[November 21, 2009] Classical music review: Dallas Symphony Orchestra delivers French, not flawless, program Tweet Nov 21, 2009 (The Dallas Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- There's a French accent to this week's Dallas Symphony Orchestra program. The Bizet C-major Symphony and Ravel Bolero are obvious entries, Haydn's Symphony No. 86 in D major and Henri Vieuxtemps' A minor Violin Concerto (No. 5) less so. But the Haydn was composed for a Parisian concert series, and Vieuxtemps, a Belgian trained in France, helped establish a Franco-Belgian school of violin playing that lasted into the 20th century. Although as delightful a symphony as any in the repertory (and a favorite of WRR radio programmers), the Bizet is surprisingly rare in the concert hall. Music director Jaap van Zweden led an exhilarating performance, strings in particularly fine form and principal oboist Erin Hannigan contributing warm-toned, beautifully expressive second-movement solos. But the finale would have been more graceful a notch or two slower. And fortissimos tended to be a bit overheated for the music at hand. Van Zweden and the orchestra patiently paced Ravel's crescendo, Daniel Florio supplying a quartz-locked snare-drum continuo (no small accomplishment). Wilfred Roberts again produced some of the creamiest sounds imaginable from a bassoon, and John Kitzman's trombone got just naughty enough. The ending whipped up a splendid racket. The influence of period-instruments performances was evident in the lighter touch, sparing vibrato and more rhetorical emphases applied to the Haydn. Evidence suggests later 18th-century minuets like this one ought to go yet faster -- at a pretty brisk one beat per measure -- but van Zweden certainly made the outer movements exhilarating. If you're going to program one of those virtuoso 19th-century violin concertos, you'd better be prepared to nail its every challenge. DSO associate concertmaster Gary Levinson displayed impressive skill in the Vieuxtemps, but also some rough bowing and not-quite-flawless fireworks. The orchestra accompanied ably, but occasionally a little too loudly. With more and more conductors now reverting to the older tradition of seating second violins on the right of the stage, opposite the firsts, I keep hoping van Zweden will, too. It would have highlighted some exchanges otherwise buried in both the Haydn and the Bizet. PLAN YOUR LIFE: Repeats at 8 tonight and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora. $20 to $114. 214-692-0203. www.dallassymphony.com. To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Dallas Morning News Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]