Music Review: Chamber Orchestra
Firm direction provides many musical delights

Cliff Colnot has been one of the most successful of visiting conductors appearing with orchestral ensembles at the IU Jacobs School in recent years. Undoubtedly his work with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training ensemble connected with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and with other aggregations of young musicians, has been a factor, giving him an understanding of the focused guidance they need and the patient temperament it sometimes takes to get desired results from those still very much in the learning phase of their careers.

But another reason surely is his musicianship, which reveals itself in how he makes chosen scores emerge as not only carefully studied but fresh. These qualities were in evidence Wednesday evening in Auer Hall when he led the IU Chamber Orchestra in a cheerful program consisting of Mozart’s lovely Sinfonia Concertante in E-Flat Major, K.297b, and Stravinsky’s ebullient Pulcinella Suite.

It was a concert of just an hour’s duration, but that proved to be sufficient gratification for this listener, considering the high quality of performance. Colnot has opted for brevity on previous occasions, with similarly felicitous results. Preferable to do less in better fashion, he apparently believes, than tackle too much and thereby short-change the music.

The Sinfonia Concertante activates a wind quartet to do its serenading in context and contrast with the rest of the orchestra. The four chosen did a stellar job with that assignment, adroitly handling their often demanding material: Jennifer Berg, oboe; Jennifer Petkus, clarinet; William May, bassoon, and Timothy Huizenga, horn. Colnot made sure to merge the soloists into the orchestral weave.

The Pulcinella Suite calls on numerous orchestra members, including a very busy concertmaster (Michael Waterman), to exhibit solo excellence, and frequently to do so in uncovered circumstances that make mistakes noticeably embarrassing. The bobbles on this occasion were few and not disturbing. The delights, on the other hand, were numerous in a reading that stressed the exuberance and comic nature of this charming, neo-classical ballet score, built on melodies by the 18th century Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. The music contains rhythmic shifts at every turn, but most everything seemed in order or, one might rather say in apt description, planned disorder. Colnot had matters firmly in control.

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The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.