Utah Arts Review

A Rachmaninoff concerto is usually the marquee event at any Utah Symphony concert. Yet on Friday night, it was another Russian composer whose music provided the most rewards.

The Utah Symphony hasn’t programmed Scriabin’s immense Symphony No. 2 in more than two decades. Written in 1901, the symphony is a marvelous excursion in late 19th century romanticism. Scriabin writes in a rich harmonic palette, enveloped in effusive expressions and bold shifts in emotions. 

The symphony is in five movements, with the first two and final two played without a break, and with the middle movement standing on its own. 

Guest conductor Keitaro Harada did an excellent job in capturing the scope of the first two movements. He coaxed finely articulated playing from all of the instrumental sections and never allowed the brass, which have a prominent role in each of the movements, to dominate. He captured the intensity of the ever-changing moods with sweeping gestures that conveyed the impassioned drive and rhythmic vitality of the music. 

In the third movement, Harada captured the expansiveness of the music, and his reading encapsulated its finely crafted lyricism and well balanced expressiveness. Concertmaster Madeline Adkins’ soaring melody over birdsong-like accompaniment to open the movement was notable for its nuanced delicacy.

Harada brought out the restless energy and fierce drive of the opening of the fourth movement with bold direction. He emphasized the impetuous thrust of the music with brisk tempo that flowed seamlessly into the finale. 

The closing movement opens with bright brass chords that meld into lushly lyrical string phrases. Harada’s tempo allowed for fluid, well articulated playing from the brass and subtly inflected playing from the woodwinds and strings. 

Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto is one of the Utah Symphony’s most frequently performed works and a surefire way of selling out Abravanel Hall. The work—composed the same year as the Scriabin symphony—seems to show up about every other season, and it is once again on the program this weekend.

The soloist is the young Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev who gave a rather uneven and musically unsatisfying account of the work  Friday night. While he possesses remarkable technical chops, the long Russian lacks musical refinement. That was particularly evident in the outer movements.

Malofeev took the opening Moderato at a rather sluggish and deliberately paced tempo that dragged painfully in the slower sections of the movement. While the soloist did well with the virtuosic passages, his playing was devoid of any musical expressiveness. The orchestra, on the other hand, made up for that with their sonorous playing. Harada elicited a refined performance from the ensemble.

The middle Adagio was memorable for Tad Calcara’s beautiful clarinet playing. And Malofeev did bring some lyricism to his playing that came close to matching the orchestra’s, but overall it was still a musically dull reading.

In the closing Allegro, Malofeev displayed his technical mastery of the piano, playing the bravura passages effortlessly, yet once again he missed the mark in the overly lush slow section by playing it without any trace of depth or feeling. And, once again it was the orchestra that saved this movement from being a total washout. Harada allowed  them to play with romantic passion and wonderfully defined expressions that captured the emotional breadth of the music.

The concert opened with a short piece by West Virginia native Matthew Jackfert, Foggy Moon Over the Gorge. This vividly colorful piece depicts the New River Gorge in his home state. Harada gave a dynamic reading that underscored the shimmering tonal soundscape and soaring violin phrases of the piece.    

The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Saturday. utahsymphony.org