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Evening Of Music Has Vienna Flavor

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By BUDDY JAUDON

ljaudon@tampatrib.com

Published: February 22, 2009

TAMPA - Half Mozart. Half Strauss. All Vienna.

On Friday night, The Florida Orchestra, under the baton of guest conductor Klauspeter Seibel, played a program that featured music by these two composers, who made their home in the Austrian capital a century apart.

The evening began with Mozart's "Symphony No. 35, Haffner." This work began its life as a serenade, and its frothy nature shows it. Seibel, who performed the piece with no sheet music before him, kept the proper amount of air in the proceedings, and the orchestra played with just the right balance of grace and humor.

The trio section of the minuet was especially fine, and the fourth movement was lightning quick, honoring Mozart's wishes that it be played as fast as possible.

Pianist Markus Groh joined Seibel and the orchestra for Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 17." Groh's reading of the work was notable for its dramatic approach. He made use more than once of somewhat pregnant pauses before attacking a phrase.

In all it was a finely tuned performance by pianist and orchestra, with Groh shining in the first movement cadenza, and the orchestra's woodwinds playing with great precision throughout.

The second half of the program was made up of three somewhat longer pieces by Johann Strauss Jr., interspersed with some of his brief confections.

Seibel spoke to the audience between pieces, giving some background and praising the orchestra. This created a more relaxed atmosphere than is common at orchestra concerts in the United States, but which audiences in England and Europe would certainly recognize. It wasn't exactly "The Last Night of the Proms," but it was light enough.

Though Strauss wanted to write serious operas, Seibel said at one point, "always there came a polka," and it was the polkas which provided the most flavor. "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" was blue enough, and the "Gypsy Baron Overture" fiery enough. But the "Thunder and Lightning Polka" made the evening.

As Seibel noted, this orchestra understands this music well.

The program repeats tonight at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater; (727) 791-7400. Tickets are $19 to $65.

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