player during the seven-part “Suite from Gran Partita.” Even conductor and music director Muffitt wasn’t on stage.
The orchestra pit was raised for this piece, placing the ensemble closer to the audience for a more intimate chamber concert experience.
The suite’s movements were short and light, and the ensemble’s blend and balance led the audience on a sweet musical journey into Mozart’s magic, adding to the warmth of the evening.
Which may be why some people seemed surprised when ushers warned them that it was cold outside upon leaving the theater.
