Las Vegas Philharmonic - From The Heart Of Europe in Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com

I hadn't thought of it before: Is Germany the "heart of Europe"? Other nations might disagree, but I'll give the Germans the benefit of the doubt because I'm going to poke a bit of fun at them. In its second performance of the 2003-2004 season, "From the Heart of Europe," the Las Vegas Philharmonic featured three works from Teutonic geniuses Paul Hindemith, Felix Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms.

Ever watch Olympic figure skating? Oh, just admit it. A skater will normally do the most difficult jump in the first few seconds of her performance - partly because she isn't yet fatigued, and partly because she doesn't want to worry about it through the whole routine. The Las Vegas Philharmonic opened tonight with a veritable triple axel - a frenetic sprint of sixteenth notes by the string section at the beginning of the Hindemith piece. Conductor Hal Weller told me that keeping several dozen musicians perfectly in sync during such a passage was probably the toughest part of the evening's performance. They landed it nicely, though.

	Click photo to visit Paul Hindemith.

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) is known as a leading "modernist" composer, but don't let that scare you. His music, while complex and occasionally dissonant, is still melodic and beautiful. As associate conductor Dr. Richard McGee writes in the program notes, Hindemith "felt strongly that music should serve the practical purpose of communication with the listener rather than simply intellectual stimulation of the performer." Contrast this with such modern composers as Claude Debussy, who seemed to have written much of his music for the purpose of annoying himself.

That string-section sprint was the opening to Hindemith's "Concert Music for Strings and Brass," written in 1930. The Phil performed the second of the two movements, a fugue containing a full range of intensities like a mini-symphony. For much of the time, the strings created a windstorm of sound punctuated by powerful thunderclaps from the horns.


	Click photo to visit Felix Mendelssohn.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) wrote an orchestral suite of thirteen sections to accompany the Shakespeare play "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The Philharmonic performed four of these tonight, starting with the overture - written when Mendelssohn was a teenager. (MTV and muscle cars didn't exist in his day.) This piece has the grand sound of such other overtures as Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmilla," but with its quick violin passages and pizzicato (plucked) notes on the violas, it conveys a very Shakespearean sense of mischief.

Speaking of mischief, scherzo is the Italian word for "joke." The second section performed by the Phil was a playful scherzo featuring fast, tricky notes by the woodwinds (roughly a double axel). Why did Mendelssohn use an Italian term? It's traditional in music to use Italian to describe features such as speed ("presto," meaning "as fast as a rabbit pulled from a hat"), pitch ("soprano," describing the high-pitched bark of a pistol on HBO), or humor (scherzo, referring to something lightweight, such as Benito Mussolini or some other joke played on the Germans). Fearing that the German language contained no word for "joke" or "humor," I checked www.freetranslation.com and found that "joke" translates into German as witz. Yeah, I'd have gone with the Italian, too.

The third Mendelssohn movement was a nocturne - a calm piece written with evening performances in mind. Set in a major key and opening with quiet chords from the brass section, this piece radiated serenity. Just when I thought the piece had ended, the horns segued into a pretty passage of soft staccato notes backed by the plucking of cellos. Wow! It's no wonder that Mendelssohn's time is called the Romantic period.

The fourth Mendelssohn movement was the "Wedding March", the familiar tune performed so often at weddings after the bride and groom have said "I do" and it's too late to take it back. This joyous, triumphant piece sounds wonderful with its brass fanfares decorating the string melody. The Phil played it at a brisk tempo, as if the bride and groom had a honeymoon plane to catch.

	Click photo to visit Johannes Brahms.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote only four concerti, and his final one was a bit of a throwback to earlier times - a concerto grosso utilizing two soloists instead of one. Tonight's guests were violinist Stefan Milenkovich and cellist Ani Aznavorian (opening photo). Many concerti pit the soloist against the orchestra in a musical duel, but Brahms's work blends the two soloists with each other and with the orchestra in a graceful ensemble instead of a competition.

The first of the three movements, played Allegro, was lively and grand, somewhat like Mendelssohn's overture. Cello solos can sound a bit dour, and after an initial solo of sparse low notes, Ani later showed off the higher, sweeter nature of a cello in the hands of a master. Stefan contrasted Ani's mellow sound with his tremendous agility on the violin. The second movement, played Andante, featured calm, dignified passages with the soloists playing together in perfect synchronization.

	Click photo to visit Stefan Milenkovich.

The third movement was played Vivace non Troppo, meaning "lively, but not too much or people will think it's a scherzo." This piece hinted of old folk tunes, with whimsical solos by Stefan backed by fast, somewhat intense music from the orchestra. I was thinking that the Philharmonic might better have ended the evening's performance with Hindemith's powerful piece, but the Brahms concerto built into a grandiose finale that brought the full-house crowd to its feet.

Enough German humor, already! I'm at my witz end. The Phil (www.lvphil.com) will perform its Holiday Celebration Concert on December 13 and 14 and continue its Classical Series on February 28. I can't wait to hear from Europe's other body parts.

— By Robert LaGrone, Las Vegas Jetsetters Magazine Entertainment Editor.