MUSIC REVIEW

Orchestra clarinetists have most of the fun

Who knew it could be so much fun to play - and hear - clarinets?

As with sports fans, patrons at the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s season-closing River Rhapsodies Chamber Series might disagree. The Beethoven crowd and the Wagner crowd will stand by their guys. And fans of contemporary music will contend that the evening began with the strongest piece, the dark, haunting O Vis Aeternitatis for string quartet and piano by Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Composer of the Year Christopher Theofanidis.

But the quartet of three clarinetists and one bass clarinet were clearly having, and transmitting, the most fun as they bounced, swayed and grinned their way through Histoire du Tango by Astor Piazzolla. (The giddiest, giggliest movement is titled “Bordello.”)

The chamber series is a little like attending a musical evening in someone’s living room- the large, glassily contemporary living room of the Clinton Presidential Center’s Great Hall, where, once the sun has set enough to raise the blinds, you’re not viewing a backyard but the twilit downtown Little Rock skyline.

It’s fine to set your empty wine glass on the floor under the seat in front of you. A woman across the aisle might slip her shoes off and let her red-socked feet relax. The potter beside you will be entranced by the Ludwig van Beethoven piece, Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, op.70 No. 1, “Ghost,” and make sketches for pots and vessels in her small spiral notebook. During a break, another concertgoer might lament that her young people who started out with the clarinet never got past the squeaky stage, though they took up other instruments that stuck.

The musicians themselves provide a good deal of the night’s intimacy, introducing each piece with a bit of its back story. Sitting up close, you can watch the unspoken communication among them - eye contact, assertive eyebrows, even watching one another’s hands plucking the strings in sync. And when you leave for the evening, you can tell the flutist - your instrument, the one you did stick with - that you enjoyed her notes in Siegfried Idyll, the peaceful finale by Richard Wagner, and wished she’d had more to play.

Arkansas, Pages 14 on 04/23/2014

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