DEER VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL, Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra, St. Mary’s Church, July 30; the festival runs through Aug. 9, tickets at 801-533-6683 or www.usuo.org
Matthew Halls (Photo Credit: Eric Richmond)
Matthew Halls, the recently appointed successor to Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival, made a spectacular Utah Symphony debut at Wednesday’s Deer Valley Music Festival’s chamber orchestra concert. And hopefully he’ll be returning to lead the full ensemble in Abravanel Hall in the not too distant future.
As he so masterfully showed Wednesday, the English born maestro is a great interpreter who elicits fabulous playing from his band, whether it’s classical or romantic composers. He is detail oriented in a good way — he delves into the music to probe its minutest nuances, and he knows how to convey to the ensemble what he wants. He is a true musician who showed remarkable rapport with the members of the Utah Symphony playing for him Wednesday.
The concert opened with a bold performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, The Miracle. While it certainly was a robust reading, Halls nevertheless brought out the wonderful lyricism of the work. And the orchestra responded with clean, crisp playing and finely tuned articulation. There was good balance among the sections, and the playing was seamless and well crafted. Principal oboe Robert Stephenson’s solo in the trio of the minuet was noteworthy for its suppleness.
No less vibrant was Halls’ account of Schubert’s delightful Symphony No. 3 in D major. With his brisk tempos throughout, it was an effusive interpretation that captured the youthfulness of the musical ideas. And the ensemble once again responded to Halls’ decisive direction by playing with clean phrasings and crisp articulation. The interpretation was Beethovian in its concept, yet it never lost the charming innocence of Schubert’s melodies.
In between these two was a gorgeously crafted performance of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C major, op. 48. Halls elicited a warm, rich sound from the section that never turned sentimental. With Tchaikovsky’s penchant for writing beautiful melodies it’s easy to be swayed towards a syrupy interpretation. Halls didn’t fall for that. It was a vibrantly romantic account, to be sure, but it was also clean and articulate and well executed. The strings played fabulously and gave the audience the opportunity to appreciate what this body of players is capable of on its own. It was a sensitive perusal of the score that played up the lyricism in the music with beautifully crafted expressions and delivery.