DEER VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL, Temple Har Shalom, July 25
The ranks of the Utah Symphony are filled with many wonderfully talented players, several of whom were spotlighted at Thursday’s Deer Valley Music Festival concert.
Jason Hardink
It was an all-French program that opened with Gabriel Fauré and included three of the 20th century’s most significant composers: Henri Dutilleux, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Performing were flutist Mercedes Smith, violinist Ralph Matson, cellist Matthew Johnson and pianists Jason Hardink and Jerry Steichen, who besides being a remarkable pianist is also the symphony’s principal pops conductor.
Hardink and Steichen started things rolling with Fauré’s delightful Dolly Suite for piano four hands. They played it with a light touch that captured the work’s infectious charm.
Smith followed with two works, Debussy’s evocative Syrinx for solo flute and Dutilleux’s technically challenging Sonatine for Flute and Piano.
The Utah Symphony’s new principal flute captured the sensuality of the piece with her lush, rich tone. Her reading was gorgeously phrased and underscored the seductive character of the music wonderfully.
The Dutilleux Sonatine is an early work written as an exam piece for the Paris Conservatory. As such it is a technically demanding work, but not without finely expressed lyricism.
Smith showed her technical chops and made the piece look easy. She captured the robustness of the music while refining it with clearly defined expressiveness. And Hardink, her musical partner, supported her with sensitive playing that allowed the flute to stand out. It was a well crafted and articulate account that brought out the luster of the music.
Ralph Matson
Debussy was represented by another work, the late Sonata for Violin and Piano, played by Utah Symphony concertmaster Ralph Matson and Hardink. They gave a very thoughtful and sensitive account that brought out the subtleties of the music. Both played with fluid expressiveness and finely shaped lyricism.
Rounding out the concert was Ravel’s glorious Piano Trio in A minor, played by Matson, cellist Matthew Johnson (the symphony’s associate principal cello) and Hardink.
One of the most significant chamber works from the early 20th century, the trio is written on a large scale and with a richness of thematic content that rivals anything else Ravel wrote. The three gave a wonderfully defined and articulate account. Their playing was vibrant and impassioned and had a broad palette of expressions that served the music well.