Concert Review: Agreeable Love, Not a Bad Strain
10/08/06
IRIS Opens Season 7 with a Rather Broad Smile
Concert Review by Jon W. Sparks
The opening of the seventh season of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre was not as adventurous an engagement as is typical of the programming, but it was an agreeable affair. In fact, it was very much of a mutual adoration society.
Love was in the air with the offerings devised by maestro Michael Stern - exuberant expressions by teen composers Mozart and Mendelssohn, for example. Stern's basic ingredient in this feast o' love was the featured couple, Gil Shaham and Adele Anthony, husband and wife violinists whose youth and verve shimmered in Saturday night's performances.
Even the surprises were in that spirit. The orchestra pulled a fast one on Stern with an unscheduled rendition of the Brahms lullaby just before the concert. Stern, whose first child was born just a few weeks ago, was touched.
The opening piece was Sibelius' "Rakastava - The Lover" for String Orchestra and Percussion, an introspective three-movement piece that considers the course of romance with its attendant joys and pains. IRIS does instrspection exceedingly well and this performance gave full measure to the work.
Shaham and Anthony then came on and chased away any lingering somberness with Mozart's "Concertone for Two Violins and Orchestra in C major". If the work is a middling effort by the 17-year-old Mozart, the performance by the duo was spirited and deftly executed.
Even better was "Navarra for Two Violins and Orchestra," a late 19th century work by the Spaniard Pablo de Sarasate. The composer was a violin virtuoso and wrote pieces that let him display that talent. Shaham and Anthony did justice to the effort, handing off to each other throughout the giddy waltz and generating the best energy of the evening.
The couple served up a delictable encore with a jazzy version of "Sweet Gerogia Brown" that reinforced the feel-good spirit of the evening.
The orchestra concluded with Mendelssohn's Symphony No 1 in C minor. The composer was 15 when he wrote the thing and there's not a callow moment in it. I dare you to cite that as an example to any teen acquaintance of yours who may display a shortage of motivation.
IRIS gave it a solid performance with vigor and understanding, ending the evening and the season opener with a sure-fire - if not too daring - crowd pleaser.
