Utah Arts Review

Chilean-born conductor Paolo Bortolameolli made an impressive debut with the Utah Symphony this weekend, leading the orchestra in Gustav Holst’s ever-popular The Planets. 

At Friday night’s sold-out performance in Abravanel Hall, Bortolameolli, who is currently the associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, gave a rock-solid account of the nearly hour-long work that captured all of its dramatic flair, romantic melodicism and rhythmic vitality. The Utah Symphony has hardly ever sounded better, playing with crisp articulation, well delineated phrasing and delicately carved expressions. 

Bortolameolli gave a lively account of the opening movement, “Mars, the Bringer of War,” that emphasized the music’s martial character with bold lines and decisive playing from the large brass choir. 

The ensuing “Venus, the Bringer of Peace,” is a richly romantic piece and Bortolameolli captured the lushness of the music with nuanced direction as he coaxed beautifully craftedplaying from the strings, with lovely solo playing from concertmaster Madeline Adkins.

In the lighthearted, scherzo-like “Mercury, the Winged Messenger,” Bortolameolli highlighted the elfin charm of the music and gave it an almost Mendelssohnian allure. With “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity,” the conductor’s brisk tempo and robust direction defined the movement’s grand scale while also bringing out the more lyrical elements of the middle section.

In the final three movements, the young maestro coaxed sublime playing from the orchestra that highlighted the somber gravity of “Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age,” the enchanted atmosphere of “Uranus, the Magician,” and the serenity of the closing “Neptune, the Mystic.” The allure of the final movement was given a sublime twist by Holst with its offstage choir and the women of the Utah Symphony Chorus sang a wordless melody that balanced out the soft orchestral texture.

Unfortunately, the performance was accompanied by the Houston Symphony-produced film, The Planets: An HD Odyssey, that was projected on a screen behind the orchestra. While the visuals, taken from photos from NASA and JPL, together with computerized imagery, are stunning, they do tend to distract from the music. As with any kind of “enhanced” classical concert, the music should always take center stage and not be relegated to a secondary, accompanying role.

The program opened with two Utah Symphony premieres: Jessie Montgomery’s Hymn for Everyone and Miguel Farías’ Retratos Australes (Southern Portraits). 

Montgomery’s Hymn is a romantically tonal, quietly flowing piece that has an incessant rhythmic motive running throughout, that gives the music impetus and drive. The motive passes through the different sections of the orchestra, and while there are dissonant fortissimo passages the music is predominantly reflective and otherworldly.

Chilean composer Farías’ three-movement work is an exuberant outing that revels in the rhythms, melodies and moods of South America. The work is a cross-section of  Chile, highlighting local traditions in ravishingly descriptive music that is frequently dissonant with swirling vitality, and often infused with captivating lyricism.

Bortolameolli captured the essence of each movement of his countryman’s work in his reading. He coaxed vibrant playing from the orchestra in the outer movements (“Tirana” and “Chinchinero,” respectively), particularly from the brass, while paying close attention to the shifting dynamics and flowing melodic lines of the middle movement “Minga.”      

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