The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 25

"v- Akron Beacon Journal Monday. July 21. 1986 C7 Orchestra avoids summer sameness at Blossom REVIEW By Donald Rosenborg Beacon Journal music critic Summer music usually means familiar music. Tis the season when orchestras present so many programs that rehearsal time is precious (translation: inadequate). The answer to this plight is to play favorites.

Raise the flag. then. The program that the Cleveland Orchestra offered Sunday night at Blossom Music Center under resident conductor Jahja Ling avoided the predictable. If the composers were such friendly fellows as Beethoven, Haydn and Bruckner, the works strayed quite a distance from the norm. One of the night's pieces, Bruckner's Psalm 150, was even Lconore overtures or oft-played symphonies but by the Coriolan overture and the Symphony No.

4. Ling's account of the Coriolan was broad and weighty, not as propulsively tragic as some performances, but vital, nonetheless. The Fourth Symphony received an especially suave, observant interpretation, in which textures were clear and tempos were set that enabled Beethoven's details to make themselves known. Ling established a surprisingly brisk tempo in the second movement, but he then pointed out contrasts of material midway by holding back the pace ever so slightly. Franklin Cohen's clarinet solos here were as soft as velvet.

In the third-movement trio, Ling enjoyed the teasing lifts in the violins. The finale raced sanely, capturing the music's ebullient spirit with joyful abandon. Although the sun was setting by the time the concert's second half began, the ensuing works and performances maintained a bright, energetic frame of mind. Haydn's Mass in Time of War (Paukenmesse) is a magnificent example of this composer's seemingly boundless enthusiasm for matters religious. A melodic gra-ciousness pervades much of the writing, which only occasionally explores the darker side of the subject.

Ling kept the cheerful pages of the mass moving with just the right thrust and rhythmic bounce, and he deftly provided a spaciousness in the more dramatic moments. His contact with the Blossom Festival Chorus was close, and the choristers responded to his concern with singing that was transparent, well-blended and firmly supported. The stylishness of the performance partially could be discerned in the pronunciation of the Latin, which was sung in its Austrian form was enunciated "Qvi;" "pacem" came out The vocal quartet did fine work, most notably bass-baritone Gary Relyea, whose artistry was wonderfully sonorous and warm. His commanding singing of the Qui tollis was matched by principal cellist Stephen Geber's fervent solo. Soprano Kaaren Erickson had a fluttery, tentative start, but her silvery voice soared nicely in the Benedictus.

The other singers, both sensitive, were mezzo-soprano Karen Brunssen (replacing the indisposed Barbara Conrad) and tenor Jon Garrison. Finally, Miss Erickson took her place among the chorus for her brief solo in the Bruckner, a piece of festive extravagance into which Ling and troops poured their collective hearts. The night ended on the word "Hallelujah!" in good old major. Send in the Marines! There's a war going on here A lit?) given its first Cleveland Orchestra performance on this occasion. Along for the program's second half was a vocal quartet and the Blossom Festival Chorus.

Luckily, concert's fascination didn't merely extend to the choice of music. Ling presided over performances that were shapely, expressive and tightly controlled. Everything sounded trim and fresh, as if Ling had been given more time for polishing than realism could possibly allow. The first half of the program was given over to Beethoven, who was represented not by any of the Carrie Henn in Aliens A Friday is now the types ready to shoot at anything that moves, a handsome fellow who can be counted on to stay close to the heroine, a black sergeant who is a seasoned veteran and a young Puerto Rican who is tough, wild and a woman. There are old cliches and there are new cliches.

The Marines are loud and foul-mouthed and they sound like they come from the wrong side of the tracks. The party also includes a profit-minded bureaucrat and an android, otherwise described as a synthetic man. About to undertake a hazardous mission, he gets some advice and replies: "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." It's the best line in the movie. They land to find a dark, damp planet instead of a a dark, damp jungle. Marching deeper into the colony, they are surrounded not by savage guerrilla fighters but by savage creatures lying in wait.

They also find one survivor, a little girl Ripley takes under her wing. Aliens builds slowly but steadily to the point at which the action explodes. After that, it never stops, resulting in a 45-minute rollercoaster ride. first clash leaves the Marines badly outnumbered. Custer had better odds at the Little Big REVIEW Movie: Aliens Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Lance Henriksen Director: James Cameron Studio: 20th Century-Fox Theaters: Akron Square, Chaoel Hill, Kent, Circle Mall Rating: for violence and language has been traveling all that time in a space ship.

Since she has been in a deep sleep, she has aged not at all. Officials of the company she worked for are not happy that she blew up an expensive space station just because of some silly, slimy creature she can't even prove existed. They prove she is wrong by pointing out that the planet she says is inhabited by this terrible creature has been colonized. Then one day they lose contact with their colonists. Nothing will do but to send in the Marines.

Ripley reluctantly agrees to go along as adviser. Those Marines are right out of' dozens of low-budget war movies. The characters include an officer who has never seen battle and will go to pieces, some gung-ho Sigourney Weaver (left), IamZmBovi Showcasshoppes Haferd Every Friday in Lifestyle By Tony MastroiannI Special to the Beacon Journal Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sy'vester Stallone had better watch out. In Aliens, a lady named Sigourney Weaver makes them look like sissies. When it comes to taking massive, heavy artillery pieces capable of destroying a small army and marching into battle with them, she can do it just as expertly, and she does it without any hammy snarls.

In Alien, a 1979 movie, Miss Weaver portrayed a character named Ripley, the sole survivor of a clash with a slimy monster who had a nasty habit of incubating in a buddy's belly. She's back as Ripley in Aliens, a sequel even more sensational in its own way than the original. Alien was less a science-fiction movie than it was an old-fashioned monster movie set in outer space. Aliens also is less a science-fiction movie than it is an action film, more specifically an old-fashioned war movie with all those old war-movie cliches. The fact that it takes place in outer space and the enemy is creepy monsters changes that not at all.

It is 57 years later and Ripley 3 weekly religionethics day on the admitted "bit of an egghead" revival session with "roof- to 1'HF 1 5 1 inn, i i WE BOUGHT THE FACTORY SHOWROOM! TRUCKLOADS OF LA-Z-BOY RECLINERS ARE COMING AND THE SECOND ONE IS HERE! NOW SAVE 40 to 50 FROM MANUFACTURERS SUGG. LIST PRICE Over 100 assorted Swivel horn. Ripley saves the remnants of the squad after the first encounter and organizes them for further battle. Somewhere on that planet, there is the big monster with whom to contend, the one that keeps laying eggs from which little monsters come. The finale finds mother fighting mother, Ripley in defense of the little girl she has found and the big monster enraged at having her eggs blown up.

There's no doubt it's woman versus woman as Ripley utters an epithet and starts swinging. It's the kind of hand-to-hand combat that even those two fellows mentioned earlier have never engaged in. To say more would be to spoil one of the picture's better surprises. Alien was directed by Ridley Scott. The sequel is the product of writer-director James Cameron, who made The Terminator.

With Aliens, he puts himself at the top of action-movie directors. Just when you think the movie is over, Cameron comes back with another piece of action more daring than the last. While Aliens has more than its share of special effects, the heart of the film's success is its intense, unrelenting and spectacular action. 5 WAYS TO BUY MasterCard, Visa, Check, Cash, Convenient Monthly Payments Arranged For Qualified Riivorc lead page of the Lifestyle Section in the Beacon Journal. 1 1 Laura Haferd, an who loves a good, i.

it r. JK -s A I raising gospel will continue her excellent coverage of religion that has appeared in Saturday's edition for the last two years. As Laura explains, "Religion is central to the way Americans live, and in Northeast Ohio it is a vital part of our personal and public lives." CiftcrnLon cmnnth.writinn I aura ctiiHiorl Asian religions while earning her bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Rockers, Reclina-Rockers, Wall Chairs, Sofas and Sleeper Sofas. Many one-of-a-kind items. Don't Miss Out! First Come, First Served.

AND HUNDREDS OF OTHER ITEMS AT DISCOUNTED PRICES We always try to have the sharpest prices on LA-Z-BOY Recliners, but this special purchase of the factory showroom (samples made up for sales meetings and pictures for catalogues and advertising), makes it possible to give the biggest discounts we have ever given! Choose from DOZENS of the newest styles covered in the latest fabrics. Just SAVINGS OF $185 on a LA-Z-ROCKER Swivel Rocker Chicago. She studied early Christianity at the university ot Notre uame, ang received a master degree in journalism from Ohio State University. She enjoys hearing from lay people and clergy alike. Call her if you wish, but be sure to read her expanded coverage of the religionethics "beat" in Lifestyle.

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