Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1

Last night I went to my first Utah Symphony concert of the 2025-2026 season because the program featured one of my favorite composers (Rachmaninoff) and one of my favorite guest conductors (David Robertson).  I had a wonderful time and I even saw the cute little ladies I used to sit by when I subscribed to the Masterworks series (they told me they missed me).  The orchestra began with Memoriale by Pierre Boulez with a small chamber group consisting of three violins, two violas, a cello, two horns, and a solo flute.  This piece originally began as a tribute to Igor Stravinsky but evolved into one for Lawrence Beauregard, the principal flutist of a chamber group founded by Boulez who died at age 28.  I really liked all of the "special effects" performed by Utah Symphony principal flutist Mercedes Smith and the way the rest of the instruments interacted with the flute.  Next came Anemology (Saxophone Concerto) by Steven Mackey, which was written for last night's soloist Timothy McAllister.  Mackey was there to introduce the piece and he explained that the saxophone is the wind (anemology is the study of air movement) and the rest of the orchestra is the landscape that is animated by its movement.  It is rare to have a saxophone in a classical piece and I really enjoyed the integration of a rock and blues sound.  I especially loved the second movement, which mimicked the sound of wind through trees, because it featured lots of fun percussion instruments such as wind chimes and rain sticks.  McAllister was fun to watch because he was incredibly animated.  After the intermission, the orchestra performed Symphony No. 1 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.  I love Rachmaninoff because I think his music is so dramatic and I was really excited to hear this particular piece because I had never heard it live before (this was its first ever performance by the Utah Symphony).  The theme played by the brass at the end of the first movement is absolutely thrilling, the melody played by the clarinets in the third movement is beautiful, and the theme played by the strings is powerfully emphasized by the brass and percussion (I loved the gong) in the fourth movement.  It was an amazing performance!  Robertson is so personable and engaging on the podium and he made me laugh when he told the crowd that the orchestra was still going to perform the last movement when they applauded after the third one.  This was a great concert and I recommend getting a ticket for tonight's performance of the same program (go here).

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

Yesterday I went back to the Broadway (I pretty much live there) for a matinee of Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere and I loved it!  Bruce Springsteen (Jeremy Allen White) is exhausted after a grueling world tour and, despite feeling pressure from his record company to capitalize on the success of "Hungry Heart," he decides to return to his hometown in New Jersey to relax and get away from his growing fame.  Instead, he is assaulted by memories of his childhood, especially his troubled relationship with his father Douglas (Stephen Graham), and begins an ill-fated relationship with the sister (Odessa Young) of a high school friend which leads to an existential crisis.  He writes songs that are darker in tone as a way to cope and eventually enlists his guitar tech Mike Batlan (Paul Walter Hauser) to help him make a stripped down demo tape using a four-track recorder in his bedroom.  He also writes and records "Born in the U.S.A," "Glory Days," and "I'm on Fire," which his producer Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong) wants to release, but he insists on releasing the rough version of his earlier songs which eventually becomes the album Nebraska.  Landau ultimately fights the record company for what Springsteen wants, even going to extraordinary lengths to find equipment that preserves the sound on the demo tape, because he sees that it is a form of catharsis for him.  After facing his demons, Springsteen is able to record the album Born in the U.S.A. which makes him a global superstar.  I love that this focuses on a seminal period in Springsteen's life rather than using a traditional biopic structure and I found the story to be incredibly emotional and compelling.  White delivers a brilliant performance because, while he doesn't look exactly like Springsteen (which distracted me at first), he captures both his physicality, especially on stage, and his singing voice.  However, it is his portrayal of Springsteen's pain that impressed me most, particularly a scene when he finally allows himself to cry (it is a very powerful turning point).  Finally, I loved hearing all of the songs on Nebraska because I wasn't familiar with them and it was fascinating to see the creative process behind writing, recording, and mastering them.  I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it.

Shelby Oaks

My nephew joined me once again for Shelby Oaks, the final movie in my epic triple feature yesterday.  Writer/director Chris Stuckmann is a popular YouTube movie critic (I often watch his channel) who made this movie by fundraising on Kickstarter so I was really intrigued and excited to see it.  Unfortunately, I found it to be a jumbled and derivative mess despite an interesting premise and a strong beginning.  Riley Brennan (Sarah Durn) hosted the popular YouTube series "Paranormal Paranoids" with her friends David (Eric Francis Melaragni), Peter (Anthony Baldasare), and Laura (Caisey Cole) before the four of them disappeared while investigating the ghost town Shelby Oaks twelve years earlier.  Three of them were eventually found dead but Mia Brennan (Camille Sullivan) still believes that her sister Riley is alive.  She is interviewed about her search for her sister for a true crime documentary which also includes footage from one of the group's cameras showing a terrified Riley right before she disappeared.  After Mia discovers a second camera which shows footage of an abandoned prison in Shelby Oaks, she conducts research about a prisoner named Wilson Miles (Charlie Talbert) which leads her to his dilapidated cabin and answers about what happened to Riley.  I really liked the mockumentary structure because it presents the backstory about the disappearance in a way that I found compelling.  I also liked the use of found footage because it is very atmospheric and unsettling.  However, when the narrative shifts to Mia's investigation in Shelby Oaks, it loses focus and momentum and I became less engaged.  This is obviously an homage to Stuckmann's favorite horror movies but, with so many references to movies such as The Blair Witch Project, Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, and Hereditary (to name a few), the story lacks cohesion and feels incomplete (I actually fell asleep for about five minutes and it felt like I missed an hour's worth of plot development).  Finally, so much of what happens strains credulity with Mia making bad decision after bad decision just to advance the plot (including an incomprehensible one that leads to an incredibly unsatisfying ending).  I really wanted to like this after rooting for Stuckmann to get it made for so long but I cannot recommend it.

Urchin

My nephew joined me at the Broadway for Urchin, the next movie in my triple feature yesterday, and we both loved this powerful and tragic portrayal of someone falling between the cracks in society.  Mike (Frank Dillane) is a homeless young man suffering from mental health issues and addiction.  After he severely beats and robs a man (Okezie Morro) who attempts to help him, he is arrested and sentenced to nine months in prison.  When he is released, he is sober and commits to a fresh start.  He regularly meets with his counselor Nadia (Buckso Dhillon-Woolley), moves into a temporary hostel, gets a job working in a kitchen at a hotel, maintains his sobriety with a new group of friends while avoiding those who have had a negative influence on him, and even listens to self-help tapes.  However, a mediated meeting with his victim damages his fragile self-confidence which sends him spiraling into self-destructive behavior once again.  An overworked Nadia abandons him, his boss fires him when his behavior affects his performance at work, his temporary housing situation expires, and he returns to the friends who enable his addiction.  I loved the gritty and realistic portrayal of what it looks like to live on the fringes of society interspersed with beautiful images of a dark cave with a light-filled opening that seems too far to reach (a very vivid metaphor).  I was also very intrigued by the recurring motif of a figure that seems to be following Mike because it suggests that what happens to him is inevitable in such a broken system.  The entire narrative is incredibly moving and there were many small moments that made me want to cry because I wanted Mike to succeed so badly.  Dillane gives an absolutely brilliant performance that is both sympathetic and frustrating (I wanted to yell at the screen when someone offers him drugs).  The close-up on his face when Mike is forced to listen to his victim describe how the attack affected him is heartbreaking because his guilt is palpable.  This is an impressive debut from writer-director Harris Dickinson and I highly recommend it.

Ballad of a Small Player

There are a lot of movies that I want to see this month so I actually had a triple feature yesterday in order to fit them all in (it has been a long time since I have done that).  I started with a matinee of Ballad of a Small Player at the Broadway and it is a stylish look at the nature of greed with a committed performance from Colin Farrell.  Brendan Reilly (Farrell) is an Irish con man on the run from a British private investigator named Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton) after embezzling the life savings of several women.  He has ensconced himself in a luxury hotel suite in Macau, the gambling capital of the world, as the self-styled Lord Freddy Doyle and believes that he is just one game of baccarat away from hitting it big.  However, his luck runs out when he amasses large debts that he cannot pay and when Blithe eventually locates him.  He flees to Hong Kong where Dao Ming (Fala Chen), a mysterious woman who understands his situation all too well, offers him a choice between redemption or Hell.  Farrell is outstanding as both a bon vivant who swaggers from casino to casino in one gaudy outfit after another in search of his next big win and as a desperate man who slowly realizes that he has no more cards left to play.  I also liked Swinton as yet another awkwardly eccentric character (I think she chooses her roles based on the wig she gets to wear).  The symbolism, particularly the use of food as a metaphor for greed and the use of water as a metaphor for redemption, is very intriguing and the bold and chaotic lights of Macau juxtaposed with the tranquility of nature in Hong Kong is also quite powerful.  The cinematography is beautiful and the bombastic score perfectly matches Doyle's false bravado. The biggest flaw is that the narrative overplays its hand in the third act with a supernatural subplot that is both obvious and convoluted.  I liked this more than others have but it is definitely one that you can wait to see when it begins streaming on Netflix later this month.