Music Reviews

Jan 14, 2008 - The Reno Philharmonic's elegant "Grace and Fire" concert has plenty of both

By Jack Neal

At midway in conductor Barry Jekowsky’s last season with the Reno Philharmonic it’s safe to say that both the orchestra and its conductor are holding up quite well. Yesterday’s matinee concert (1/13/08) at Reno’s Pioneer Center was virtually sold out, exciting and sumptuous to experience, and was – almost without exception - beautifully played.

It’s always risky to title a symphony concert “Grace and Fire” for fear of a “Grace under Fire” comparison. No need to worry. The program of Mauro Giuliani’s Guitar Concerto No. 3 featuring 14-year-old guitar soloist Travis Johnson, Manuel de Falla’s Three Dances from “The Three-Cornered Hat” featuring the entrancing flamenco dancer Yaelisa, and Piotr Tchaikovsky’s popular Symphony No. 5 in E minor, has oodles of both.

It’s always a thrill to hear prodigies perform and guitarist Travis Johnson is a prodigy who thrills. He brings a fluid technique to the Giuliani, and a wisdom beyond his years not to make too much out of what was intended to be a display piece. The result is a charming presentation of a glittering 19th century concerto that delights. For concertgoers in a volume-weary world the delicacy of the classical guitar, even with sounds modestly boosted by amplification, is refreshing. Refreshing, too, is Travis Johnson’s playing which is entirely on the mark. It is a stylish, handsome presentation.

It’s been years since I experienced dance as a solo enhancement for a symphony concert. The addition of San Francisco based flamenco artist Yaelisa for the orchestra’s performance of Falla’s “The Three-cornered Hat” is, to paraphrase an old lyric, “the dance that makes the music sing.” Passion, elegant use of hands, and the precision of flamenco are what Yaelisa brings to the concert hall. She is billed as “her generation’s finest flamenco artist” and there’s everything about her Reno debut that makes that accolade seem absolutely true.

The Falla is wonderfully nationalistic. It’s Spanish, through and through polished with the sophistication of Falla’s years in Paris to hone edges into a burnished score that’s irresistible. Yaelisa, the Philharmonic and Jekowsky strike gold with all the right notes, poses and passion. Kudos also for a presentation that is handsomely staged and lit.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, brilliant as it is with mood, melody and harmony, is an orchestral tour de force. The second movement, in particular, is well crafted, colorfully orchestrated and has a memorable melody for solo horn, plaintively played by John Lenz. When it’s played with-heart-on-the-sleeve musicality it is drop-dead gorgeous. And so it is with this impassioned performance.

A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, Jekowsky takes an intensely physical approach to conducting. As with Bernstein’s eternal optimism and the Tchaikovsky’s theme of “turn not to sorrow,” Jekowsky taps into the work’s grand design moving from the symphony’s solemn opening to a triumphant finale that hails humanity’s perseverance over Fate. Jekowsky’s is an emotional approach. There are no dull moments. Tchaikovsky is not just heard, but experienced. The orchestra meets the challenge for an impeccable, rhapsodic performance.

To continue this season’s “Encore! Encore!” theme (maestro, with his usual quickness to encourage applause, implies: “Do you want more?”) Jekowsky and company launch into a rip roaring “Toreador Song” from Bizet’s “Carmen,” for yet another standing ovation. Hokum, of course, but in this most political of years very good symphonic politics.

The concert will be repeated Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

All Reno Philharmonic subscription concerts are played at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 South Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada. The Reno Philharmonic’s next series of concerts, “Brilliant Echoes” February 24 and 26 (2008), will include Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with pianist Jon Nakamatsu, Respighi’s Pines of Rome. Barry Jekowsky will conduct. For information call 775-323-6393.