Review: Symphony provides memorable performance

By By Jon W. Sparks

Sunday, February 8, 2009

There was something fresh and bracing (mostly) about this weekend's Memphis Symphony Orchestra MasterWorks program.

The world premiere of a trumpet concerto, a vigorous expression of a Sibelius symphony and a guest conductor made for a memorable event.

At the top of the list was Eric Ewazen's Trumpet Concerto featuring MSO first trumpet Scott Moore. The premiere is of a new orchestration by Phil Norris; the original work by Ewazen was his Sonata for Trumpet and Piano from 1995.

The Ewazen-Norris collaboration resulted in a gorgeous piece, with refined sentiment and engaging melody. The brisk opening movement set the pace, being beautifully played by Moore with nuance and clarity.

The slower second movement was both soaring and soft, displaying a rich dynamic range -- Moore's crisp expression being key -- and a thoughtful back-and-forth between soloist and orchestra. The final movement had moments of frenetic energy and quiet passion, all held together by the agreeable theme.

In the second half of the program, the orchestra took on Sibelius' Symphony No. 1 in E minor, an ambitious, fascinating work. It leads off with a meandering clarinet solo with tympani accompaniment, hinting strangely at what was to come. What came afterwards was the MSO in excellent form, delivering the four movements with all their angularity and angst.

At the helm was guest conductor Edwin Outwater, music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada. MSO officials would not comment whether he was one of the candidates for retiring Maestro David Loebel's job. But if it did constitute an audition, it was a pretty good one with his deliberate, evocative style and nice handling of diverse material.

Except, perhaps, the opening number, Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture. The piece was ragged and lagged, while the orchest-o-meter should have been adjusted to rein in the heavy handed horns, who threatened to de-romanticize the cliched, Hollywood-ized passages.