Philharmonic leaves fans hungry

Marilyn LaRocque

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003 | 8:24 a.m.

When the encore is the most enthusiastically applauded piece of an evening's concert, it's a sure bet the program hit some sour notes.

That was the case when the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra played Friday night at Artemus Ham Hall at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Technically competent and earnest, the orchestra generated interest and energy in works by Bartok and Mozart.

However, the Dvorak symphony that concluded the evening was a dull descent into boredom. The crowd-pleaser encore was Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 10. Music Director and Conductor Zoltan Kocsis led the orchestra and was also piano soloist in the Mozart concerto.

Let's start with the good news.

Bela Bartok's "Dance Suite," which opened the concert, suggested an evening of musical adventure. By far the most interesting work, it juxtaposed dramatic styles and tempos with pastorale serenity. The program notes described it as "one of Bartok's more accessible works of the 1920s," with "original, folklike, but not folk" themes.

If this was "folk" music, the "folk" lived frenzied, overdrive lives amid large city cacophony signified by jagged, syncopated rhythms, relieved briefly by rooftop gardens and city parks.

A bassoon solo passage punctuated by brass, bouncing violin bows and dissonant woodwinds opened the work. Finally a delicate country dance-type theme was heard in the violins, followed by a whimsical clarinet.

Then the brass intruded, with the sliding trombones of jazz and bombastic chords, as if the "folk" were frantically trying to survive a traffic jam on Interstate 15.

The study in contrasting moods continued with a harp glissando and skipping clarinet solo, a rollicking bassoon passage, in which the clarinet joined, followed by the full orchestra. Then the whirling dervish mode returned, only to subside into a flute, piccolo, celesta and piano interlude. A bass clarinet solo was offset by violins playing high harmonics.

Throughout the piece, the orchestra was vibrantly alive, responding to Kocsis' changes in dynamics and tempo to create a highly entertaining rendition of this 20th-century work (1923).

Lyric coloratura soprano Julia Hajnoczy joined the orchestra next for five songs from the "Twenty Hungarian Folksongs' of Bartok, 1929. Her black velvet sheath dress and a very long light-blue scarf draped around her neck and falling below her knees accented her very slender figure, which belied her strong, versatile voice. It was the perfect garb, however, for the predominantly dreary songs "In Prison," "Old Lament," "Complaint" and two "Mating" songs.

Even making allowances for the justifiable emphasis on Hungarian music, these songs only hinted at the capabilities of this young (born in 1977) soprano.

Hajnoczy has an exquisitely clear, bell-like voice that handled the melancholy tunes admirably and easily transformed into an animated coquettish lilt for the lighter numbers.

Her tonal shadings were expressive. She was especially effective in subtle quiet passages but somewhat drowned out by the orchestra when the volume increased. It's unfortunate that she didn't return after intermission to perform a more varied repertoire.

Mozart's Concerto No. 17 in G-major for Piano and Orchestra, K. 453, with Kocsis as soloist, concluded the first half of the program. In addition to the solo piano, it is orchestrated only for strings, woodwinds and French horns.

Courtly, elegant and imaginative, this delightful work is perfectly suited to a royal drawing room or salon. Except during solo passages, the piano was frequently lost in Ham Hall.

Part of the problem was triggered by the placement of the piano. Kocsis' back was toward the audience and he faced the orchestra, which he also conducted. Instead of the usual raised, angled piano top serving as a sounding board, the top was totally removed.

Probably the best place to hear the piano notes was perched in the light rigging overhead.

Kocsis is a virtuoso pianist, displaying facile fingerwork sprinting up and down the keyboard, precise, crisp trills, eloquent phrasing and dynamic contrast. His cadenzas exhibited a delicate, expressive touch with brilliant speed.

He established an expressive, flowing musical dialogue with the orchestra. A synergistic sixth sense of interpretation bound them together.

Now for the bad news.

The second half of the concert was devoted to Antonin Dvorak's Symhony No. 3 in E-flat major. This has to be one of classical music's most aimless, boring works. Its dramatic, powerful opening suggests majestic music to come.

Instead, it's a slogging trek through a quagmire of musical tedium. It lacks direction and thematic development. The second movement, "Adagio molto," drags on interminably.

As a man seated next to me commented, "It's meditation (i.e., soporific) music."

He was right.