Thierry Fischer Conducts Haydn 11, Arlene Sierra, Nielsen & Elgar

Last night's Utah Symphony concert will definitely be another one of my favorites this season!  It began with a small chamber group playing Symphony No. 11 by Franz Joseph Haydn.  This piece is very delicate with beautiful melodies and I especially enjoyed the themes played by the strings and the horns in the third movement.  Next, the full orchestra was joined by Anthony McGill as the soloist for Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto.  This piece is very lively and energetic with what seems like a great battle between the clarinet and the snare drum but I found the ending to be quite surprising because it is almost anticlimactic as the melody just fades away in resignation.  I loved it!  As someone who played the clarinet, very badly, all through school beginning in the fifth grade, I loved hearing someone play the instrument brilliantly.  I loved watching McGill's fingers fly up and down the holes and keys and there was a small part of me that wished that I had kept playing.  After the intermission, the orchestra performed the world premiere of Bird Symphony by Composer-in-Association Arlene Sierra.  I must admit that it was absolutely thrilling to be the first to hear a brand new piece commissioned by the Utah Symphony!  I loved it and I think I enjoyed it even more than Sierra's Nature Symphony which was performed last weekend.  I especially liked the second movement because it features a recording of a birdsong and the orchestra interacts with it.  The concert concluded with In the South ("Alassio") by Edward Elgar.  I always think of Elgar's music as stately and dignified and this piece is no exception.  It was written while the composer was on holiday in Italy and it is meant to represent life during the Roman Empire.  I especially loved the theme played by the solo viola.  I enjoyed every piece performed during this beautiful concert and I cannot recommend tonight's performance of the same program enough (go here for tickets).

Note:  The adorable ladies who sit by me asked me if I had renewed my subscription for next season and they cheered when I told them that I had.  It will be Thierry Fischer's final season as Music Director and I am looking forward to so many concerts, including ones featuring Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev (go here to explore the season).