Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale at St. Mary's Church

One of my favorite activities in the summer is to see the Utah Symphony at St. Mary's Church in Park City as part of the Deer Valley Music Festival so I was really excited for The Soldier's Tale by Igor Stravinsky last night.  I love St. Mary's Church as a venue because it is beautiful (I love the views of the mountains from the windows) but it is also very intimate so the concerts usually feature smaller groups of musicians and chamber pieces.  Last night's concert featured a clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violin, double bass, and percussion which is a unique grouping of instruments selected by Stravinsky to represent the treble and bass in each instrument family.  The program began with Catch and Release by Esa-Pekka Salonen.  The guest conductor Yaniv Dinur, who was incredibly charming, explained that the contemporary Finnish composer Salonen is a great admirer of Stravinsky and purposely selected the same instruments so that Catch and Release could be played as a companion piece to The Soldier's Tale.  I really enjoyed all of the different textures within this piece (it reminded me of Middle Eastern music) and I especially liked how the ending went from extremely loud to just the vibrations from the strings because it was very dramatic.  After the intermission, the concert continued with The Soldier's Tale narrated by Kevin Nakatani (he recently performed in Utah Opera's production of Madame Butterfly).  A soldier on leave trades his old violin to the Devil in return for a book that tells the future.  He uses this to become rich but he soon realizes that his wealth means nothing and he longs for everything he had before.  He makes another deal with the Devil and regains his violin which wins him the hand of a Princess but this also has unforeseen consequences.  Nakatani has a deep and sonorous voice and I really enjoyed listening to him.  I also enjoyed how the specific instruments illustrate what is happening in the story.  I especially loved the theme played by the violin and clarinet together when the soldier first plays his violin, the fanfare played by the trumpet and trombone when the soldier visits the King, as well as the violin and percussion as the Princess dances.  The juxtaposition between these two pieces made for a very powerful concert and I loved it!  Go here for information and tickets for all of the remaining concerts in the Deer Valley Music Festival.

Note:  Construction in Parley's Canyon added over an hour to my drive home.  That was super fun!