By Rick Mortensen
When programming an audience favorite like Gustav Holst’s The Planets – as the Utah Symphony is doing this weekend at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City – there remains the question of what to do with the rest of the concert. One option is to force-feed the audience a challenging new work with an undiscernible melody, saving the familiar hit for dessert; you can introduce the audience to music they might not have heard, but will instantly love; another is to devote the whole concert to familiar audience favorites. Music director Thierry Fischer does all of this in the concert’s first half, with a series of pieces that are unfamiliar, yet accessible. They are often unfamiliar and challenging, but the closing piece before intermssion is so familiar that the audience has to stop itself from re-enacting lightsaber battles during intermission.
The concert kicks off with Ludwig van Beethoven’s little-known Overture to The Consecration of the House. Written in the middle of the composer’s career to commemorate the opening of a new theater, the piece is Beethoven at his least Beethoven-ian. Filled with Baroque flourishes, the piece is like George Frideric Handel’s Water Music meets Beethoven’s own Eroica Symphony. Fischer and Concertmistress Madeline Adkins play up the Baroque elements, with Fischer providing crisp cut-offs and the string section bowing in a sawing Baroque style, with very little vibrato.
The contrast could not be greater with the next piece, Kaija Saariaho’s trippy 2005 piece Asteroid4179: Toutatis. Inspired by an asteroid with an irregular rotation pattern and no fixed poles or day time, it is a wild, rhythmically and tonally irregular ride, with the orchestra backed by a powerful percussion section that features both xylophone and marimba.
After hurtling elliptically through space, the audience is snapped back to the Classical Period, with Franz Joseph Haydn’s good-humored Overture to his opera Il Mondo della Luna (The World of the Moon), which Fischer conducts with buzzing wit and conscientious phrasing.
The Overture ends on an open cadence that begs to be resolved, which allows Fischer to play a prank of which Haydn (who wrote the “Surprise” Symphony) would have heartily approved. Without pausing for applause, the orchestra segues from the Haydn into the cacophonous bells that begin Oliver Messiaen’s “What is Written in the Stars” from his 1971 Bryce Canyon-inspired suite Des canyons aux etoiles. This is a 12-movement work of which the orchestra will playing one or two movements at concerts throughout the season. Like the Asteroid 4179, the Messiaen is atonal (or at least, had no discernible tonal center) ,but it is more contemplative, grounded and moody. Fischer takes great care with the phrasing, especially the in the brass parts, and it feels stately and reverent.
Still, Messiaen’s music is a stretch for the ears and the mind, and the next piece – John Williams’ “Main Title” music from Star Wars – is a welcome change; the orchestra plays it flawlessly, and with great gusto, prompting a pre-intermission standing ovation.
After a first half of short, contrasting and — except for the Beethoven — space-themed pieces, it is gratifying to settle on one composer’s vision for the next forty-eight minutes. Holst’s The Planets does not disappoint. The composer showcases his range in seven diverse movements, each depicting a different planet and the Roman god for which it is named. The Utah Symphony has literally never sounded better. Adkin and the influx of new talent that joined a few years ago with the simultaneous retirement of dozens of veterans have contributed to a sound that is as distinctive as the Cleveland Orchestra or the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Highlights of The Planets include a gorgeous, swelling yet lucid rendition of “Venus, Bringer of Peace” and a bold, sardonic “Uranus the Magician.” Fischer’s interpretation of “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jolity” is more solemn than buoyant and “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age” diverges from performances that use more subtle dynamic contrasts, but Fischer’s interpretation is, on the whole, sure-footed and sound. It comes together with particular force in “Neptune, the Mystic,” which features a choir of sopranos and altos singing in ethereal tones from off-stage.
The Planets has just one more performance, so be sure to contact the box office before tonight’s performance. Audiences of all ages will find the concert to be out of this world.
Utah Symphony Presents The Planets
Abravanel Hall, 123 West South Temple Salt Lake City Utah 84101
September 13-14, 2019, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $19.50-$97
www.usuo.org
Contact: 801-533-NOTE
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