UTAH SYMPHONY, Abravanel Hall, Nov. 30; second performance 8 p.m. Dec. 1, tickets at 801-355-2787, 888-451-2787 or www.utahsymphony.org
Bringing in another violin soloist on the heels of Hilary Hahn’s appearance two weeks ago could have proved to be a fatal decision for the Utah Symphony and Thierry Fischer. But Fumiaki Miura delivered and showed himself to be the right choice to follow Hahn.
Miura is this weekend’s guest soloist. He is just 19 and has been receiving glowing reviews for his concerts in his native Japan and in Europe. His Salt Lake City engagement is his Utah Symphony debut and also marks his United States debut. And hopefully local audiences will be seeing more of him in the coming seasons. He is a young star on the rise.
Playing Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, Miura exhibited poise, an amazing depth of expression, remarkable technical acumen and radiant musicality. He took charge of the work from the start and never looked back. With a maturity well beyond his 19 years, Miura played the fantasy as if it had been tailored for him. His nuanced expressiveness, beautiful articulation and supple phrasings brought sensitivity and eloquence to his account
Fischer and the orchestra mirrored Miura’s perceptive interpretation. This was a wonderfully balanced and well thought out collaboration made all the more stunning by the orchestra’s voluptuous playing.
The same richness in sound and detail to expressions marked Fischer’s reading of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, Scottish. The maestro elicited well crafted and articulate playing from his ensemble. It, in turn, played with gorgeously drawn out lyricism, deeply etched expressiveness and seamless phrases. Too often performances of Mendelssohn’s works are superficial; the Utah Symphony under Fischer’s baton brought depth and refinement to its performance.
As an added bonus to the decidedly Scottish theme of this weekend’s concerts, Fischer also programmed Claude Debussy’s neglected Marche écossaise, a well played charming early piece that has the merest hints of impressionism.
The only non-Scottish related work on the program is Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 3, which opened the concert. Once again the orchestra – greatly reduced in size and with the players standing rather than sitting (except for the cellos) – showed itself more than capable of doing justice to a piece of early classicism. The playing was taut, crisp, precise and articulate. Fischer had the strings play with a minimum of vibrato and that added to the authenticity of sound that Fischer obviously was striving for. In fact, Friday’s performance sounded as if the work were played on period instruments rather than their modern counterparts – no mean feat, but Fischer and his band did it, and did it convincingly.