Last night's Utah Symphony concert marked the return of Maestro Thierry Fischer to the podium and it was a wonderful and varied evening of music! The orchestra began with Symphony No. 12 by Joseph Haydn. It was performed with a smaller chamber group standing up and I really enjoyed it, especially the woodwinds in the first movement, the somber mood in the second movement, and the burst of energy from the strings in the third movement. After this came Lyric Suite by Alban Berg. This piece was inspired by Berg's intense infatuation with Hanna Fuchs-Robbetin. In an attempt to keep the affair a secret from his wife and her husband, Berg included many secret codes and messages dedicated to her within the music. It is very expressive and emotional with the first three movements getting progressively faster and the last three getting slower to depict the timeline of a forbidden affair that begins with passion and then ends in despair. Next the orchestra was joined by the 2022-2023 Artist-in-Association Emmanuel Pahud as the soloist for Magic Flute Fantasy, an arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute by Robert Fobbes. This was very lively and playful and Pahud performed it beautifully with a bright and clear sound. Fischer also got in on the action by playing the pan-flute to the delight of the audience! After the intermission, Pahud joined the orchestra once again for Concerto for Flute and Orchestra by Carl Nielsen. This piece is also very playful and I particularly enjoyed the dialogues between the flute and other solo instruments (especially the clarinet and the timpani). The concert concluded in dramatic fashion with Sinfonietta by Leos Janacek. This piece is an ode to Czechoslovakia which begins and ends with patriotic fanfares by the brass (featuring 12 trumpets, 2 bass trumpets, 4 trombones, 4 horns, 2 Wagner tubas, and a tuba) and timpani. It was absolutely epic! I love ending the week at Abravanel Hall with the Utah Symphony and last night's concert was especially enjoyable! Tickets for tonight's performance of the same program may be purchased here.
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