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News > It's nostalgia time: The Reno Philharmonic opens its last season with conductor Barry Jekowsky
It's nostalgia time: The Reno Philharmonic opens its last season with conductor Barry Jekowsky October 1, 2007 For conductors, last seasons take on a life of their own. Conductor Barry Jekowsky begins his tenth season with the Reno Philharmonic. It’s his last. It’s the orchestra’s 39th season. There are no plans to disband. Jekowsky’s last season has been dubbed by the maestro as the “Encore! Encore!” season. This year’s series of concerts features the best of Jekowsky. The best of Jekowsky has always been the heart of the popular symphonic repertory. No harm done by being popular, even though it leaves the orchestra’s large audience of music aficionados with a limited view of what’s available for exciting, revelatory listening. In Reno, the job for exploring what an orchestra can do has been left to conductor Theodore Kuchar, now in his fifth season with the Reno Chamber Orchestra. If new music is what one wants - the adventure of new music mixed with the tried and true - RCO performances can’t be topped. Nor can Jekowsky’s approach of rehashing his best moments be topped. His best moments are very good, indeed. Under Jekowsky, the Reno Philharmonic has, virtually without exception, played its subscription concerts gorgeously, voluptuously, and with a sense of urgency that sweeps audiences into the soaring world of symphonic sound. And so it was Sunday (9/30/07) when the season swept onward and upward with a lush performance of Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story,” a powerful presentation of Brahms’s rather dull Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, and a shimmering, radiant reading of Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloe,” Suite No. 2. Excitement poured from every pore in a program called (without shame) “Joy and Passion.” As soloists for the Brahms Double Concerto, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and violinist Axel Strauss certainly fulfilled the passion portion of the proceedings. Symphonic in nature, with a highly competitive edge given to the two solo instruments, the lyricism of the Brahms could not have had better, more intuitive artists to cut through its texturing and make its every phrase fresh, inventive and romantic. Weilerstein brings an otherworldliness to her work that’s entrancing. Strauss brings an impeccability and warmth to his work that dazzles. Their collaboration with one another, plus Jekowsky’s glued-to-his-soloists accompanying made for an all together memorable performance of a Brahms work that isn’t the composer’s best effort. Jekowsky’s dramatic sound-painting approach to music making takes on a decidedly impressionistic bent for Ravel’s ravishing “Daphnis et Chloe.” Lush without mess, dynamic without overstatement, Jekowsky’s “Daphnis et Chloe” is gorgeous and haunting. He elicits pastel coloration out of the orchestra and the orchestra responds with elegance and clarity. Jekowsky’s and the orchestra’s is a translucent performance of refinement and grace. Jekowsky studied conducting with Leonard Bernstein, which gives the Jekowsky approach to Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” a special tie to what makes this robust American music tick. And with Jekowsky it ticks like a time bomb, on edge constantly just waiting for the magnificent orchestral eruptions that make these dances so dramatic. When Bernstein was on the money, he was hellfire with an orchestra. So is Jekowsky, and he’s clearly on the money with these dances. There is an emotional directness about the dances Jekowsky captures to perfection. The rhythmic propulsion – backed by virtuoso percussion (bravo), the exuberant use of syncopation, the unabashed jazziness of the writing, plus the Coplandesque textures of the quieter, more lyric moments that are so American - as is this conductor and this orchestra – make the Reno Philharmonic’s reading of the Symphonic Dances from one of America’s most explosive musicals, brilliantly extroverted and irresistible. And that’s joy, and that’s passion. The orchestra encored with one movement of Ravel’s “Rhapsodie Espangole,” also nicely played. The concert opened with The National Anthem. How nice to hear “The Star Spangled Banner” played beautifully and with the respect it deserves. The Reno Philharmonic’s “Joy and Passion” concerts can be heard Sunday, September 30 (2007) at 4 p.m. and Tuesday, October 2 (2007) at 7:30 p.m. at Reno’s Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts, 100 South Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada. The Reno Philharmonic’s next series of concerts, “Romancing the West,” will be October 21 at 4 p.m. and 23 at 7:30 p.m. (2007) and will feature pianist Andrew von Oeyen, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Rossini’s Overture to “William Tell,” Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (New World). Conductor Barry Jekowsky. For information call 775-323-6393 |
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