Celebrating the GOOD in Our Moments:  A Retrospective on Utah Symphony’s Thierry Fischer

By Kathryn Olsen

In the four years that I have worked for Front Row Reviewers, there has been a definite pattern to my reviews.  I am always willing to check out a new play or check in from the Utah Shakespeare Festival, but when it comes to my home away from home, that would be Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City.  I grew up enjoying and participating in the arts scene in my home state of Massachusetts, so it’s no surprise that I carried my enthusiasm with me when I came to Utah.

I had been going to the symphony on occasion for a few years when a friend mentioned to me that the upcoming symphony season would feature all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies.  This was 2011 and I only stopped long enough to work out my budget before purchasing my season tickets for myself and my mother.

I was not very familiar with the work of Swiss-born conductor Thierry Fischer at that time and had high expectations for my first concert on September 10, 2011.  After all, he was conducting Beethoven’s “Choral” Symphony No. 9 and music in memory of those lost on September 11 on the eve of the tenth anniversary of those attacks.  By the end of the evening, I was ecstatically looking forward to the remainder of the season.  Fischer conducted with great intuition and chemistry with the orchestra, tackling music with respect and vigor.  My favorite moment of the evening was in the finale of the Beethoven, when he dropped into a half-crouch and spurred the orchestra into that piece’s magnificent conclusion as if he were physically building the music from its foundation to its pinnacle.

I have been a subscriber for eleven years and a reviewer here since 2018 and can only keep track of Fischer’s influence on my experience of the arts in conversation with others.  My roommate and I can, without prompting, wax poetic about the 2019 performance of Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in which Fischer completely changed our perspective on a piece that we had both enjoyed for years.  Our favorite encore memory is of the night when a guest flutist responded to a request for an encore by handing the maestro another flute and performing a duet from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

The pandemic halted live performances, but under Fischer’s leadership, recorded concerts and educational programs went on.  It was a balm for the soul to return six months later to hear the orchestra perform Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.  It was at that concert that Fischer said, “As we head back into the hall, we harness music to uplift and reflect the vast emotions we are experiencing together as a collective, and also in isolation. Music has an ability to connect us all.”

The 2022-23 season is to be Maestro Fischer’s final run with the Utah Symphony and it is only appropriate that this be marked with an outpouring of admiration for this exceptional man.  On September 8, the Symphony will be hosting A Toast to Thierry at Abravanel Hall and while the program is not detailed on the website, it promises guest artists and tributes to Fischer’s legacy with the Utah Symphony.

Not only are tickets still available for this gala event, but there is plenty of time to purchase tickets for any of the concerts in Fischer’s final season.  Don’t pass up this chance to, as Pablo Picasso says, continue “washing the dust of daily life off our souls.”

Utah Symphony Presents A Toast To Thierry
Maurice Abravanel Hall, 123 W S Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
September 8, 2022, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $50
Contact: 801-533-5626
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