Thierry Fischer

With two works by Sergei Rachmaninoff on the program, this weekend’s Utah Symphony season opener should please everybody. It’s easy listening fare and that’s exactly what music director Thierry Fischer was aiming for. “After the Beethoven cycle last season, which was a huge challenge, I wanted to do an approachable program,” Fischer told Reichel Recommends.

Joining him and the orchestra will be the young Russian Yevgeny Sudbin in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The 32-year-old pianist has already established himself in Europe as an artist to be reckoned with but has yet to make a name for himself in the United States. This will be Fischer’s first collaboration with him. “He has recorded all of the Rachmaninoff concertos,” Fischer said. “I have listened to his recordings and I was impressed with what I heard.”

Rachmaninoff’s relatively little known First Concerto will be paired on the concert with one of his more popular works, the Symphony No. 2. “This work should have the orchestra at ease,” Fischer said, since the Utah Symphony has played it on several concerts over the years.

Having his musicians more comfortable with their repertoire is a major goal for the Swiss music director. He pushed the limits last season with the complete Beethoven symphonies, knowing full well it would challenge his players. It was a conscious effort to set the playing standard higher than it’s been before. “It was an extremely big challenge because it takes discipline to play Beethoven,” Fischer said. “Beethoven also makes you go back to basics [in playing].”

Fischer has a vision of what he wants to achieve during his tenure with the Utah Symphony. Part of that rests on the fact that every year he wants to build on what the orchestra accomplished the previous season. “We are in a building process in Utah. I am a builder and that is one of the reasons I decided to accept this position.” He said he is toying with the idea of doing another complete Beethoven cycle towards the end of his tenure. Whether or not that will happen still remains to be seen. One of the things that makes the idea appealing to Fischer – and hopefully to the audience – is to see how the orchestra will have developed and improved in a few years. “The orchestra will sound very differently five years from now,” Fischer promised.

• CONCERT DETAILS
• What: Yevgeny Sudbin, piano, Utah Symphony, Thierry Fischer, conductor
• Venue: Abravanel Hall
• Time and Date: 8 p.m. Sept. 14-15
• Tickets: $18-$53
• Phone: 801-355-2787, 888-451-2787
• Web: www.utahsymphony.org

ALSO: Austad Auditorium, Val A. Browning Center, Weber State University, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13, $16-$36, 801-399-9214, www.symphonyballet.org