Music Reviews

Sep 29, 1999 - The Reno Phil's Superb Opener

By Jack Neal

Opening its second season under the leadership of conductor Barry Jekowsky, the Reno Philharmonic shows signs in virtually every direction that it's becoming a symphony orchestra to be reckoned with.

It makes critics uncomfortable to like everything they hear (Am I losing my grip?), but that's what happened Tuesday night (9/28/99) at the Pioneer Center as the orchestra played the opening concert of its 31st season before a capacity and enormously enthusiastic audience at the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts. I'm also not inclined to swim upstream against a current of excitement, especially when it's so entirely deserved.

The concert's guest artist, international violinist Kyoko Takezawa is a dazzling virtuoso and sublime musician. Given the Takezawa treatment, Mendelssohn's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was to die for. Gershwin's "An American in Paris," with the sassy, bluesy sendup (as to heaven, not as in comedy) it received at the hands of Jekowsky and the orchestra had the opening-night electricity of a new, yet-to-be-seen Gershwin Broadway show. And about the Brahms, what does one say? Except that it was rapturous and in all ways magnificently interpreted and performed.

Another performance of the Mendelssohn, as much as it's loved, may not have been the most urgent need for the Philharmonic's MasterClassics Series. But such reservations were quickly swept away by the extraordinary freshness and beauty of Miss Takezawa's playing. She has it all - the most gorgeous, pure tone and an unfailing sense of style, grace and flair. Not once did she allow the momentum of her performance to sag under the virtuosic weight of the moment. Best of all, Miss Takezawa's total absorption carried her love for the music directly to her audience. What a marvelously entrancing re-creation? What a marvelously sympathetic collaboration? The elasticity of Jekowsky's conducting, plus the orchestra's elegant sound and solo moments (principals playing with subtlety and finesse) imbued the Mendelssohn with the give-and-take of chamber music. It was an inspired performance.

Jekowsky's take on "An American in Paris" is brash and vivid. Under his baton the music sings and swings as well as it can with any symphony orchestra. Born as it was out of Reno's heyday for terrific show room orchestras, few orchestras are as in touch with the genre of jazz and Broadway show tunes as is the Reno Philharmonic. With sexy trombones, sky-rocketing flutes and a big-toned and bluesy trumpet solo, suavely managed by Larry Engstrom, the Gershwin was as nervy as Yankees winning the Ryder's Cup and as sensuous as a late-night slow dance in Harlem. Irreverent, unpredictable, naughty and sweet the orchestra's lush strings - with great solo moments by concertmaster Phillip Ruder, on-the-cutting-edge woodwinds - with classy work by clarinetist Brian Schweickhardt, plus cool brass riffs and a conductor who knows how to mix things up, brought the Gershwin soulfully and spine-tinglingly to life.

The after-intermission drama and presence of the Brahms did not allow for a letdown. Lyric, thick in a rhapsodically Brahmsian way and with a reserved grandeur, Jekowsky led the orchestra into a world of rapture that was as good as German Romanticism gets. As sculpted and shaped by Jekowsky the Brahms was a study in how beautiful this translucent symphony can be, when it's honed in but never inhibited.

The sublimeness of the symphony's thirty-seven bar introduction set the tone for a performance of scope and revelatory dimensions. The restlessness, and intensity of the first movement gave way to a most poetically played second movment. The third movement was brought off in a silky smooth, yet impetuous manner. The fourth movement, with its exultant song of joy, is - and came off as - one of the most triumphant utterances of symphonic literature. The Brahms was a major achievement for both conductor and orchestra.

For those who wonder how performances in the hinterlands stack up with their counterparts in New York or London, Tuesday's Reno Philharmonic concert provided solid proof that on any given night the provinces can give the big boys a run for their money.

Tuesday's concert was terrific.

The next Reno Philharmonic MasterClassics concert will be Tuesday, October 19. The program will feature cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the music of Dukas, Enesco, Dvorak and Saint-Saens. Barry Jekowsky will conduct. All MasterClassics concerts are at the Pioneer Center for the Perforning Arts, 100 South Virginia Street, Reno. For information about Reno Philharmonic concerts, events and tickets call 775 323 6393.