Music Reviews

Sep 11, 2006 - The Reno Phil Opens its 38th season as high and colorful as a Reno Great Balloon Race

By Jack Neal

Summer pops concerts are wonderful, but there's nothing more exhilarating than hearing a fine symphony orchestra playing great music after a summer away from an orchestra in its best surroundings playing some of civilization's most colorful and exciting music.

Conductor Barry Jekowsky and a musically fastidious and impressive Reno Philharmonic struck all the right notes for the orchestra's 38th season opener Sunday afternoon (9/10/06) at Reno's Pioneer Center. In a city enjoying the splendor of its 25th annual Reno Great Balloon Races the orchestra's sound and its conductor's compelling interpretations were very much in touch with the beauty of a sky filled with fabulous ornaments glistening in the morning sun.

Playing only 20th Century music it was also a reminder of our more recent rich musical heritage. And so concerts march splendidly on without apology for a program sans the splendors of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

Zoltan Kodaly's vibrant "Hary Janos Suite," about the military exploits (tales, really) of the heroic Janos (a kind of Hungarian Walter Mitty) who championed downtrodden prisoners, is refreshing in our current political climate and remains as orchestrally rich in storytelling today as when it was written, circa the late 1920s.

Not only thrilling in its intensity, but virtuosic the Kodaly gives an orchestra and conductor a chance to shine from solo moment to solo moment, and from one gorgeously turned phrase after another for utterances that scale the heights for a performance that thrills in all repects.

Special recognition must be paid to many of the orchestra's principal players for the Kodaly and elsewhere in the program for dazzling and musically secure artistry: Igor Veligan (viola), Peter Lenz (cello), David Ehrke (clarinet), John Lenz (French horn), Phillip Ruder (violin), Andrea Lenz (oboe), Peter Epstein (alto saxophone), and Pau Penz (trumpet) all impressed.

Impressive, too, is the duo guitar artistry of Sergio Assad and Odair Assad, who joined forces with the orchestra and the delicate collaboration of Jekwosky for a seamless presentation of Joaquin Rodrigo's popular Concierto Madrigal for two Guitars and Orchestra.

The work combines difficult technical passages and haunting impressions of pastoral themes that are on one hand exciting and on the other hand touching in their simplicity. The humanity of the Assad Brothers playing is reminiscent of the quiet presence of Andre Segovia the icon of inpsired guitar performance. The Rodrigo is a deceptively intricately constructed work. It is being given a persuasive presentation. Persuasive, too, are the Rodrigo's two final movements that end in a flurry of brilliance. Who can resist a race to the photo finish? Not Sunday's audience which responded with a well-deserved ovation.

From its inception in the early 1940s Paul Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber has been a hit with symphony audiences. A work that's easily enjoyed, "Metamorphosis" has more going for it than its surface pleasures. Hindemith was not overwhelmed by the von Weber themes he used as a basis for the work so he felt no need to remain loyal to Weber's intentions. Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis is a sophisticated smorgasboard of invention. It abounds in excitement, colorations and vivid textures. All those things in the hands of a solid orchestra and an imaginative conductor work to advantage for an enthralling, in-depth performance.

It was also goose-bump time during a spirited collaboration between orchestra and audience for an emotional rendering of the National Anthem; the perfect beginning for a performance filled with many perfections.

Next up for the Reno Philharmonic is the orchestra's October 8 and 10 (2006) concert featuring pianist Horacio Gutierrez playing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, Copland's Fanfare for the Comon Man, and Brahms's Symphony No. 1. Reno Philharmonic subscription concerts are played at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 South Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada. For information about Reno Philharmonic concerts and events call 775-323-6393.