Arts news and views

ArtSnob is your site for fast postings of Daily News reviews, local art happenings and reader feedback.

Drop your comments here, e-mail us at arts@adn.com, or call Arts and Entertainment editor Mike Dunham at (907)-257-4332 or toll-free in Alaska, 800-478-4200, ext. 332.


Adams featured in The New Yorker - 5/8/2008 10:20 am

FIRST FRIDAY RAMBLES - DID YOU SEE THE SHOW? - 5/2/2008 10:49 am

Review: Wooten woos a Bear Tooth crowd - 5/2/2008 2:47 am

Alaska Junior Theater announces next season, includes Black Violin - 5/1/2008 5:06 pm

Head's up: Put on your armor and prepare for satire! - 4/30/2008 12:16 pm

ASO's next season peppered with premieres - 4/27/2008 7:04 pm

Review: "The Nerd" - 4/27/2008 9:29 am

REVIEW: Anchorage Symphony with Naoko Takada - 4/27/2008 12:37 am

Did you see the show? - 4/25/2008 10:57 am

Review: Franti's show volcanic, if you don't mind a few lectures - 4/18/2008 1:59 am

ACA announces next season: Make way for the Knights Who Say "Ni!" - 4/16/2008 11:49 am

Review: "Cirque Dreams" jungle scene dazzles the eye - 4/16/2008 5:03 am

Review: Opera's latest big on laughs, style - 4/13/2008 12:53 am

Review: You should've seen these dancers! Wait, you still can. - 4/12/2008 1:27 am

REVIEW: UAA NEW DANCES - 4/11/2008 11:46 pm

REVIEW: FLAMEL'S DREAM - 4/11/2008 11:44 pm

NATS Voice Competition - 4/11/2008 1:54 pm

WARHOL COMING? Mayor's Arts Awards - 4/8/2008 11:02 am

Anime-ted argument - 4/7/2008 6:19 pm

REVIEW: Anonymous 4 - 4/5/2008 10:43 pm

FIRST FRIDAY RAMBLES - 4/4/2008 10:25 pm

LA Casting Call - 4/3/2008 10:42 am

REVIEW: Anchorage Symphony

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein: Performed the Dvorak concerto.Cellist Alisa Weilerstein: Performed the Dvorak concerto.By MAIA NOLAN

“Sunshine and Shadow” was the theme of the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra’s most recent offering, and both the title and the musical selections were suitable to this time of year when the days start to lengthen but the nights are still dark and chilly. Saturday night, under the direction of guest conductor Jung-Ho Pak, the orchestra presented three pieces selected for their respective lightness and/or darkness. While Saturday’s program did not represent the Symphony’s best work this season, an impassioned performance by guest soloist cellist Alisa Weilerstein offered more than adequate compensation for any shortcomings.

The first offering, Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor, is uncharacteristically heavy for the Classical composer, who was inspired in this case by the works of J.S. Bach. Pak had rearranged the strings, seating the celli and violas in the center of the orchestra, bordered by the violins, a grouping that he explained was common in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is regaining popularity among contemporary orchestras. While the arrangement seemed to provide a good anchor for the adagio, the strings seemed to lack power throughout the Mozart. The notes were there, but the forcefulness demanded by the dark, strident piece was missing. It wanted a touch more volume and a deeper sense of power.

Coupled nicely with the shadowy, Bach-influenced Mozart was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in D major, the promised “sunshine.” Pak’s conducting is more balletic than that of the Symphony’s music director and regular conductor, Randall Fleischer, who has a more energetic style, and possibly as a result, the orchestra’s usual spark seemed to be missing. The music itself was lovely as always; however, the Beethoven did want a little more precision to deliver the crisp, sharp sound it deserved.

If there was any spirit missing in the first half of the program, though, there was rich compensation following intermission, when Weilerstein stepped onstage to perform Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor, op. 104. Weilerstein wrapped herself around her instrument, delivering a performance so fluid and physical it was hard to accept that the cello wasn’t just an extension of her body (or vice versa). A graceful and passionate musician, Weilerstein seemed to approach each cadenza as though it were the last time she would ever play, drawing her bow away from the strings only with reluctance.

While Weilerstein’s connection with her instrument was so intimate that at times the rest of the orchestra seemed to disappear behind her, it was not an exclusive relationship; rather, she drew the audience into her reverie. Her performance was hypnotic; there were moments at which the entire Atwood Concert Hall held its collective breath, hanging on her every note. She was, without a doubt, the high point of the evening, and one of the highlights of the Symphony’s season so far.

Maia Nolan lives and writes in Anchorage.


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  1     January 27, 2008 - 7:57am | arts_reviews

"Shadow, Sunshine, Sweets"

The polished swing music heard in the lobby during the intermission of Saturday's ASO concert came from the Mirror Lake Middle School Jaxx Band. The group, along with the school's orchestra and concert band, are headed to Boston for a big music competition in April and, from the sound of it on Saturday, should do pretty well.

To help raise funds for the trip, the kids thumped the drum (so to speak) to get patrons down to the ground floor where they could buy bags of jelly bean rejects - misshaped, stuck together or otherwise irregular jellified "Belly Flops."

I didn't know you could make a rejectable jelly bean, but the flavor is the same. One party said the band had received a donation of 4,000 pounds of the things. At $10 a bag (they're available by the case, too) that would go far toward covering costs.

Jelly Belly addicts can find out more by calling 632-5524.

- Mike Dunham