Last night I attended the final Utah Symphony concert of the unusual but highly memorable 2020-2021 season. I sincerely appreciate the extraordinary lengths to which the Utah Symphony organization has gone in order to perform beautiful music for the community this season and, in my opinion, they definitely ended on a good note! The concert began with a piece called Strum by Jessie Montgomery, a contemporary composer who was also featured earlier in the season. I really loved this piece, so much so that I downloaded it from iTunes as soon as I got home! It is incredibly dynamic and I especially enjoyed it whenever the musicians would pluck their strings. Next the orchestra played my favorite piece by my favorite composer: Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. My heart just about burst when I heard the instantly recognizable opening notes (you can probably hear them in your head right now) and my delight only increased as every movement was performed. It is so light, airy, and filled with joy and I always love hearing it (I played my vinyl recording of it over and over when I was in high school), especially performed live! Next came Chamber Symphony No. 2 by Arnold Schoenberg and, in my opinion, this piece is very atmospheric and brooding and I particularly enjoyed the second movement. The concert concluded with the Orchestral Suite from Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland. This is another piece that I always love hearing performed live but it seemed particularly poignant last night. I really enjoyed the variations on the Quaker hymn "Simple Gifts," which is first developed by a solo clarinet and then repeated by various instruments, because the pandemic has really helped me to appreciate the simple things in life. The audience, which was the largest that I have seen at Abravanel Hall since the pandemic began, gave the orchestra a well deserved standing ovation for a beautiful concert last night and, I suspect, for persevering through all of the challenges this season!
Note: Although the regular season is over, the Utah Symphony will be performing at the Deer Valley Music Festival (go here for updates on the availability of tickets) and at a variety of outdoor venues for the recently announced Forever Mighty Tour (go here for more information and free tickets) this summer.
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