Music Reviews

Jan 15, 2006 - Violinist Jennifer Frautschi's wild ride with Prokofiev and the Reno Chamber Orchestra

By Jack Neal

Given what happened to him in 1913 (the riot following the first performance of his "The Rite of Spring" ) Stravinsky would be pleased.

It's now in to like what the newer kids on the block are writing.

Twenty-first Century audiences have become used to the sounds of such entrepeneurs of non-consonance as Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, and that milder proponent of what audiences used to hate - Prokofiev. The conservative days are long since gone, when audiences rioted over the daring and the unusual.

Enter exciting young American violinist Jennifer Frautschi as she teamed up with the energetic inventions of conductor Theodore Kuchar and the Reno Chamber Orchestra Saturday night (1/14/06) at Nightingale Concert Hall for a ride on the wild side through Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor.

Droll is one word for the Prokofiev. Ghostly, quirky, kooky, sweet, driven, lyric and challenging are others. Wherever this work of moods and dramatic changes went Ms. Frautschi and Mr. Kuchar went with confidence and introspection. The orchestra, on the other hand, moved with edge-of-your-seat bravado. That edginess made for an even more thrilling turn with this robust and acerbic work. Nothing settled into anything close to comfortable shoes.

Playing with many of the world's leading orchestras and keeping very prestigious company in chamber music circles, Jennifer Frautschi is a rising star on the international scene. She did nothing to taint that ascendancy with this exceptional engagement with the Reno Chamber Orchestra.

A vivid spinner of moods, with an assured technique, a translucent sound, and a sensuous way with a phrase the Frautschi talent for getting to the core of a piece is one of the great gifts this violinist brings to the concert stage. Her performance of the Prokofiev was virtuosic and dynamic.

Uncharacteristically, the orchestra's presentation of Mozart's Symphony No. 33 which opened the concert, was unsettled. It was the orchestra's first outing of the new year and perhaps it was hard to shake the blues away from a holiday season fading all too quickly into the past. It wasn't a bad performance, just not as revelatory and smooth under Mr. Kuchar's baton as Reno audiences have come to expect. Instead of being full of surprises the Mozart came off as lightweight and a tad bumpy.

Schubert's "Little C major Symphony", his Symphony No. 6, landed on the sparkling side of warm and charming. Its opening Beethovenesque profundities, those big opening sounds, gave way to an unabashed romp with Schubert's not quite heart-on-the-sleeve romanticism that wears well. At the concert's final curtain the evening's veneer Mozart gave way to some good old Viennese dazzle, for - if not a triumphant finale - at least a pleasing one.

The concert will be repeated Sunday (1/15/06) at 2 p.m.

All Reno Chamber Orchestra subscription concerts are played at Nightingale Concert Hall, 900 North Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada. The orchestra s next series of concerts, February 25 and 26 (2006), will feature cellist Zuill Bailey and the music of J.C. Bach, Haydn, Bloch and Tchaikovsky. For information call 775-348 9413.