Guest conductor leads orchestra

Those who were looking for entertainment last Sunday afternoon certainly found it. The University orchestra performed its second concert this year under the baton of the world-famous guest conductor Uri Mayer. As is typical of IU's musical ensembles, the orchestra gave a masterful performance of a wonderful program. And perhaps the best thing about the concert was that it was completely devoid of the dissonant monstrosities that slightly dampened most other performances.\nThe first piece on the program was Mozart's three-movement "Paris" Symphony (No. 31 in D Major). Although the work is delightful in its own way, there isn't a horrible amount of anything to say about it. It was typical Mozart - jolly, spirited, playful, and comical. Not flashy, yet not dull. Not fiery, yet not watery. It was just there. But that doesn't mean it lacked beautiful melodies and difficult technique. On the contrary, those two things abounded. After all, if Mozart wrote bad music we wouldn't still be listening to it. Perhaps the music is not attention-grabbing because Mozart wrote music as a career and not as a form of emotional expression. But that's OK - at least the piece is musical.\nThe second piece on the program, however, was just the opposite. It was an emotional whirlwind that took the audience to another universe. It was Richard Strauss's "Tod und Verklärung" (Death and Transfiguration). The piece was relatively long, but it completely absorbed the listeners and immersed them in a flood of some very deep and powerful music. The orchestration was relatively inflated, but it was used to good effect. Every entrance and extra sound made sense and contributed to the overall effect of the piece. It was also a demanding piece for the musicians to perform, but credit goes to them for turning a few printed notes into beautiful music. In one word, this piece is best described as "powerful."\nThe final piece was Chabrier's "España." This piece is a typical late 19th century French orchestral work. It sounds unmistakably like Offenbach or Saint-Saëns, which isn't bad, but it's definitely too French to be Spanish. True, there were some Spanish-sounding passages in the piece, but it still sounded like a Frenchman trying to imitate another style. Like the first piece, this one was just there as well. Nothing spectacular, yet not a disaster either. In spite of this, however, the concert was still well-performed and made a nice Sunday afternoon adventure.