thurcday, february 17, 1977
daily nebraskan
tonductorless
Dy Charlie Krig
Thirty-six musicians playing without a conductor
sounds like a potential disaster. But instead of a disaster,
there should be delightful music this Saturday at 8 pjn.
when the Prague Chamber Orchestra appears in Kimball
Recital Hall.
An orchestra without a conductor might sound like
.some gimmick but it really reflects the musicians1 desire
to create a production with no single person or instrument
outshining the others.
Their idea is to make each section equally good, form
ing an ensemble that rises above individual talent making
the whole better than the sum of its parts.
The orchestra was founded in 1951 by members of the
Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in hopes of
fusing 36 people into a classic ensemble. The group was to
utilize full instrumentation to perform pieces for strings,
woodwinds, brass and percussion. . ,
Final product
- The final product was achieved with advice from
Vaclav Talich, noted Czechoslovakian musician, about
accoustical balance, group concentration and expression.
The orchestral debut at the Prague Spring Festival one
year later proved that its work and practice had been
worth it and the group has been together ever since.
A major reason for the orchestra's endurance is that
the members learn the scores, knowing from the beginning
they will be playing without a director.
Local jazz bands
in concert Friday
In an effort to support and promote the local jazz
music scene, radio station KFMQ and the Union Program
Council are sponsoring a jazz' concert in the Nebraska
Union ballroom Friday at 8 pjn. ,
The concert will feature three local bands, the Chuck
Pennington Trio, Orion and the eight-piece Omaha Jazz
Society Band featuring Luigi Waits. After the bands' per
formance, there will be a jam session among the members
of all three groups.
The $230 admission charge will include the music as
well as intermission entertainment provided by Nebraska's
only professional juggler, Jek Kelly.
According to the concert's organizer, KFMQ's jazz
show host Dave Landis, the profits from the show will go
to the Lincoln Jazz Society. The society is organized to
promote jazz and its appreciation in Lincoln.
Tickets for the concert are available at the door only.
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This allows the group to perform like a small chamber
orchestra with emphasis on the presentation and
orchestrations plus the relationship of each part to the
entire work.
The orchestra has also made more than 80 records
which are available only in Europe.
The orchestra is now a sovereign state-subsidized
ensemble after becoming independent in 1965 and then
joining the Music Studio in Prague in 1967.
Works ranging from the Baroque style to the latest
compositions by Czech writers are among the orchestra's
repertorire. The concert at Kimball Recital Hall will in
clude Serenade No. 3 for Seven Instruments by Martinu,
Haydn's Surprise Symphony, Mozart's Jupiter Symphony
and Serenata Giocosst for Chamber Orchestra by Jirke.
Third in a series
The Prague Chamber Orchestra's appearance is the
third in a four-part Czech Fcst Concert Series resulting
from the Stephen Jclinek Memorial Concert fund
established last year through the NU Foundation by the
estate of Jelinek's daughter, Viola Carmen Jelinek.
Miss Jelinek's will stipulated that the residue of her
estate be invested by the foundation. The bequest totaled
a third of a million dollars and the income is used to
support annual concerts on the UNL campus in memory
of Viola's father. The inaugural year of the Jelinek
concerts is dedicated to his heritage.
The final part of the Czech Fest Series will be a per
formance by the Czech State Orchestra instead of the
originally scheduled performance by the Czech Phil
harmonic. The Philharmonic tour was canceled by the
Czech Government Arts Agency, Pragoconcert.
Tickets are available for the two remaining concerts.
Seats for the Prague Chamber Orchestra cost $3 for stu
dents and $5 for others while the Czec!). State Orchestra
prices are $4 for students, $7 for others.
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Photo courtesy of Columbia Artists
The conductor-less Prague Chamber Orchestra, featuring 36 virtuoso musicians, will return to Lincoln for a con
cert at Kimball Recital Hall Saturday niht.
arts and entertain m
ent
"Network" pitched to just below controlled hysteria
Review By Will Huffman -
Imagine hzt you hare jvtt tuned in to
the 5 p.m. national news. The dignified"
anchorman, a familiar figure, appears and
says:
"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like at
this moment to announce that I will be
retiring from this program in two weeks
time because of poor ratings ...
"And since this show was the only
thing I had going for me in my life, I have
decided to kill myself ...
"Ill tell you what I'm going to do. I'm
going to blow my brains out right on this
program a week from today .. .
"So tune in next Tuesday. Thatll give
the public relations people a week to pro
mote the show, and we ought to get a hell -of
a rating with that, a 50-share, easy
People and motives "
Thus begins Network, a broadside
aimed at television-the people behind it
and their motives, and the way it affects
and controls our lives.
The film is the product of two veterans
from television's "Golden Age" of live
drama of the early 50s -writer Paddy v
Chayefsky (author of such famous tele
plays as Twelve Angry Men and Marty)
and director Sidney Lumet (who wrote
or directed more than 300 TV dramas in
the early 50s.
In Network, Chayefsky and Lumet'
focus the brunt of their attack against one
area in particular the news. What would
happen, Chayefsky asks, if a distinguished
news anchorman named Howard Beale
in the CrorJateReasonerChancellor mold
were to go bonkers on the air and
announce he was planning to blow his
brains out on live, coast-to-coast television
next week?
This proposition provides the starting
point for Network, and after an intro
duction like that, we never are certain
where reality ends and satire begins.
Network is populated with outrageous
characters in an outrageous environment,
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Photo courttsy of MGM
Peter Finch, in his next to last role, plays the mad mad saviour of Network.
yet somehow all the madness seems almost
natural. William Holden plays the chief of
the news division, seemingly the only per
son in the entire network with any claim
to sanity.
lie vainly attempts to protect his old
friend Beale from the approaching ridi
cule, but run? up against a ferociously
'bitchy, ratings-hungry vice president in
charge of programming (Faye Duaaway)
and a profit-obsessed corporate hustler
(Robert DuvaH) who see the anchorman's
on-the-air antics as an avenue to a bigger
audience, higher ratings and increased
profits.
Show-biz extravaganza
As Beale descends deeper into in
sanity, the evening news show is trans
formed into a nightly show-biz extrava
ganza, which proves so successful that it
launches a series of spin-offs (like The Mao
Tse-tung Hour, which features a group of
terrorists that calls itself the Ecumen
ical liberation Army.)
As if all this lunacy weren't enough,
Chayefsky and Lumet decide to take on
big business. The chairman of the board of
the conglomerate that controls the net
work (Ned Beatty) is represented as a
mystical god-like figure who tells us that
there are no nations anymore-only AT&T,
IBM ?nd General Motor.
And American society as a whole is
portrayed as faceless, mindless, mass
controlled and manipulated by the al
mighty tube.
7 - - Jwvastatingly
illustrates this omnipotent power. During
one of Beale 's mad tirades, he exhorts the
viewer to rise and go to his window and
yell with all his might, Tra as mad as hcD,
and I'm not going to take it anymore."
Lumet cuts to a large apartment building,
and soon the air is filled with shouting as,
one-by-one, the disgruntled residents raise
their windows and vent their frustrations.
Controlled hysteria
Most of Network is pitched jusf below
the level of controlled hysteria-there is
always a lot of yelling going on. Lumet
always seems to function best in a claus
trophobic urban setting, especially New
York City (as in Serpico and Dog Day
Afternoon) and in Network he is in top
form with the camera gliding through
the frenzied TV studios and plush corpor
ate meeting rooms.
Chayefsky's script pulls out the stops
and never lets up as his targets (and the
viewer) are bombarded with ferocious
fury. In The Hospital, Chayefsky makes
his points by using die most outrageous
situations as if they were normal, everyday
occurences. , ,
The acting is vigorous, to say the least.
There isnt a hint of restraint in any of the
characters. Dunaway, Holden and Duvall
all give solid performances, and Beatty
plays his small but vivid role'of the su
preme corporate being with something
approaching religious fervor.
Peter Finch's portrayal of Howard
Beale stands above the rest. It was Finch's
next-to-last role (he died Jan. 14), and he
gives the character of Howard Beale a
manic energy that never degenerates into
haminess or histrionics.
Deservedly, Finch has been nominated
for an Oscar, along with Holden, Dun
away and Beatty. ,
Network is an engrossing and powerful
film, but ultimately it gets lost in its own
bombast. If Chayefsky had taken a more
subtle approach, maybe some of his grie
vances could be taken more seriously.
As it is, Chayefsky's Network is like
a religious fanatic preaching on a street
comer-riveting and entertaining but too
excessively emotional for comfort.
